Please help PH 8.8

aztec reef

Active Member
did you say you started it 11 days ago? if yes then i wouldn't worry about it right now.how's your other parameters?
 

aztec reef

Active Member
keep doing water changes..if tank is only abt 11 days old , i would just sit back and let do its thing..you wanna worry about NITRATES,AMMONIA ,NITRITES. how did you started the cycle.?
 

xiaochew

Member
do i really need to add raw prawn to start the cycle . I have add some bacteria starter in it.is it enought?
 

joojoo

Member
Bacteria starter is useless. You need need a source of ammonia (ex. fish food, raw shrimp, anything organic that will decay)
 

xiaochew

Member
ha ha , i never buy the kit for amm.

only have no2, no3 , kh , ph.
do i need to buy one??
My no2 is 0.1 , no3 is 20. kh is 200+ ,ph 8.8
. My rock have grown diatoms algae almost everywhere in the tank.
i use DI water and have run the FR for rowa.
Can see alot of air bubbles froming on the rocks diatoms algae.
 

joojoo

Member
NH3, NO2, and NO3 are the 3 parameters we are stabilizing during the cycle. I suggest you throw in a good sized pinch of fish food and go buy an Ammonia test.
 

xiaochew

Member
roger that . I have put one Lawnmower Blenny and alot of turbo in the tank for the algae problems. They are eating very happily. Its okie to put them in right?? :thinking:
Will place a raw prawn in the tank tonight .See what will happen.
Thanks
 

joojoo

Member
Yikes, take the animals back ASAP. Tell the LFS you are not cycled yet, and you made a mistake, I'm sure they will understand. Not many animals survive a cycle.
 

sfoister

Member
Originally Posted by joojoo
Yikes, take the animals back ASAP. Tell the LFS you are not cycled yet, and you made a mistake, I'm sure they will understand. Not many animals survive a cycle.

Yah, I second that. Holy cripes, everything will likely die if you have not cycled yet.

Don't add anything alive until 3-4 weeks and only if you have cycled.
 

xiaochew

Member
[ QUOTE=joojoo]Yikes, take the animals back ASAP. Tell the LFS you are not cycled yet, and you made a mistake, I'm sure they will understand. Not many animals survive a cycle.
Originally Posted by sfoister
Yah, I second that. Holy cripes, everything will likely die if you have not cycled yet.

Don't add anything alive until 3-4 weeks and only if you have cycled.
Roger that . Will place them in my nano tank in the mean time.
thanks.
I have place the raw prawn in the tank. Normally will take how long to see any changes to the water and what are the changes you will expect.Due to i have add bacteria starter in it when i started 10 days ago.
 

sfoister

Member
The bacteria starter won't START the cycle but it WILL help it cycle quicker no matter what other will tell you. I've used it. The prawn will start to decay in a matter of days, after about 2-3 days take it out. The bacteria starter you used will allow for the ammonia to drop faster than normal because normally you would have to wait for the bacteria to grow all on it's own.
Just test ammonia, trates and trites. When they are all 0 you're cycled.
 

earlybird

Active Member
pH will be all over the place until the tank matures. This could take a few months. I wouldn't be alarmed but continue to test pH and chart your readings so you can see when it stabilizes.
Why hurry your cycle? It will occur naturally so there's no need to add "bacteria starter." Just feed your tank a little bit each day.
Glad to see you got the fish out.
 

joojoo

Member
Originally Posted by sfoister
The bacteria starter won't START the cycle but it WILL help it cycle quicker no matter what other will tell you. I've used it. The prawn will start to decay in a matter of days, after about 2-3 days take it out. The bacteria starter you used will allow for the ammonia to drop faster than normal because normally you would have to wait for the bacteria to grow all on it's own.
Just test ammonia, trates and trites. When they are all 0 you're cycled.
I have also used it. My cycle still took 4 weeks. Maybe you got a "fresh" batch. But the majority of these "bottled bacterium" have been sitting on store shelves for so long that nothing is still alive in the bottle.
 

xiaochew

Member
Originally Posted by sfoister
The bacteria starter won't START the cycle but it WILL help it cycle quicker no matter what other will tell you. I've used it. The prawn will start to decay in a matter of days, after about 2-3 days take it out. The bacteria starter you used will allow for the ammonia to drop faster than normal because normally you would have to wait for the bacteria to grow all on it's own.
Just test ammonia, trates and trites. When they are all 0 you're cycled.
Now my No2 is 0.1 no3 is 10. the prawn in the tank have disappear . Dun know where is gone. :notsure:
thanks
 

xiaochew

Member
Originally Posted by earlybird
pH will be all over the place until the tank matures. This could take a few months. I wouldn't be alarmed but continue to test pH and chart your readings so you can see when it stabilizes.
Why hurry your cycle? It will occur naturally so there's no need to add "bacteria starter." Just feed your tank a little bit each day.
Glad to see you got the fish out.
roger that .Welco
 

xiaochew

Member
Originally Posted by joojoo
I have also used it. My cycle still took 4 weeks. Maybe you got a "fresh" batch. But the majority of these "bottled bacterium" have been sitting on store shelves for so long that nothing is still alive in the bottle.
I'm using two types of bacteria . One for coraline and one for denitrates.
 

hatessushi

Active Member
Just let the tank cycle normally and don't add anything until it is complete. You pH being 8.8 is really high but if the tank is cycling just let it be. You don't need to do water changes until the cycle is completed. If you do water changes before the cycle is complete it will most likley prolong the cycle. I wouldn't worry about the pH until after the cycle is finished but keep checking for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.
 
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