pbmax
Active Member
The nitrogen cycle produces acid. Depending on the buffering capacity of your water (KH), you may or may not experience a drop in PH depending on how much nitrogenous waste is being processed in your tank (ammonia, primarily). The KH of the drinking water supply around here is pretty low - mine is at about 5 dGHKH (community well); City of Lacey water is at about 3.
Adding some floating plants to your tank along with decent lighting to support them will help smooth out the cycle. Aquatic plant can directly take up nitrogenous waste in all of its forms (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate) and floating plants are particularly adept at this because they are exposed to the air and not limited by CO2.
Personally, I've only really cycled a tank twice - once with my first tank and once with an amazonia tank and pure R.O. water. Thanks to eco-complete, my first tank cycled within a week with nothing else added but a few plants. The rest of my tanks have insta-cycled thanks to plant density and a bit of a kick from some used filter media. The amazonia tank never did cycle until I added some tap water...woops.
Edit: Another oops! I stated my water has GH of about 5 degrees; I meant KH. my GH is at about 4 degrees.
Adding some floating plants to your tank along with decent lighting to support them will help smooth out the cycle. Aquatic plant can directly take up nitrogenous waste in all of its forms (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate) and floating plants are particularly adept at this because they are exposed to the air and not limited by CO2.
Personally, I've only really cycled a tank twice - once with my first tank and once with an amazonia tank and pure R.O. water. Thanks to eco-complete, my first tank cycled within a week with nothing else added but a few plants. The rest of my tanks have insta-cycled thanks to plant density and a bit of a kick from some used filter media. The amazonia tank never did cycle until I added some tap water...woops.
Edit: Another oops! I stated my water has GH of about 5 degrees; I meant KH. my GH is at about 4 degrees.