QT is going into cycle, and Hyposalinity is not there yet!

[gilpil]

Hey Beth, I talking as if your going to respond because you have been awesome. I am in the second day of getting the salinity down to 1.009, but it is still not there yet. Tested the water parameters this morning, and Nitrites were between 0 and .25, and Ammonia was between .25 and .5.
Let me catch you up also, I am the one with the Flame angel with ick, in a 10g QT that has not been cycled.
Anyway, when I got the reading I took out 2 more gallons and continued to add distilled water slowly. Is there anything else I can do? I have the water set for water changes at 1.009, but the QT will not be ready for about 10 more hours if I follow the 48hr rule for bringing the Hyposalinity down. Any suggestions? The fish looks fine and is eating. Am I just going to have to wait it out until I am able to do a water change?

 

[beth]

I would suggest "sacrificing" one of your pieces of LR to the QT. This will bring in some seeded natural biofilter.
How is the water circulation doing? This is very important. What is your pH? Higher pH makes ammonia more letal, so you want to stay within the lower end of acceptable levels of pH. I'm not saying drop your pH, but just don't make it higher.

 

[gilpil]

ok, My ph was at about 8.0 this morning, but I already put some Kent Marine Superbuffer-dKH in to raise it. I will not put anymore in. I will test my ph again, but the bottle says that it will take 24 hours to stabilize.

 

[gilpil]

Alright, the ph in the qt is about 8.2 and the salinity right now is about 1.014. The ph in the water set up for water changes is between 7.8 and 8.0, and the salinity is at 1.009. So should I buffer the water that will be put in later, or not, since a higher ph is bad when you have ammonia?

 

[gilpil]

Put in a piece of LR, and the Nitrites are still inbetween 0 and .25, but the Ammonia seems to be stabalizing a little bit. I abe about .002 off from hitting 1.009, and the ph is down to about 8.0. I am probably going to get down to 1.009 in the qt tonight, then test for ammonia and nitrite in the morning, and then decide about the ph. Hope that works. Thanks Beth for the help, you are such a lifesaver. If I was not married I would kiss you! :happyfish

 

[beth]

Keep the pH at 8.0. That should work fine and is better with ammonia present. Once you get down to the correct salinity, you can keep doing water changes until the tank stablizes. I would suggest using water from your main tank, mixing it with RO water [declorinated] to do water changes. That way, you will be adding more aged [seeded] water to your QT.
What is the salinity reading? [1.009 is specific gravity]