Cycling - Should I Do A Water Change?

[JollieMollie]

:laugh: I'm sorry ! At the forum I used to frequent, they were very picky about psam and if someone started a new thread to ask a closely related question, they would combine the threads. (-: My apologies, it takes a little while to get used to the unique etiquette on each forum. Thanks for the tip, as well as for explaining my question.

Southern Cross, you have my apologies. (-: I love topics like this that chronical someone's journey of setting up a new tank or starting any other hobby. I hope all turns out well for you!

 

[SouthernCross]

Hey JollieMollie! No apology needed, I don't mind your jumping in at all! I'm not a grumpy one - if my post is helping us all learn thats all that matters! I was starting to think no one was paying my post any attention anyway! Its nice to 'meet' you, I'm guessing you're starting out now too? I've gotten very into the fish thing now, trying my best to do it right!

Big thankyou to jonesyUK and vinylman also!

Ok, back to my tank....
I did about a 30% change after doing my tests yesterday, and have just retested today...

PH - 7.2-7.3 (Which has dropped a bit, I'm guessing due to the new water but I didn't do anything else to it so I'm just going to leave it the hell alone anyway!)
Ammonia - Nearly 0.5 still (Bout the same, maybe slightly less)
Nitrite - 0.5 - 1.0 (This was definitely higher than yesterday even after the water change...)
Nitrate - 0 (Still. )

Another couple of quick questions

About how long should it take until I'm getting nitrate?
Is the nitrite going to keep going up quite high? At what level of nitrite would it start getting really dangerous for my fish, and should it even get that high?
Is using the higher dose of dechlorinator going to affect my bacteria and cycling? I used the lower dose for this last water change but I'm still not sure...vinylman, do you not use dechlorinator on your tapwater then?

I'll do 10-20% water changes every 2 days then. I'll use the stress zyme til its gone, (not much left anyway) then I won't bother with it anymore. I scraped the algae off the glass but I won't fret over that too much either, see if it comes under control later. My plants look a bit gross with the brown patches though, so next time I'm near the LFS I'll pick up a few more to add in. I don't have any fertiliser either, so I'll grab some of that.

Thanks again

 

[vinylman]

Hi again,
I've never heard of dechlorinator altering ph; you say you've been using it in different doses. Always stick to the instructions on the bottle. I ALWAYS use dechlorinator. Over the last year or so, I've been preparing the water in buckets the night before a water change, just to make sure the dechlorinator has had plenty of time to do it's thing. Water changes are like decorating - it's all in the preparation!. BTW, when you do a water change use boiled kettle water to bring the new water to (roughly) the same temperature as the tank water.

 

[Jozlyn]

What part of Australia are you in?

Always use water conditioner, most water in Australia contains chloramine, which will not evaporate, I always make sure I have an extra bottle on hand as I live so far from the LFS. The water conditioner will not be dangerous to your fish, providing you only use the amount suggested.

If you're really worried about your ph levels, add a small amount (1/4 teaspoon or less) of the downer when you do a water change of 25% or more, this will not affect your fish and will slowly, slowly lower your ph until it gets to where you want it.

It's also a good idea to run a set of tests on your tap water now and then so that you have a comparison.

As for your plants, what have you got? Many of the plants sold at LFS's are NOT aquatic plants but are in fact bog plants, they may live for a few weeks or months but in the end they'll die. The biggest culprits I've found here are the Aluminum plant and Purple waffle, they both look lovely, but they will die. Get yourself some java fern, elodea and/or vallisneria, they're just about bullet proof as far as plants go.

Good luck

 

[SouthernCross]

Oh, I've been using dechlorinator everytime, following the instructions, just that on the bottle it says to remove just chlorine and detoxify metals use 1 drop per US gallon, and to detoxify chloramines (break the chloramine bond) use 3 drops per gallon. I had been using the stronger dose except for this last time. I wasnt sure if dechlorinator affected establishing bacteria? I thought I'd read that somewhere but I may have got it confused with something else - been reading too much stuff!

Jozlyn, I'm in the Newcastle/Lake Mac area of NSW. Since you've said most of Australia has chloramine though I'll go back to the stronger dose. Although we do have a filtered tap (that we use for our drinking water) and I've been filling the tank from that. However, I'm not sure exactly WHAT it filters out (tastes loads better though!) so I might play it safe and keep using the 3 drops/gallon of dechlorinator. I'll see what ph the water is coming out of the tap later for a comparison. I'm not hugely worried about it, I read most livebearers like their water slightly more alkaline anyway. In terms of plants, the ones I know I have are a big bunch of hydrophila polysperma which just grows like crazy, keep having to cut it off and replant it (but it means I can't hurt it too much ) an amazon sword, and another fern with big broad flat leaves that I haven't got an ID on yet. I'm about to put some more in though so I'll add those to the list later. My LFS actually advised me against the red/purple ones, they said they are mostly just if you want some decoration for awhile cos theyl only last about 6 months. Sounds like they actually gave some good advice for once!

vinylman, I was just wondering about you because in your previous post you said all you put in your tank is water, fish, plants, and fertiliser! Obviously you meant you do treat your water first then. I don't leave my water sitting around in the buckets, but I do add it as its filling so hopefully it gets mixed inwhile its filling the buckets.

Anybody got answers for my nitrite/nitrate questions?

 

[Jozlyn]

Jeeze you're lucky! My LFS will sell me anything I want with narry a question!