Cycling unable to compete

[Aspire]

Hey guys,

I noe I've post this questions before but got onli few replies but still no solution. Here it goes. I've been cycling my 2 ft tank for more than 3 or 4 months (too long already lost count). Previous problem was uncontrollerable nitrate level. Too fustrated with the long period of water changing, I did a 100% water change. NOw everything seem ok.. PH level kinda high (86) but the rest of the parameter is gd and so is the nitrate level. Is there any other way to reduce PH other than water change?

Last week when I intro 2 clowns, they died the very next day. And this morning when I woke up my turbo snail which has been with me for more than 1 months died too.. I really have no idea what is wrong. I've done my water change. Wash my canister filter every week, added powerhead for water circulation, increased my sand bed from 2 to 4 inches.

Due to my tank structure I can do an overflow slump. Please guys.. help me out here.. I have really no idea wat to do next..

[Anemone]

hi

wat did u use to cycle? LR? market prawn?

perhaps u should leave your canister filter alone. let it run for a month. washing it with tap water kills off the BB.

wat grain size u using for your sand? for grade 0 3-4 inches will probably do well. for bigger grain sizes more may be needed.

no more livestock for the time being. resist the urge to fiddle with yor tank during this period.

anyone can offer some help here? 4mths is a really long time to be cycling a 2 feet.

[shiraz]

usually cycling is completed when ammonia and nitrite reaches zero... for nitrate to be zero, DSB and a regularly harvested macro-algae refugium is needed... almost a year it has been since i started my tank and my nitrate is stagnant at 25ppm until now... did u add any medication to the water? any powerheads with steel shafts? u can lower pH by adding the seachem additive.. not sure of the name but im sure there is an additive..

[dradttg]

Hey guys,

I noe I've post this questions before but got onli few replies but still no solution. Here it goes. I've been cycling my 2 ft tank for more than 3 or 4 months (too long already lost count). Previous problem was uncontrollerable nitrate level. Too fustrated with the long period of water changing, I did a 100% water change. NOw everything seem ok.. PH level kinda high (86) but the rest of the parameter is gd and so is the nitrate level. Is there any other way to reduce PH other than water change?

Last week when I intro 2 clowns, they died the very next day. And this morning when I woke up my turbo snail which has been with me for more than 1 months died too.. I really have no idea what is wrong. I've done my water change. Wash my canister filter every week, added powerhead for water circulation, increased my sand bed from 2 to 4 inches.

Due to my tank structure I can do an overflow slump. Please guys.. help me out here.. I have really no idea wat to do next..

Is your pH 8.6 or 86? Dont think pH can be so high.

Did you use a dechlorinizer when you did your water change? I am been told a lot of time to perform only 10% - 20% water change. I think 100% is too much. For 10% - 20% change, no dechlorinizer is ok but with 100%, I think you will need dechlorinizer.

[bawater]

some numbers would be better than a "good"

i guess pH 8.6 right. not 86

ammonia-?

nitrite-?

nitrate-?

Temp-?

salinity-?

and if u do a full range? DKH-?

calcium is not a concern.

having nitrate does not mean your cycle has not complete- in fact, it means you have cycled. NO3 is the end product. A DSb will not mature till abt a yr (the fastest i give u, 6mths). A fully working DS means it has the micro-organisms in it to turn the bed over and release the gases. This would include various worms etc.

the 100% change just because of NO3 was a mistake. You should have done a series of partial water change to dilute it instead. Since currently you do not have a nutrient export, nitrate will continue to rise...so in future-do partial water changes.

NO3 will not harm fishes immediately- you do not have to concern yourself with that as an immediate danger - unless you read 300-400ppm...and our off the shelf test kits don't measure that kind of levels(which in this case it does affect fishes)

Your pH is relatively high, but proper accimatisation will not affect the fishes.

Your salt mix should not mix that high pH, are you dosing something else?

none the less, the biological process of bacteria will bring down the pH in time.

There is another way, by pouring a can of soda water into the tank but don't do it unless u have no living things in the tank. (and pH 8.6 is not critical enough to use this method).

Your canister acts as a biological filter(which it was designed to be)- so washing it so often kills the bacteria. This is also the main source of your nitrate production.

[Achilles Tang]

Your cycling is complete when you register nothing but nitrates. I mean that ammonia and nitrites are zero.

Now you have to solve the removal of nitrates in your system. This has been covered before in countless threads. Do a search.

Ph 8.6 is on the high side but acceptable. PH will drop naturally over time, the use of a calcium reactor will also speed up PH drops due to the CO2 introduced into the water.

Your fishes probably died due to PH shock. Have you measured the fish bag water parameters? Don't be surprised if the LFS water only has around PH 7.8.... so your fish suddenly exposed from PH 7.8 to 8.6 is a guaranteed death sentence... take your time to acclimatize your fish. You know how to do this right?

Your snail can die from many things including old age, predation, ammonia, nitrites... did you get a spike somehow? Did you do anything out of the ordinary recently? What's your current water parameters besides PH?

[Achilles Tang]

oops... bawater and I answered at the same time...

How's that for service?

[Aspire]

Thanx guys for your reply.

Hehe sorry my PH level is 8.6. As for my canister filter, I dun use tap water to wash my filter. I was told to use water that is remove from my tank to rinse.

As for additives, I only use Nitrafin Cycle for weekly maintenance. No other additives addded. I did not use any decholrinizer for water chnage. Usually I only leave the water for few days before changing.

I only used LR to cycle as my tank was previous used to rear FW fishes. I'ved seen all the living organism from the LR died off from first few weeks. I assume my tank cycle had started and waited for few months. My ammonia should be zero as I'm using those stick on tank type. Tested my NO2 level zero. FOr a very long time NO3 was very very high and now is less than 20ppm.

So wat's wrong?

[Achilles Tang]

Report on other parameters first. We won't be able to troubleshoot if you don't give us all the variables.

[Aspire]

Now my thank has no fish or snail only LR and 2 corals.

Ammonnia =0

Nitrite=0

Nitrate= (using tetra test kit colour is yellow should be less than 20ppm)

salinity= (using floating type, in acceptable scale)

Temp = 30C ( IN mids of installing cooling fan)

No other test kit used.

[Achilles Tang]

Test for copper then.

[Aspire]

Copper?! hmm.. DUn think I'ved used anything that contains copper. Nevertheless, I'll get a test kit for copper.

Btw, I added ceramic rings, biohome, charcoal and chemipure in my filter. Will that be the cause for my incomplete tank cycle?

[Achilles Tang]

Incomplete? We just explained that your cycling is over. Nitrates is always the end result. You just need to find a way to remove nitrates, mechanically or naturally.

[Aspire]

Opps.. sorry AT shdn't use the word incomplete. Wat I mean was will those ceramic rings and stuff affect my tank? As far as I feel, my tank is definately not stable I wouldn't wanna add in anymore fishes until I'm very sure it's alrite.

[Achilles Tang]

Ceramic rings and other forms of bio-media is for bacteria colonisation, mainly aerobic nitrifying types. These are good only for ammonia and nitrites.

To culture denitrifying bacteria, you have to provide anaerobic conditions, which a properly setup DSB, or lots of LR with dense cores, can provide naturally.

[Aspire]

I see.. So it really doesn't do much help.. so I need to get more LR for natural filtration... But how do I know really that my tank is able to add in fish? I really can't bare to let another poor fish die in my tank.. Maybe I shd wait for another few weeks or so..

Anyway, how often should I wash my canister filter? I've often seen you all mention canister will also become a nitrate factory. I've been thru hard time controlling nitrate. I dun wanna go thru it again..