Newbie With BiOrb 60L & Black Widow Tetras

My KH is low at 3 deg which is ~60ppm or mg/l (ppm and mg/l are so close as they can be regarded as the same). [It's actually just under 60 for the people who want it accurate]. You need a KH of over 4 deg (~80mg/l) to be safe, especially during cycling as the bacteria need carbonate to multiply properly, in addition to need ing a higher pH so that there is enough ammonia in the ammonia form rather than the ammonium form - and the test kits we have measure ammonia plus ammonium combined. Aiming for around 6 ppm or mg/l is making doubly sure.

At the pH you currently have, that 0.5ppm (or mg/l) is safe. Do a water change tomorrow then add the salts. If you add 1 spoonful tonight, you need to add the equivalent of 1 tomorrow. But if you do a 50% water change, for example, you'll remove half tonight's spoonful so add 1.5 teaspoons tomorrow after the water change. Dissolve it in the new water before adding it.


I have a link for you. This is an ammonia calculator. Leave the first box set at NH(NH3 + NH4). Enter your ammonia reading in the next box. Set salinity to zero. Enter your pH and temperature in the boxes. Click calculate on the right hand side. You want the box NH3 Concentration. This is the amount of ammonia in the more toxic ammonia form.
Your aim is to keep that box reading under 0.05. Anything under 0.02 is safe for even the most delicate fish.
As the pH goes up, you'll find that the same reading on the test kit gives a higher value in that box.

BUT.....
Once you have nitrite, you will need to do water changes to keep that below 0.25. There is no less toxic form of nitrite.

I think you and Sue are over-complicating the remineralisation salts thingy.  If I was doing this stuff, I would just carry on with my fish-in cycle, as you doing now. Swapping water in and out as required by your ammonia and nitrite readings.  All this stuff is complicated enough without worrying about gradually hardening my water supply!

Now, in order to gradually harden my water supply, Whenever I perform a water change, make up the new replacement water to be the hardness I require. So, if your full 60l tank requires 4 spoonfuls of remineralisation salts, your 15l bucket will require 1 spoonful. Your bucket contains 'hard' water. Now when you replace it in the tank, it will slowly harden the water in your tank.

Thank you Steve. You are quite right about things getting over complictated.
And yes, just adding the salts to the new water will 'harden' it nice and slowly.

No excuses, just the fact I'm not on the forum as often as I used to be since my husband retired and I do tend to rush things. I should take more time to think things through 

That sounds good. Nice one - it's a steep learning curve, this fishkeeping.

Using measurements taken this morning, my amm is 0.4, pH is 7.6 and temperature is 76 so that calculates to 0.0108.  Should I leave doing a WC until the calculated ammonia reaches 0.05?  Wasn't sure if by not doing a WC it might give the good bacteria a chance to multiply before I remove some of them by water changing (or is that complete rubbish  )

Now my pH and KH is at an acceptable level, I want to do everything I can to get those bacteria multiplying!  They've got a lot of catching up to do, lol.

Liz

Don't worry Colin - I know 0.01 is less than 0.05 (although I DID have to check to make sure I wasn't mistaken    )   So I was just making sure that it's okay to NOT do a WC until the ammonia reaches 0.05 (using the ammonia calculator).  You've now answered that for me     

Thanks

Liz

I reckon at this rate I'll soon be able to take Chemistry and Maths GCSEs    (and before one of you comedians chips in, I didn't say I'd PASS them....    )

Liz

I would do another small water change without adding the salts. Maybe about 10 liitres, don't want the hardness to swing too much.


I can't access that site with the ammonia calculator either. Have to find another one to link to.

Well finally something's happening!  My ammonia has been reading 0 and I have had nitrites.  I'm fairly certain I have some nitrates - last night the colour was possibly 5 but certainly more than 0 and tonight I'm sure it's 5.  When my nitrites have reached 0.25 I have done a 25% WC. 

However, although my pH remains stable (7.4 today) my KH is dropping and today's reading was only 2.8 or 3.36 (depending if I counted 5 drops which was JUST turning yellowish or 6 drops which properly turned it yellow).  Over a period of about a week it's gone from 5.04, then 4.48 and now 3.36 (or 2.8 if I'm being over-cautious).

Tonight my readings are:

Amm   0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 5
pH  7.4
KH  3.36 (or 2.

I haven't added any more of the remineralisation salts since 7th June and the pH seems to be holding its own, but should I be concerned about the dropping KH?  Is it low KH or low pH that can stall the cycle?  Or both?  Because I've had nitrites (couple of times been definitely purple-y) and now appear to have some nitrates, does that mean it's unlikely to stall as it IS doing something?  Lots of questions - AGAIN 

And how long do I have to have readings of Amm 0 and Nitrites 0 with some Nitrates before I can consider it cycled (can you tell I'm dying to get a couple more fish, lol).

When I popped in our local MA (didn't know there was one nearby until I went to the garden centre and discovered it!), the guy there said my KH would always be low as it was in the whole of our area.  If the pH stays stable, can I leave off the remineralisation salts?  I still don't really understand the connection/differences between KH and pH     

Oh, by the way, I took a water sample to MA 10 days ago and he said he thought I was being too cautious with my readings, and he said there were nitrates then and my amm was 0.  I'd been reading the amm as 0.25 but when I did a benchmark test on my tap water, the colour was exactly the same as the tank sample and since my water board website reading for amm is very low, I've since read it as 0. 

Sorry this post is a bit dis-jointed but I kept remembering bits of information that I thought might be relevant to any answers and/or advice you can give.

Thanks for your patience!

Liz