6th week into cycle,

[duhwun]

well its been month and half already, and my readings are ammonia 0, nitrate 10, nitrite 2, and ph 7.8. The ph and the nitrite been like this for like a month already. They dont seem to change. The ammonia slowly gone down , so has the the nitrate, but the other two been like that for weeks. I dont know whats going on. What can i do to raise that ph level.

 

[promisetbg]

Give us the specs on how your system is set up.

 

[ophiura]

Have you had the water tested with a different test kit to rule out a faulty kit?
What is your alkalinity?
Do you have any live rock?

 

[duhwun]

Hi there guys/gals, The set-up right now is a 55 gallon tank with a wet/dry filter on the bottom. I have a skimmer running as well(it clears up the water). i have a total of 30lbs of live rock and 20 lbs of live sand plus 30lb of dead sand mix in the live ones. I also have 20lbs of lace rock. the salinity is 1.026. the temperature is around 78 F (I have a heater in the tank.) I think i started off on the wrong step though, i didn't kno you weren't suppose to use tap water. When i first added water to the system i added tap water(i used fresh water conditioner to rid of the chlorine though) hope that helps a bit. I guess the nitrite is not going down for the past 3 weeks is because i started off with tap water. Maybe changing some percent of the water with r/o would help? And yea i dont have a alkalinity test kit. Currently im using the SALTWATER MASTER LIQUID TEST KIT, by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. And i dont have any lighting for the tank yet. im planning to get some mh lighting though. when i get money from my mom lol =). I hope that helps , if i missed anything just remind me and ill post it asap. Thx again, hope everything works out well!!!!!!!!

 

[ophiura]

It has absolutely nothing to do with the tap water. Many tanks are started with tap water. Its not ideal. But it is not the problem.
I would definitely get the water tested at an LFS or somewhere using a different test kit. That one is not the most accurate.
Cycles can stall under certain conditions and I am most worried about you pH and alkalinity.
If you add anything, then I would add something like biospira...but because you have LR, I would not expect things to stall unless some sort of other thing was going wrong. IMO, it might very well be the test kit. So get that checked first along with alkalinity and another pH reading.

 

[duhwun]

well the nitrite has finally gone down to 0, ammonia near 0, and ph is still low , at like 7.8, and nitrate gone up to 20 from 10. i didn't even add any fish in yet, how can nitrate increase that high, wierd.!!! so how can i increase my alkalinity and ph?

 

[harndog]

go get the water tested by someone else I have that same kit and it has ben off by as much as 3 points on the ph. also ph will climb under lighting. Say in the moring if I check my tank it is 8.0 by late ofternoon it will be 8.3 or 8.4. You very well could be close to being finished. do a 10 gal water change making sure to use the same salt and r/o water and you nitrates will be mostly gone. they are the last step of the cycle process and that is why they increased. if you have no plants to suck them up they will stay in the tank until you change your water.

 

[corally]

I also had that same test kit with the same wrong reading ph problem. Every time I tested it, it said the ph was 7.8 but when I took it to lfs it was 8.2. I also think the nitrate colors are hard to read on that test.

 

[duhwun]

thx for the replies , now i just wonder wat kind of test kit should i buy for ph then? are there any brands in particular? im planning to buy test kits for calcium and alkalinity as well, any suggestions would help. =)

 

[promisetbg]

Salifert test kits.