Cycling question

phil l

phil l

New Member
I'm two and half weeks into my cycle since I added 40lbs of uncured live rock to my 37g tank.
My water paratmeters are
Specific gravity: 1.024
Temp: 80
pH 7.8 (evening)
Ammonia: 8ppm
Nitrites: 5 ppm
Should my ammonia still be this high after this long in the cycle? I thought that it would have decreased by now... Also my pH is alittle low, coming down from 8.2 a week ago. Is this a problem? and how do I correct to bring it back up?
Thanks,
Phil L
 
T

tizzo

Guest
Do you have powerheads blowing your water around?? And you can do a 50% water change to help save some of the critters that come in on the rock. As far as your ph, don't even stress that. Your messed up water params will affect your ph.
If your rock was "uncured" then yes your params are where they need to be, if it was "precured" then it is taking a little long but still nothing to worry about.
 
phil l

phil l

New Member
Yes, the rock was uncured. My filtration is an Aquaclear 500 power filter and Aquaclear 20 powerhead. Also have a CRP Bak-pak protein skimmer, so I should have adequate water movement.
Should I do a water change? I was under the impression that you dont do water changes whiles cycling, although I just searched the archives and there were some people who felt that keeping the ammonia lower thru the cycle helped save alot of the stuff living in and on the live rock..
Phil L
 
thejdshow

thejdshow

Member
adding water could prolong your cycle. Im no expert, maybe someone more knowledgable than myself can help you
----
Yes i noticed that it was to start your cycle after I posted.. I have since edited my original post... Sorry bout that
 
thejdshow

thejdshow

Member
You are in no danger. Things can settle at a pretty fast rate after they spike. Mine took a long time to spike, then droped much faster then it raised.
 
T

tizzo

Guest
Water changes will not prolong your cycle... Your not cycling the actual water persay, rather the surface area. If you change out your surface area THEN you'd prolong your cycle... (LOL), but a water change will only clean up your water. The rest of your tank will stay right on schedule...
I did a 100% change about every day, somethimes skipping a day and it didn't take any longer for my rock to go through it's cycle... I did it cause of that wretched stench!! Only later did I learn that I prolly saved my hitch-hikers as well... Of course I wouldn't recomend 100% changes, but to take this topic to an extreme, that's what I did, and all was well.
 
phil l

phil l

New Member
So should I do a water change, or has sitting two weeks at 8ppm or greater ammonia pretty much done my hitchhikers in already??
Phil L
 
T

tizzo

Guest
You may have some on their last leg... I'd do one just to be safe. Can't hurt anyway...
 
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