Fishless Cycling Problem

My KH is more or less the same as yours and I added bicarb during fishless cycles. The first one, I didn't add it right at the beginning and I did have a pH crash so added it then. With the second one I added it right at the beginning and had no problems.
I used 1 x 5ml spoonful - level spoonful - in a 25 litre tank. As long as the KH reading is 6 deg/107 ppm or above it should be OK but monitor it to be sure.
Bicarb will also increase the pH so don't be surprised if you test yours and find it higher.

As I have softish water, if I had known at the time that the bacteria also need minerals to grow properly, I would have added some plant fertiliser as well.

@barneyadi I think that would depend on the fish as much as anything, I don't recall if you have shared your stocking plans in the past - and I'm too idle to go look
You may have seen from my witterings I run at below 10ppm but as Sue states you can't drop your guard at this level. It is then down to your personal feelings, I would feel completely comfortable at 54ppm providing I can monitor and maintain regularly (let's be honest we should be doing that anyway)
A dropper checker might be a good investment, they are cheap and normally used to indicate CO2 levels in planted tanks but actually show pH changes. Because it stays in the tank so you can see the water is good at a glance whenever you pass.

@barneyadi  Oh I see, I was talking about Alkalinity for the long term in the previous post.
For a cycle them definitely no harm adding, you will do an almost complete water change at the end of a fishless cycles and can adjust your Kh if you need after that.
Use pH as your guide for now, the danger point for microbes is below 6.5pH but if it has significantly dropped since you started then add as Sue suggests. The higher the pH and temperature (within reason) the better the bacteria will colonise but whatever you do .... don't go near @Paddy60 cycling tank, you might catch whatever it has that stops it cycling
I presume you have read Sue's excellent guide to fishless cycle https://forums.thinkfish.co.uk/fishtank-filtration-and-cycling/fishless-cycling-how-to-do-it ?

Yes it is so you can bake Sue a cake if it works

Barneyadi is still at the stage of sorting out his fishless cycle - his ammonia drops but no sign of nitrite or nitrate. He has all fake plants.

I first met him on another forum where this problem first became apparent. Another member on there has suggested that in addition to artificially boosting KH during cycling - because the bacteria need inorganic carbon to grow and low KH often leads to pH crashes - adding a trace mineral plants fertiliser helps as well because the bacteria also need trace minerals which are lacking in soft water. The chap on the other forum recommends Seachem Flourish as being the one that has the most complete range of trace minerals.



Dave - baking powder and bicarbonate of soda are not the same thing. Baking powder contains bicarb plus a weak acid such as tartaric acid. You don't want this acid in the tank.

Luckily I went with the bicarb of soda. Haven't added the Seachem Flourish just yet, think putting the ammonia and Tetra Safe Start and bicarb today might be enough. Will check to see how ammonia is doing tomorrow, a little early but you never know.

The neighboring kids taking whateve the call cookery classes now use CAKE MIXES !
Truly the times they are achangin but give it 10 years and they will be ordering the cake from the supermarket and having it delivered. They will asking which type of flour to add to the tank
Have I just turned into a grumpy old codger? 

I would check it every few days once you have nitrite and nitrate building up. Those are the acidic things made by filter bacteria. You don't have any fish yet to add to the acidity.

My tap water has KH 3 deg/55 ppm, pH 7.5 and between the 0 and 5 colours for nitrate.
I did a fishless cycle 4 years ago and didn't test the pH regularly. When it occurred to me I should be testing the pH, I discovered it was off the bottom of the scale (ie below 6) and the nitrate was 40 ppm.

With a KH of 133 after adding bicarb, you should be OK up to 40 ppm nitrate. But I would get into the habit of testing the pH every time you test for ammonia etc. It is a very quick test and you'll know if it starts to fall that you need to test for KH.

Ok test results today

PH 7.0ish
ammonia 0.50ppm
nitrite 0
nitrate 2.5ppm (same as tap)

Seems ammonia going in right direction for now, so fingers crossed.

Hi Sue

What figure is confusing? Don't for get I did a water change on Sunday, 95% roughly. So take it I wouldn't get nitrite or nitrates just yet. Ammonia went in Monday, only 1ppm so has dropped .50 in 2 days.