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