Now over 24 hours since my ammonia went up (because I dosed it up) but didn’t drop back down at all. Still reading between 2-4 ppm. Have no clue what happened or what to do. Any ideas?
Help with cycle
- Thread starter Dwl0222
- Start date
I may have found my answer, PH crash. Just tested the ph and it reads 6.0 whereas it always read between 8-.8.2. Did I overdose with Ammonium? What would cause this suddenly?
Hello; Can you tell us how much ammonia you have been dosing in the 75 gallon tank?
Started with 1 TSP to get to 4ppm. Then days later when it dropped to under 1, I dosed 1/2 TSP to get back to 2-3. I never dosed more than 1/2 a full dose (1tsp). I was almost to the point where I was going to dose a full dose to get back to 4ppm and see how long it took to drop to 0, to see if my cycle was complete. Then I wake up one day and the ammonia is 4ppm and wouldn’t go down.
I just did a roughly 60-70% water change an hour or two ago. Didn’t know what else to do but didn’t want to let it sit with such a low PH. Hopefully the water change is enough to get that PH to bounce back up a bit. Also, hopefully me doing a water change didn’t screw me even more haha. I’ll test my water tonight to see where it’s at.
Hello; This is a long shot but may be worth a little trouble. First clean all the vials with some distilled water. Next run some tests on the distilled water and the tank water. Distilled should be at or near neutral or zero depending on the test.
Hello; I can get it at Krogers or my local Wal-Mart for less than a dollar per gallon. I know you can clean with tap water but the idea with the distilled is that any residues will hopefully be cleaned away. Also the distilled water can be a standard of sorts to check if the test kit chemicals are still good.
Give the vials a good clean with tap water if you are in a hurry.
Forgive me if you already have done this, but can you list what is in the tank? Is this the thread with wood in the tank? I am participating in a different thread with similar concerns.
I do rinse my vials out pretty well after each test. I can’t get out to a store tonight (young kids) so I’ll have to do an extra thorough cleaning with my tap water. Yes I have two medium sized pieces of driftwood in the tank, one is brand new and the other was in a tank for a while a couple years ago.
So after my semi large water change around 4 hours ago, I tested my water parameters. Results as follows-
Ammonia .50
Nitrite 2.0
Nitrate 5.0
The high PH tested at the lowest it shows 7.4.
The regular PH tested at about 7.2, so I think that’s where I’m at as of now. I assume that’ll go up after the water is in the tank a while.
So what is my next step? Dose ammonia back up and monitor?
Ammonia .50
Nitrite 2.0
Nitrate 5.0
The high PH tested at the lowest it shows 7.4.
The regular PH tested at about 7.2, so I think that’s where I’m at as of now. I assume that’ll go up after the water is in the tank a while.
So what is my next step? Dose ammonia back up and monitor?
