[MurkyWanders]

Hi everyone, I'm new around here. I have a 15 Gallon Fluval Flex, planted with some driftwood and a piece of dragonstone, the PH is buffered down to and stable at 6-6.1, through re-mineralized distilled water changes every couple of weeks. I cannot use the extremely hard and sulfurous water from my well. The tank is now over a month old using the fishless start method, dosing the Ammonia to 3ppm, tank kept at a stable 78 degrees and with the use of Fritz turbostart bought from the LFS fridge in the beginning. I understand the NH3 is being converted to NH4+ by the low PH water and being taken up by the plants gradually, but what I am not seeing at all is Nitrites. Even with the Nitrifying bacteria being only ~10% efficient (as per some sources) at 6-6.1PH I feel like I should be seeing some nitrites in my water by now. I would like to keep my stratum's buffering ability as intact as possible for the future of the tank, so I would prefer not to offset it by supplementing KH. I am interested in the process / timeline and method others with low PH buffered tanks have used to achieve a stable cycle. Thank you for your time and guidance.

Edit: And if anyone happens to recognize the buildup on my silicone, I'd love to know what it is! It looks like bacterial colonies to me, but it is unsightly.

-Murky W.

 

[MurkyWanders]

Your tank may already have had a nitrite spike. It could have happened in a matter of hours such that you would not have been able to detect it if you were testing every day. If that's the case, you'll know your tank is 'cycled' once it can process a fixed concentration of ammonia (3PPM, for example) within a 24 hour period with no detectible nitrite.

I've tested this theory, and the ammonia is still present at near the same level as when it was dosed to ~3ppm a couple days afterwards, with no nitrites. It's taking upwards of a week to dissipate, which I believe is just the plants uptaking the NH4+ I don't think I've reached nitrification, but could definitely be wrong.

I will stop any water changes in an attempt to edge the PH upwards as per your advice on the matter.

When you cycle at low PH and low temp how long does it usually take for you? I'm not really that impatient with this, I like the idea of my plants filling in some before stocking the tank, but I do want to make sure I'm giving it the best opportunity for success that I can. The tank still seems pretty sterile to me, and that seems strange in comparison to my tanks years ago that were much much simpler (think petco gravel and a shipwreck with a cartridge HOB).

Luckily the plants are all doing well, except the Val, but I'm having second thoughts on keeping it in there anyway.


Thanks for helping me out Somewhatshocked!

 

[MurkyWanders]

I really want to use fluval stratum. I have a question on this same topic. if I set up the tank and use RO water and just remineralize GH and add no Kh to the RO water, what will the PH settle at?

Mine has calmed down and settled right at 6ph, though it has gone as low as 5.7

Although I've had tanks cycle faster, the average cycle time in my tanks in the past, has been 2 months before I can ad fish.
Everybody's water is different, so there is no hard and fast, one size fits all rule (even with remineralized RO).
When Ammonia and nitrite are both immediately neutralized, and you start to see a nitrate, that's the time to start a regular water change routine.
My last tank never went thru a cycle, but it had heavy planting right from the start, and used seasoned substrate and decor like sunken seasoned wood.
View attachment 1052285
Although I must admit I didn't add any important fish species for around 6 weeks after initial set up and planting.

The tank is eating ammonia slowly, so I'm just going to let it mature and re dose to 2ppm here and there. I want the plants to root and grow out some before I add a fish anyway. I have yet to see any Nitrite, but as our Admin friend said, maybe that stage has already come and gone. I dunno. I still haven't mastered DGH when using distilled water, and trying to aim for a certain value, 6 in this case. I'm using Equillibrium, and dosing it properly has been difficult. Between test strips and my TDS meter I'm just confusing myself more. Lol