Cycling with driftwood, low PH should I raise the PH?

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Pazzoman

Piranha
MFK Member
Apr 5, 2009
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New York
Hey Everyone, finally just started cycling yesterday. Going to be adding stability along with adding the ammonia drops from dr.Tim’s. Basically following his steps on when to add ammonia, but adding stability instead of “one and only”. Just wanted to see if I should raise the PH using Seachem “Neutral Regulator” or wait for the cycle to complete before raising the PH. I asked this because neutral regular says it “detoxifies ammonia” so I’m pretty sure that isn’t good for cycling, but low PH I heard slows the cycling process down so I’m unsure what to do ha ha. Here is a picture of my tank decided to go with driftwood in the corner with fake plants (didn’t want to try live yet). The water is still blurry which I’m pretty sure is because of the tannins from the wood.
And Here is a picture of the test results from left to right. Straight from the Tap PH, Aquarium PH, Ammonia and Nitrite. Also I added the chart from dr.Tim’s to give you an idea how I will be cycling this tank.
 
1. Seachem Stability is not suitable for cycling. It allegedly contains nitrifiers, yes, but also non-nitrifiers that can and do outcompete the nitrifiers - inhibiting the cycling process. These non-nitrifiers do also consume ammonia, but as a nitrogen source rather than an energy source. Short term it gives the illusion of cycling, but long term is not preferable.
2. There is evidence to suggest products on the market that says they detoxify ammonia actually does not. However it is not concrete, and most studies have only been done on Seachem Prime. So take this with a grain of salt. But it does seem like generally these products do not impact cycling. Take Prime. Plenty of people use it when cycling for water changes, but without any impact on ammonia or its consumption.
3. Different nitrifiers are adapted to different pH. One for example, is an obligate acidophile that can only grow and perform nitrification at a pH of 4 to 5.5! So it is not true that a lower pH generally slows down the cycling process. You should cycle at whatever the pH you ultimately intend for the aquarium to be as. That’s the best course of action.
 
duanes said:
From the photo, your tap water seems be already be neutral in pH, and there is no need to fool around or adjust pH at this point.
Just let the process run its course, whether using a bottled bacteria or not, you've got a way to go.
Click to expand...

My tap water is neutral however my aquarium is less than neutral, i assume because of the driftwood. So I should bring the aquarium water up to 7, which is what I intend to keep the ph at? Just let the cycle run its course?

Azedenkae said:
1. Seachem Stability is not suitable for cycling. It allegedly contains nitrifiers, yes, but also non-nitrifiers that can and do outcompete the nitrifiers - inhibiting the cycling process. These non-nitrifiers do also consume ammonia, but as a nitrogen source rather than an energy source. Short term it gives the illusion of cycling, but long term is not preferable.
2. There is evidence to suggest products on the market that says they detoxify ammonia actually does not. However it is not concrete, and most studies have only been done on Seachem Prime. So take this with a grain of salt. But it does seem like generally these products do not impact cycling. Take Prime. Plenty of people use it when cycling for water changes, but without any impact on ammonia or its consumption.
3. Different nitrifiers are adapted to different pH. One for example, is an obligate acidophile that can only grow and perform nitrification at a pH of 4 to 5.5! So it is not true that a lower pH generally slows down the cycling process. You should cycle at whatever the pH you ultimately intend for the aquarium to be as. That’s the best course of action.
Click to expand...

Interesting guess a lot has changed since the last time I cycled a tank few years ago, lots of members loved seachem stability. So I'll stop dosing the seachem stability. Is there a product that could provide the right bacteria or best not to even bother. Was thinking of getting my hands on some filter media from a friend to speed up the cycle, but unsure. Also I intend to keep my PH at 7, which the wood is keeping it around 6. So best to raise the PH correct?
 
Pazzoman said:
Interesting guess a lot has changed since the last time I cycled a tank few years ago, lots of members loved seachem stability. So I'll stop dosing the seachem stability. Is there a product that could provide the right bacteria or best not to even bother. Was thinking of getting my hands on some filter media from a friend to speed up the cycle, but unsure. Also I intend to keep my PH at 7, which the wood is keeping it around 6. So best to raise the PH correct?
Click to expand...

I mean Stability does give the illusion of cycling (by having non-nitrifiers that utilize ammonia as a nitrogen source), and a fast one at that, which is why a lot of people love it, not knowing it does not actually establish nitrifiers well. One red flag that is quite obvious is that a lot of people using Seachem Stability sees bacterial blooms correlating with their depletion of ammonia, clear signs that non-nitrifiers are using it (in conjunction with organic substrates) for growth rather than respiration.

Anyways, yes, best to keep it at 7 then. I am not sure what is the best way to do it though - I'd like to suggest a more permanent way to buffer the pH, but as someone who does not really care to keep pH at a very specific number (my tanks are always just whatever the pH happens to be), I only kinda know some 'planty' stuff buffers pH lower, while crushed coral and stuff buffers pH higher, but that's it.

Though, if you can get pH to be at 7, then there are good bottled bacteria products to try. FritzZyme TurboStart 700 is the best one on the market, the more concentrated version of FritzZyme 7, which in and of itself is already good. Tetra SafeStart(+) also works. But yeah nah nothing beats FritzZyme TurboStart 700 for your target pH.
 
I used dr tims last year and was happy with it. I didn't dose ammonia though, i started with some danios and loaches. Cycled fully in just under 3 weeks and still have all the fish 5 months later.
 
Thank you for the feed back everyone, yeah I dont have anyone by me with freshwater tank. I went to a local LFS and he said he couldn't give me freshwater established media (could literally be anything so I was suprise, I even offered to pay for it). I ended getting dr. tims one and only and I added the whole bottle. I do have neutral regulator to bring up the PH to 7, however im unsure if by me raising the ph will it kill off this bacteria?
 
Pazzoman said:
Thank you for the feed back everyone, yeah I dont have anyone by me with freshwater tank. I went to a local LFS and he said he couldn't give me freshwater established media (could literally be anything so I was suprise, I even offered to pay for it). I ended getting dr. tims one and only and I added the whole bottle. I do have neutral regulator to bring up the PH to 7, however im unsure if by me raising the ph will it kill off this bacteria?
Click to expand...

this is what the tank looks like with the wood and fake Plants. So I figured angels as a centerpiece would make it look real nice

B3F8C2D3-F5EC-4ED8-94B1-6E21C4B411AD.jpeg
 
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