Cycling My Tank

[mickywelsh]

Just wondering, how many times, if at all, should i do water changes while cycling my tank??

Thanks

 

[waterdrop]

Depends on whether you're doing a fishless cycle or a fish-in cycle.

If you are in a fish-in cycling situation your goal is to figure out a pattern of percentage and frequency of water changes that keeps your ammonia and nitrite(NO2) (as tested with a liquid-reagent-based test kit) as close to zero as possible, with a rise in either toxin to no more than 0.25ppm prior to your next opportunity to be home and do another test and water change. If you are very lightly stocked you may be able to go 2 or 3 days without a change. If you are heavily stocked you may need more than one large change a day. On average it takes about a month or 6 weeks of following your pattern for the filter to cycle.

If you are in a fishless cycle then its better to resist water changes until you have a pending (or realized) pH crash, or your nitrates get extremely high, such as 160ppm neighborhood. Its important to be testing pH along with ammonia and nitrite(NO2). Testing can be limited to daily ammonia and pH the first week, perhaps adding nitrite(NO2) to that the second week, then switching to twice daily of the 3 tests somewhere around the time of the nitrite(NO2) spike phase. If you have extreme trouble with your pH crashing then it helps to acquire and become familiar with a KH test kit. But in general, water changes are avoided until the final phase where you are just waiting for the last N-Bacs to grow out. If you are just waiting on the N-Bacs to get down to processing in 12 hours and you have a lot of nitrate(NO3), then weekly gravel cleans with 90% water changes and then recharging with ammonia will help.

(sorry, didn't mean for that to be overload , that's why we genenally around to help)
~~waterdrop~~

 

[mickywelsh]

so basically..... if i put some Danio's in now (4 days) and do water changes every 3 days... (say 25%) it should take about 4-6 weeks??? before i can add decent fish?

Cheers

 

[oswoldy]

so basically..... if i put some Danio's in now (4 days) and do water changes every 3 days... (say 25%) it should take about 4-6 weeks??? before i can add decent fish?

Cheers

Would it not be easier to do a fishLESS cycle as it takes about the same amount of time and will work out cheaper than both A. Losing Fish and B. Changing all that water and making the waterboard think you have leak

Just my opinion.

Mike

 

[mickywelsh]

my tanks only 2 foot, plus it means buying a £20 test kit...

 

[oswoldy]

my tanks only 2 foot, plus it means buying a £20 test kit...

My tank is also only 2ft. You should have a test kit anyway so you can check if the water is 'safe' for the fish. The API kits are £20 but you get 800 odd tests you could prob get one for less of ebay though if you have a look fishkeeping should not and need not be a guessing game.

A quick ebay search returned http/shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_trk...-All-Categories

Mike

 

[mickywelsh]

i didnt mean not checking, i meant i was gonna take a sample down the LFS every week till it was stable to put other fish in....?

still not recommended?

 

[oswoldy]

i didnt mean not checking, i meant i was gonna take a sample down the LFS every week till it was stable to put other fish in....?

still not recommended?

Im new to this myself so take everything I say with a pinch of salt but in my limited experience, it will be better/cheaper for you to get a kit and do it yourself rather than driving/busing/walking to the LFS once a week to get a test done, plus they may not test it correctly as they will be wanting to serve someone to make a sale so will rush either that or the COULD fib a little just to get you to buy some fish.

DISCLAIMER: Im not saying this happens at LFS again this is just my thinking

Mike

 

[mickywelsh]

taking it into account, ill probably get a kit then....

working out expensive this, more than i expected lol

 

[oswoldy]

taking it into account, ill probably get a kit then....

working out expensive this, more than i expected lol

These things always are look on the brightside though at least YOU will know how your tank functions rather than relying on an LFS and if you think something maybe wrong it will take 5mins to test rather than having to make a trip.

Im currently cycling my tank with household Ammonia bought from Homebase cost me £1.99 for a 500ml bottle and considering 5ml for my 125L tank is enough to get me to 4/5ppm of Ammonia it may last a while !

Maybe worth waiting for Waterdrop or someone to reply though just incase im talking sh..

Mike

 

[fatheadminnow]

so basically..... if i put some Danio's in now (4 days) and do water changes every 3 days... (say 25%) it should take about 4-6 weeks??? before i can add decent fish?

Cheers

You NEED a test kit, a liquid one for that matter (API makes good ones) so you can test your water parameters, especially Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and pH

If you add fish to do a fish-in cycle, you need to take water reading of your parameters everyday, and when ammonia and/or nitrite is above .25ppm, you NEED to do a water change to bring that back down. As anything reading in ammonia or nitrite over .25ppm is toxic to fish and it can make their lungs burn and turn red, and shorten their lives, or straight up kill them right away

That is why we recommend doing a fishless cycle. This way you will be saving on water, and you could be saving some little fishys life.

But if you add the Danios, you have to check your water parameters everyday until you are cycled, and when ever the ammonia and/or nitrite is above .25 ppm do a water change to bring back down close to zero. And eventually beneficial bacteria will colonize enough in your filter to take care of the ammonia and nitrite.

-FHM

 

[oswoldy]

so basically..... if i put some Danio's in now (4 days) and do water changes every 3 days... (say 25%) it should take about 4-6 weeks??? before i can add decent fish?

Cheers

You NEED a test kit, a liquid one for that matter (API makes good ones) so you can test your water parameters, especially Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and pH

If you add fish to do a fish-in cycle, you need to take water reading of your parameters everyday, and when ammonia and/or nitrite is above .25ppm, you NEED to do a water change to bring that back down. As anything reading in ammonia or nitrite over .25ppm is toxic to fish and it can make their lungs burn and turn red, and shorten their lives, or straight up kill them right away

That is why we recommend doing a fishless cycle. This way you will be saving on water, and you could be saving some little fishys life.

But if you add the Danios, you have to check your water parameters everyday until you are cycled, and when ever the ammonia and/or nitrite is above .25 ppm do a water change to bring back down close to zero. And eventually beneficial bacteria will colonize enough in your filter to take care of the ammonia and nitrite.

-FHM

Yeh thats what I ment!

 

[fatheadminnow]

so basically..... if i put some Danio's in now (4 days) and do water changes every 3 days... (say 25%) it should take about 4-6 weeks??? before i can add decent fish?

Cheers

You NEED a test kit, a liquid one for that matter (API makes good ones) so you can test your water parameters, especially Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and pH

If you add fish to do a fish-in cycle, you need to take water reading of your parameters everyday, and when ammonia and/or nitrite is above .25ppm, you NEED to do a water change to bring that back down. As anything reading in ammonia or nitrite over .25ppm is toxic to fish and it can make their lungs burn and turn red, and shorten their lives, or straight up kill them right away

That is why we recommend doing a fishless cycle. This way you will be saving on water, and you could be saving some little fishys life.

But if you add the Danios, you have to check your water parameters everyday until you are cycled, and when ever the ammonia and/or nitrite is above .25 ppm do a water change to bring back down close to zero. And eventually beneficial bacteria will colonize enough in your filter to take care of the ammonia and nitrite.

-FHM

Yeh thats what I ment!

I just read your mind and said it before you did...lol.

-FHM

 

[oswoldy]

I just read your mind and said it before you did...lol.

-FHM

Thats truely amazing!

 

[fatheadminnow]

I just read your mind and said it before you did...lol.

-FHM

Thats truely amazing!

"I have a very particular set of skills!" lol

That is a quote form that new movie Taken that was just in theaters here in the US.

-FHM