stalite washing, grading and volume

[George]

TCL, you were correct that a ton of stalite will fill two 100 gal stock tanks and about half of another.  Also, quite a lot of fines graded out, 1/3 of a tank, maybe 1/2 - a lot.  I've washed 1 1/2 tons thus far and have another ton or so to go.  It's a lot of work and I'm grateful that I must do it only once. 

The Quiet One pump, indexing valve and timer are all working perfectly.  Thanks.

George

 

 

[TCLynx]

George, I'm gonna take a gamble here and guess that initially you may want to add some acid into your system to help counteract the high pH the Stalite initialy has.  I just uploaded a youtube video of a fizz test I did comparing the brown river rock and the stalite.  And when Stalite sent me info on the results of their pH tests, it seemed to indicate that initially the stalite will keep the pH high but as the system acidifies the pH should come down though I would be tempted to help it along a bit if you don't have any fish or plants in yet, it might be helpful to add enough acid to get the pH down into the mid 7 range.

 

How much acid that would require will as depend on your source water.  My well water requires at least a 1/2 oz of muratic acid per 50 gallons of fresh well water to counteract the calcium carbonate in the well water and then I'm sure it would require some amount of acid to counteract the initial alkalinity of the Stalite kiln dust.

[George]

PH is 8.0 - can high PH affect the presence of ammonia in the water?  Still getting clear ammonia test, not the 0 test color on the chart.  Haven't had time to arrange a different test.  I'd hoped that some nitrification would begin to take place which would bring down the PH.

TCLynx said:

George, I'm gonna take a gamble here and guess that initially you may want to add some acid into your system to help counteract the high pH the Stalite initialy has.

[TCLynx]

Patience.

For the nitrification to bring pH down it generally takes 3-5 weeks before you see that effect much.  I normally notice that pH drop about the time the nitrite spike comes down.

 

Are you adding both ammonia re-agents (8 drops) in order, shaking the test tube and then waiting the 5 minutes before reading the test?  I notice mine doesn't go yellow right away when I add the drops.  I have to shake it then wait before the yellow shows.

[George]

Both?  I believe you may have touched on the problem.  Will try again.

TCLynx said:

Are you adding both ammonia re-agents (8 drops) in order, shaking the test tube and then waiting the 5 minutes before reading the test? 

[George]

I didn't read the directions carefully enough to say the least.  The color stabilized matching 8ppm.   Will PH 8 hinder the bacteria and will the high ammonia hinder the bacteria?

Geoge said:

Both?  I believe you may have touched on the problem.  Will try again.

TCLynx said:

Are you adding both ammonia re-agents (8 drops) in order, shaking the test tube and then waiting the 5 minutes before reading the test? 

[TCLynx]

An ammonia level over 8 ppm could hinder the cycling a bit but at least you are still reading ammonia.  You might want to do a partial water change to see if you can get the ammonia to drop to more like 4 so that you actually know it's below 8 and not somewhere way off the chart.

 

The bacteria generally seem to be fine with a pH of 8, it's the plants that really won't like the really high pH.  Since you have just started, you might want to try and bring the pH down to say 7.6 with some muratic or pool acid and then continue cycling and let it come down further naturally.

[George]

Stalite PH - my system water was was initially high, 8.0 but almost a month into cycling the PH is falling as the ammonia falls.

To anyone interested in using the 1/2 inch Stalite available in bulk here in Jacksonville, I washed and graded over 2 1/2 tons of it to fill 600 gallons of beds, grading out approximately 100 gallons of fines.  If I had it to do again, I'd give more thought  to  acquiring 3/4 inch, even if it meant renting a truck and driving to the closest bulk facility carrrying it.