Ph Readings Confusion

[Lily]

Hi everyone..newbie to the board here.  

I'm cycling a 10 gallon tank with some zebra danios and test the water daily. I added floss and some gravel from one of my healthy established tanks to the filter to start the cycle. My test kit contains a regular Ph reading and a High Range Ph reading.  I have used both and got different Ph readings so I'm not sure exactly what my Ph level is.

Yesterday the regular Ph test registered at 7.6
The High Range Ph registered at 8.2
(btw: my tap water has a Ph of 7.4)

Which one is accurate and which one should I believe?  ???

After day #11 my other readings are as follows:

ammonia: 0.5 ppm
nitrites: 0.25 ppm
nitrates: 0.50 ppm
temp: 78 degrees
water: clear and clean with small amount of algae growing on plastic plants and substrate
fish condition: active, eating and showing no signs of stress or illness so far.

I'd really like to know which Ph level is accurate. Thanks in advance for advice and help.  

Lily

 

[JWright]

Your pH is probably somewhere in the high 7 range (7.6 is probably pretty close), I wouldn't worry about it though. Some people make pH out to be a much bigger deal than it is, so ong as it's stable, you'll be fine.

Next time, consider fishless cycling your tank, ammonia and nitrite poisoning is no fun for your fish.

Josh

 

[Lily]

Thanks Josh.  Believe it or not, I did start this tank with a fishless/ammonia cycle.  It turned into a disaster.  Couldn't find pure (unscented) ammonia and used another kind that I eventually had to rinse out of the tank completely.  I got frustrated and gave up, going the tried and true method of using fish.  Just so you know...even if it drags out my cycling an extra month or two, I never let my fish suffer from high ammonia or nitrite levels.  I do small water changes once or twice a week to keep them happy and healthy.  To me, the extra time is worth it to save my aquatic friends that misery.

Patience is a virtue....

Lily

 

[ronrca]

Unscented ammonia? I used the no name brand 'pure ammonia'. It was nowhere near unscented. You can find it in big grocery stores. Check the ingredients to make sure it does not contain anything else.

 

[Lily]

Sorry...what I meant was all I could find was lemon-scented or sudsing ammonia, and believe me I went kinda nuts driving all over looking for pure ammonia finding none.  I then used the lemon-scented ammonia (this was my first attempt at a fishless cycle) only to find out that this wouldn't work and would be disasterous for the fish I eventually put in the tank.  That's when I had to empty the tank, rinse everything over and over, replace the filter cartridge, tubing, etc., and then begin again.  

After two weeks of looking for and finding no pure ammonia (with no added ingredients or perfumes) I got frustrated and went with my tried and true method of using fish.  

 

[JWright]

Heh, yeah, "unscented" ammonia is a bit of a misnomer. Naturally ammonia is going to smell like ammonia, but any additional scents that might be added could be harmful to your fish.

Finding "pure" ammonia can be tough, I use Top Crest Brand, but that might be a local thing.

BTW, some people disagree with me, but I don't think mid-cycle water changes affect the cycle time in the least.

Josh

 

[Lily]

In my own personal experience I have found that mid-cycle water changes do slow down the process a bit, (depending on how much you exchange or vacuum) but not enough to forgo saving your fish from toxic levels of ammonia and nitrites. I'd rather drag it out a big, do some water changes and keep my fish happy and healthy.  Since doing this I've never lost any fish to cycling.

Lily

 

[JWright]

Well, I've only cycled twice with fish, once with regular water changes, and once without. There was no appreciable difference in cycling time (I know that's a lousy sample size).

Here's my logic on why regular water changes won't slow the cycle. I don't know much about microbiology, but I've been told that bacterial reproduction is kind of all or nothing. As long as there is excess ammonia (or nitrite), there will be bacterial division. It doesn't matter whether it's .25 ppm or 5 ppm, as long as there's some excess ammonia, the bacteria will divide. So water changes to diminish the levels of ammonia and nitrite won't slow the cycle, as long as they don't remove all the ammonia.

Josh