I am cycling my first tank. I have been taking water readings daily and dosing with ammonia. Yesterday I had Nitrites at 5ppm and Nitrates at 80ppm. The PH has been slowly dropping from 8.3 down to 8.0 today. Nitrates also dropped down to about 10ppm. No signs of algae or anything that would be consuming the nitrates. Could my test kit "die" overnight? Any ideas before I run out to buy another kit?
PH dropping and Nitrates disappearing curing cycle?
- Thread starter digger4rc
- Start date
oh207
Member
pH will fluctuate throughout the day. It will drop during the night and rise during the day. Also, the fresh air in the room will affect it as well. Do you test the pH for each day at the same time?
I don't think there is anything to worry about. You are still above the acceptable low value which is 7.8. Acceptable range is 7.8 - 8.5. My tank stays between 7.8 and 8.2.
I don't think there is anything to worry about. You are still above the acceptable low value which is 7.8. Acceptable range is 7.8 - 8.5. My tank stays between 7.8 and 8.2.
In a cycling tank, there's really no way for nitrates to go away except for water changes. If you aren't doing water changes (which you shouldn't at this point), then I'd chalk it up to "testing error."
What test kit are you using?
And yeah... ignore pH during a cycle as it will bounce all over the place regardless of the normal day/night cycle.
What test kit are you using?
And yeah... ignore pH during a cycle as it will bounce all over the place regardless of the normal day/night cycle.
API test. I know it doesn't have the best resolution, but for nitrates to drop from 80 to 10ppm in one day seems very odd. No water changes, no algae, etc. I tested 4 times, two different vials, two different collection locations in the tank. Might go test it on the kids' FW tank, although it is so lightly stocked I doubt there will be much to read.
The presents of nitrites and ammonia will not give you good nitrate readings. I wouldn't worry about nitrates or pH until the initial cycle is complete (ammonia and nitrites drop to zero). If you are still adding ammonia stop, you only need to dose it once to start the cycle, then just leave things alone.
Thanks. There is a lot of confusing info out there about ammonia based cycling. Some articles talked about dosing daily until both ammo and nitrites complete disappeared in 24 hours. That seemed like overkill so I was going to do a week and then scale it back.
