Substrate

Thanks both,
Some new stuff to report.
I bought some mature filter media from MA today and put it in the tank, then tested the parameters two hours later. (In between I was watching my son as a pig in class assembly and then collecting my daughter from nursery, life is never dull)
PH has now come out as 7.4. (Or lowest on the high range scale, should I retest with low range?)
Ammonia between 1 and 2 ppm
And I have nitrites! There is definitely a hint of purple, so 0.25 ppm
Didn't test nitrate today.

I take on board your advice Sue, but am thinking will leave it to see if pH settles, and if it's going to be all over the place, then do as you suggest with the soil and sand tubs.

Colin my Lfs use the same test strips that they sold me, when testing for anything other than ammonia. Those test strips gave a reading of 7.2 yesterday.

PH has now come out as 7.4. (Or lowest on the high range scale, should I retest with low range?)

I would re-test with low range because hitting the lowest figure on the high range scale could indicate that pH is lower than the high range test is able to measure (does this make sense?). The shop reading of 7.2 would seem to support this.

Haven't taken a sample to the shop, they just told me they use the same strips.

Ah, I misunderstood - thought you meant your lfs had tested your tank water using the same type of strips.

Maybe I'll leave testing pH til the tank is cycled!

Yeah, I don't think it would hurt to leave the pH for now - ammonia & nitrites are obviously your primary enemies whilst cycling your tank.  Although it would be good to verify that you have relatively stable pH before adding any fish

That doesn't sound good Chris, why would that happen? Something to do with concentrations of nitrite and ammonia?
What did your pH drop down to?
Does it go low enough to kill the bacteria?
Glad yours turned out ok. How often / at what point would you recommend pH testing?
Thanks

How often / at what point would you recommend pH testing?

How often you test your pH depends, mostly, upon how hard your water is. You need to get some idea of this before we can answer this. When I asked this before, you responded with a pH value. pH is a measure of the acidity/alkalinity of your water, not its hardness. It is usually linked to the pH of your water; But not always. Your lfs should be able to get an initial reading for KH and GH. If you have soft water, you should be measuring the pH more regularly; If you have hard water, you don't really need to bother too much.

I was able to purchase a gh and kh test kit from eBay for less that 10 pounds and because my water is very soft I still test it every 3 or 4 days just for my peace of mind

Oo-oo...it worked

Nope!!

Just going to have to keep on confusing people an relying on their good will to bear with me, and keep the advice coming!

When I muck up the quoty thing, and if I totally misquote you does that work? it's because I delete too much of it. Try leaving all of the code stuff in at the beginning after the word quote...does that make sense? Not too me I'm too silly.

Thank you!
So far I can... leave everything in and just quote your whole text, take out a word here and there, add nonsense to your text!
Next step removing most of what someone has said and just quoting the relevant bit!! Easier said than done??