Chemicals

Question
Hey Christy,
Ive been reading lots of articles on cloudy young tanks and most all the articles tell me not to add chemicals during the staging process to make sure the proper bacteria grow and what not.

My question is,
will adding things like ammolock and perfect ph 7.0 hurt the cycling process? my ph is wayyy too low and my ammonia is wayyy to high. I make sure to condition my tap water before putting it in the tank. Its a 29gallon with 2 tiger barbs and a pleco. I do 20% water changes 3x a week. What do i do to keep my fish alive and allow my tank to cycle?

Answer
Hi Chris
You really want to try to stay away from using chemicals when ever possible.  A lot of times they'll just mask problems rather then finding the source of the problem.  Obviously, if you have city water, you need to use a dechlorinator, but that's really the only chemical product you should be using in a tank.

Good news....when your ph is below 7.0, ammonia is converted to a non toxic form-I think it's called ammonium-could be wrong on that name.  So, I would go ahead and just do weekly water changes at this point, and monitor your ph to make sure it's staying stable, and start watching for nitrites.  What temperature is the tank at?

Once you start showing nitrites, then I would start with daily water changes to help dilute them in the water.  Also when nitrites show up, start adding a small amount of aquarium salt to the tank.  Plecos don't particularly like salt, but can deal with a small amount of a short period of time.  When nitrites are present, it inhibits the fish's ability to absorb oxygen into their blood stream.  Something with the salt allows the oxygen to absorb.  I would recommend 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons, dissolve it first in a bucket of tank water, and add it slowly over the course of the day so the fish can adjust to it.  Also salt does not evaporate with water.  It's only removed when you physically remove water from the tank.  Just keep that in mind when you do water changes/add new salt so the salt level doesn't get too high.  Those daily water changes and the salt are really the only thing that'll help keep your fish alive and still allow the tank to cycle.  Plecos aren't the best fish to use to cycle with, so keep a close eye on him.  Might need to rehome him temporarily.

For the ammo lock, because of what I mentioned above, I wouldn't use it.  I also remember when I first started out years ago, a lot of people had a lot of negative things to say about it.  Like when I said about not dealing with the problem in a tank, it's just masking the source of the ammonia problem.  Plus, it doesn't actually remove the ammonia, so you'll still get readings on the test kit that there's ammonia present, and you won't know if it's accurate or not.  So I always steered clear of it.  Best bet in that situation with ammonia present is to just do water changes.

For the ph chemical, I'd also advise not using that.  What happens with those chemicals(ph up/down/neutral)is it may adjust the ph temporarily, but since there's nothing added to buffer the water along with it, it'll usually crash or rise back to where it was originally.  
What's your current ph reading in the tank?  Most fish, including the ones you have, can live perfectly fine with ph in the range of 6.0-8.0, even slightly over or below those amounts with no problems.  Do this test, get a glass/cup of water from the tap and test the ph.  Let it sit out for about 12 hours and test it again.  Let me know what those totals are compared to your tank.  If they're the same, you're probably best leaving it, unless it's really dramatic.  If the test from the glass is different then the tank, then we'll need to address that something in the tank is most likely lowering the ph.  For example driftwood will usually lower the ph.  But for now, just leave the ph in the tank alone until the ammonia disappears.  

Christy