Fish in cycle help

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Galvin88

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Hey guys
I'm currently around 2 weeks into a fish in cycle, iv had the fish in since Christmas eve.
My Tank size is 237 ltr
my water parameters are
ammonia between 0 and. 0.25
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
My question is should I do any water changes or do I leave it untill my ammonia and nitrites rise.

Thanks for any help
 
Water changes should be done whenever ammonia or nitrite read above zero. However, there can be a bit of leeway for ammonia, depending on the pH of the tank water. Water changes still need to be done but depending on the pH, it may be possible to allow ammonia to rise a little.
Ammonia exists in two forms in water, toxic ammonia and non-toxic ammonium, and the amount in each form varies with pH. At low pH there is virtually none on the toxic form while at high pH even a tiny amount of ammonia contains a fair amount of the toxic form. The first part of this link deals with the levels that are acceptable at varying pH during fish-in cycling

But there is no non-toxic form of nitrite. Once that shows up you will need to keep it at zero by water changes - or use the somewhat complicated calculation in the second part of that link for using salt to protect against nitrite.



You don't mention plants. Live plants take up ammonia as fertiliser, and they don't turn it into nitrite or nitrate. Fast growing and floatig plants are better at taking up ammonia than slow growing plants. If you don't already have live plants, even something like a few bunches of eldoea left to float will help to keep the fish safe.
 
Water changes should be done whenever ammonia or nitrite read above zero. However, there can be a bit of leeway for ammonia, depending on the pH of the tank water. Water changes still need to be done but depending on the pH, it may be possible to allow ammonia to rise a little.
Ammonia exists in two forms in water, toxic ammonia and non-toxic ammonium, and the amount in each form varies with pH. At low pH there is virtually none on the toxic form while at high pH even a tiny amount of ammonia contains a fair amount of the toxic form. The first part of this link deals with the levels that are acceptable at varying pH during fish-in cycling

But there is no non-toxic form of nitrite. Once that shows up you will need to keep it at zero by water changes - or use the somewhat complicated calculation in the second part of that link for using salt to protect against nitrite.



You don't mention plants. Live plants take up ammonia as fertiliser, and they don't turn it into nitrite or nitrate. Fast growing and floatig plants are better at taking up ammonia than slow growing plants. If you don't already have live plants, even something like a few bunches of eldoea left to float will help to keep the fish safe.
Thanks for the reply and the link.
I don't have any plants at the moment apart from fake ones, so I will look into buying some and get them in
 

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