Cycling

Hi
Andy M told me the hardness from Yorkshire water website but i can't  to find the KH myself .

Ah - that sounds like it's the GH (General Hardness) value then. Thats the sum total of the Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ ions in your water. KH (Carbonate Hardness) is the sum total of the CO₃^2- and HCO₃^- ions. The KH ions react with any acidic H⁺ ions to form Water and CO₂ therefore removing the acid from the water and keeping your pH 'buffered' to a constant value. The fish appreciate this!

Is your tapwater soft or hard? For example, do you get limescale in your kettle or showerhead? If the general hardness is low, you'll probably have low carbonate hardness as well.


If your water is soft, water changes will help to replace the carbonate used by the bacteria. If that doesn't work, you can also add bicarbonate of soda - the stuff used in home baking, there may already be some in your cupboard. I can let you know the amount if you need to add it. This isn't good for fish as sodium (soda) is as bad for fish as for us, but you'll remove it all on your big pre-fish-shopping water change.

Is this the first time you've seen anything other than zero for nitrite? If so, it shows you have ammonia eaters growing  . 1ppm nitrite is made from just under 0.4ppm ammonia, so the nitrite level goes up faster than the ammonia level goes down.

According to the latest theory on fishless cycling, you need to keep the nitrite level below 5ppm by only adding small amounts of ammonia until the nitrite reading starts to fall. You can wait a few days between additions of ammonia (once it has fallen to zero) so that your nitrite doesn't get too high.