Is it possible a tank can fail to cycle?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Wow, 15000l cistern is not even 4,000 gallons of water. It's a pretty small system, at least by U.S. standards.

You might want to consider using a home made buffer recipe as it is much cheaper using baking soda, epsom salts and aquarium salt to raise your pH, KH and GH. You will also get better control over your water parameters once you figure out the ingredient ratio you need for your low pH rainwater. And once you determine the correct ratios, you'll have no problems with maintaining good water quality. You will need to do an internet search to get the recipe for making your own aquarium buffer at home.

While following the above recommendations for making your own buffer won't help your immediate problems with ammonia and nitrite, it will help you get your cycling problem under control. In the mean time, the only thing you can do is to increase your daily water changes to help reduce the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate in the tank and continue to add Prime and neutral regulator to the water change water.

I also suggest that you tell your wife that if the cistern runs out of rainwater and she has scheduled a delivery of town water, that she post a very large note on the aquarium informing you of that fact.

Since you will be doing large water changes on your tanks due to the fish stocking levels and cycling problems, I suggest you look into buying a powdered dechlorinating product like Safe or Chlor-am-X. It will be much cheaper than using the liquid Prime. It works the same but you will be using less product to achieve the same results at a fraction of the cost.

If you are handy at DIY projects, you might want to consider installing a manual or automatic drip system on your 180G tank. You would also have to come up with some type of auto dosing system to add buffers to the tank to maintain the correct pH, GH and KH levels. Check out the stickies in the the DIY projects for some suggestions.
 
The tank in total is 25000l, but yeah it is pretty small!

So in the daily waste changes, how much should I change out? 30%?

I'll look into the buffer mix but went the Epsom salts, make the fish poop more?

The reason i use seachem neutral regulator, is because the acidity of my rain water fluctuates quite a lot, neutral regulator just sets the pH to 7 without any thought.

How does the kh and gh affect the cycle,I have never heard that these would cause an issue.

Also the only reason I add the pool salt is if my fish have an injury, it is easier to keep the salt level at 1 table spoon per 20l, than adding pima/melafix...do you think the high salt content could be screwing the cycle?

Also, on the smaller tank,I have a125l tank with minimal fish and an eheim 2217, the ammonia level in there is only 0.25 ppm but it never raises or falls...I would have thought the 2217 would have been plenty of filter for a small tank like that?

Is there any way something nasty could have corrupted my biomedia stopping bacterial growth?



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For your fish stocking and current problem with water parameters, I would not be adverse to doing 50% daily water changes. The more frequent water changes will greatly help reduce ammonia and nitrite concentrations. Of course you will have to add the Seachem neutral regulator to the replacement water because of your low pH rainwater usage.

Since your rainwater source pH varies so much, do you have to test each batch of replacement water prior to doing water changes so you know how much Seachem N.R. to add?

In regards to the DIY buffer mix, Epsom salts are used as a laxative effect for constipated fish but I don't think the amount used in the buffer mix would be enough for you to notice a difference.

The higher the KH, the less pH swings the water will be prone to having. It is preferred to have a KH of at least 5 to properly cycle a tank during a fishless cycle to help reduce the chance the pH will fall below 7. It is easier to maintain a required pH if the KH is higher than 5.

I don't think the salt will corrupt your cycle but I have not looked into that possibility.

If you haven't added any antibiotics to your tank, I can't think of anything that would corrupt your bio-media. Keep in mind when I mentioned KH and pH in regards to cycling your tank. pH below 7 and KH below 5 can inhibit the cycling process. It won't stop it but it can take longer for a good 'crop' of beneficial bacteria to become established properly.
 
Have you tested your rainwater from the tap for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? This info would be helpful to determine if your source water is contributing to the aquarium problems.
 
The great thing with seachem neutral regulator, is it is an automatic buffer.it will put the water bang on 7 every time.

Is kh increased by adding pool salt to the tank, when you say a kh of 5, is that 5 drops of the api test? Given the kh reading I started earlier, do you think I should add more salt to help the tank cycle?

Adding salt affects both kh and gh didn't it?

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This article may explain it better http://http://www.sydneycichlid.com/aquarium-hardness.htm

Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) will increase the KH or carbonate hardness of the water. Pool salt will raise the GH or general hardness.

According to the Seachem N.R. instructions, 1 teaspoon per 20l of water, correct? Plus you need to test the aquarium water periodically between water changes to see if the pH is still at 7.

Here is another simpler explanation of GH, KH and pH plus how to adjust the ratios of baking soda (for KH only) or calcium carbonate (for KH & GH) for good results. http://www.cs.duke.edu/~narten/faq/chemistry.html
 
deeda said:
This article may explain it better http://http://www.sydneycichlid.com/aquarium-hardness.htm


Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) will increase the KH or carbonate hardness of the water. Pool salt will raise the GH or general hardness.
Click to expand...
from reading this if i want to raise the KH of the water it will also drive up the PH of the tank?


Given these stats for my big tank:


Kh: 89.5ppm (5 drops of API)
Gh: 179ppm (10 drops of API)
Ph: 7


these would not need adjusted would they?


deeda said:
According to the Seachem N.R. instructions, 1 teaspoon per 20l of water, correct? Plus you need to test the aquarium water periodically between water changes to see if the pH is still at 7.
Click to expand...
thats it correct, also i noticed on the second article, buffers like Seachem NR, will buffer the KH to get the desired PH, so me adding anything else to raise the KH will stop the Seachem NR from performing will it not?

Also in relation to the smaller tank, do you have any connect there, it is only 125L with 3 small fish and 4 small catfish with an Eheim 2217 running...that should be enough filtration for a tank that size shouldnt it?
 
I don't know what the interaction between Seachem N.R. and baking soda would be. Maybe ask that question on Seachem's website.

I would think the Eheim 2217 would be sufficient for a 33G/125L aquarium.

Were you able to get any test results for ammonia for your plain tap(rainwater)?
 
I am on rainwater too, though my fish prefer softer water anyway so it is a good thing, I do smaller regular water changes and use natural materials like crushed shell to buffer the water rather than dosing and pre-treating the new water. If the hardness is low (or nil, as it should be unless you have a concrete water tank) then the pH of the new water is pretty much irrelevant as it will easily and quickly adjust when added to the tank. As long as the extremes are avoided such fluctuations with fairly soft water are harmless, I used to do ~30% water changes on my 400L tank and although the new water was straight out of the tap with nio hardness and low pH, the pH of the tank would only move by a few points.
 
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