my new water.

[Sam]

ive been scyling my new tank for about 3 days now. the dkh is on 3. and my ph is still high. aprox 7.5 - 8.
any comments or advice on this???
is the dkh okay? and will the ph naturally get lower or will i need to do somthing to change it?
thanks.

[goldenpigeon]

you will know it is cycled when there are no nitrates... u work at SLS dont u?

[Sam]

i know all about cycling and yes work there, but what im asking is about the ph and dkh??

[goldenpigeon]

ph needs to be at about 6.6 - 7.0. i dont know much about dkh because my water is perfect out of the tap

[Bill T.]

I don't remeber where I read this but, if you have any kH you will have a pH greater than 7.0.
I used to use kH as a pH buffer but no longer do so. Even when i wanted to lower pH I couldn't. Doesn't matter how much pH "down" chemicals you use, the kH bumps the pH back up again.
Takes a while for the kH to get used up - wc may help, but in my experience, it just took time.
After some advice from this site, I switched to using shell grit as a buffer, and now get approx. 6.8pH readings.

[Sam]

very interesting advice thank you.
so in other words i just need to wait for the ph to go down itself?
how long do u think it will take approx?

[dreamer]

im not sure about dh and kh as i never bother about them, sydney water seems to fine for my discus.

but im sure in fully cycled tank nitrate should be present you need to do large wc to reduce nitrate before adding any fish. another thing is your ph doesn't need to be within the range of 6.6-7.0 thats just myth.

[jim from sydney]

Sam.....why is your pH so high anyway????? from the Sydney tap it is 7.1 to-day.....which is fine for discus (unless you are breeding)....i would do a BIG water change in your case....run for a day or two and check....only change 1 thing at the time....Jim

[Sam]

my tank is only 3 days old still cycling. is it safe to do a water change at this time?

[Merrilyn]

Sam, just let it go for now. Don't do any waterchanges, it will just take longer for the tank to cycle.

Are you doing a fishless cycle? Or what are you using to cycle the tank.