Problem with cycling

[side19]

So my girlfriend set up a tank recently, and followed all my advice for setting it up and getting it running. well all was good until 2 weeks ago when suddenly her tank crashed so no apparent reason. i gave her new bactiera from my 20 gallon, and waited a few days to see if it would start cycling again, no luck. so i check her other tank levels and saw her pH was very low (around 6.0) and her water was very soft, which is the exact opposite of what my tank is so i figured it was chemistry shock that was killing the new bacteria. so we added some crushed coral and waited until the water parims remained stable and tried again with a fresh batch of bacteria. still no luck. so i figured it might have been oxygen deprivation becuase i noticed her cories were gulping air very frequently (i know this is normal even is oxygen is plentiful, but i figured maybe they were doing it out of need and not just habit). so we added an air stone, and tried again. now we're getting some very odd readings on the tests. ammonia is between 2 and 4 ppm, nitrites are 0, and nitrates are 5 ppm. we know the tests are accurate becuase we compared them to the store (got the same results) and tests from my tank (which came out reading like they normally do). i'm all out of ideas now. i told her to get bacteria from someone else or order dr. tims. does anyone have any other ideas what could be wrong adn how to fix her tank. right now its a 10 gallon with 4 pygmy cories and 3 female bettas.

[Nick]

Poor circulation perhaps? What kind of filter/flow.

[J-P]

what were the Gh/Kh levels?

I'm not 100% sure but I think that a low Kh makes the tank more difficult to cycle and had a direct relationship to the Ph levels.

[side19]

filter is an aqueon quiet flow 20. and i can't remember the exact number on the gh/kh but i remember it being on the higher side of the test ranger after i added the coral. i don't think the filter would be the problem though as my friend josh has the same filter and used my gravel to seed his tank as well and his cycled perfectly and hasn't crashed yet. do you think too many decorations would be decreasing the flow enough to harm the bacteria? her tank is very heavily decorated.

[RTR]

Second J_P's comments. Kh controls pH levels

Soft water is trickier to cycle - the bugs involved are not acid lovers. She would need to monitor KH routinely and record the numbers. And check and record the source water Kh level as well. The tank would need a lot of partials to keep the fish alive at those levels. Is over-feeding possible/likely?

Ammonia burns gills - fish cannot get enough oxygen easily after that problem.

[Pufferpunk]

Have her test her tap water. I'd be complaining to my water company if I was getting water like that.

[side19]

i'll tell her to test her tap water. she is doing 30% partials everyday to try and keep the ammonia down. like i said her kh is on the high side from what i remember, and there is crushed coral in the tank to help with that.

[side19]

ok, so i tested my girlfriend's tap water, 0 ammonia and a pH of 7.2. so its not her tap water. so i decided to test her tank water just for giggles before she was going to do a water change. ammonia: 0.25, nitrite: 0, nitrate: 40! the tank started cycling! out of no where, it started to cycle again! now whats confusing me is what in the world happened? did i somehow give her way more of the NO2-NO3 bacteria than ammonia-NO2? is that even possible to give more than one kind than the other? clearly both types are there, seeing as i'm getting NO3. any explanation for any of this? the tests are accurate, i checked them with mine and compared them to the store's tests. i'm glad its cycling, i'm just confused why.

[J-P]

a higher KH is good for the bugs AFAIK..

Have the test run again after 24 hours and see what is happening to that Nitrate level.

http://www.aquariumlife.net/articles/beginner/138.asp

I don't know if the numbers are 100% but I usually go by the guide that 1 ppm of ammonia doubles at each stage. That is why you see the Nitrite card reading 1/2 the values on the Nitrate card. I doubt that you could have given an excess of only one kind of bacteria.. they double in population and spread out on their own. Without a lab it would have been impossible to isolate one kind of bacteria. Anyway, knowing what the numbers are and HOW they get that way is very useful

Just keep watching those numbers until they level out