Quote Originally Posted by urbanfarmer
Quote Originally Posted by wh33t
Am I correct in understanding that "nitrites" are what drops your PH very quickly? It seems like anytime I test for nitrite and actually read more than zero my PH has already fallen a few points.
Generally, no.

It is possible, however, but very, VERY, unlikely. Let's not explore this any further.

An enormous amount of nitrification can cause a significant pH change. Am I correct in assuming you are still pouring ammonium in the system?

If not, it could be all the urine you put in. Remember, your kit only reads up to 8 ppm ammonia/um. If it was 800 ppm or 8 ppm, it wouldn't know the difference. Just give it time. The egg shells will help.
The very first time I added urine into the system of course the whole system went haywire. The ammonia levels dropped back to 0ppm and then the nitrites went sky high and then eventually so did the nitrates. All was good for a day or two, but now my nitrates are dropping off again and my fish still aren't producing the waste I require them too! I need more fish but they are still mysteriously dying (and yet I have about 12 that seem to be fine?!).

So I peed in it again, the ammonia levels rose to about 2ppm and now I have nitrites in there showing on the test tube. The PH moved from 6.6 to 6.2 over night which is probably acceptable but once again I have noticed that the Ph moved down when the nitrites moved up! I thought I was witnessing some kind of pattern.