Fish In Cycle Water Changes

[puppyjess123]

How often and what amount of water do I need to change?

 

[Gvilleguy]

Most threads I have read recommend 50% daily water changes to start with, and monitor daily to see how well that is lowering the ammonia and nitrite levels. Then you can increase if needed.

 

[fluttermoth]

You really need to be testing your water every day with a good liquid test kit. Any time you get a reading for ammonia or nitrite that's over zero, you need to do a large enough water change, or a series of changes, to get it as near to zero as you can.

So, if you have an ammonia reading of 1ppm (lets hope you never do, but with a fish in cycle it could happen) a 50% water change would reduce it to 0.5ppm; a 75% change would bring it down to 0.25ppm, so you'd want to do a 90% change to get it down to 0.1ppm, or two of 50%. Does that make sense?!

You might need to test more than once a day, depending on the size of your tank and the amount of fish in it; is it the tank in your sig? If it is, then you do have quite a lot of fish so be prepared for twice a day testing and quite possibly twice daily water changes too (sorry; hope you've got lots of buckets and a strong back!)

 

[lilfishie]

depends on the tank size and stocking

 

[puppyjess123]

Well its 12 gallons with 2 goldfish. I can't afford a test kit, so I think im just going to stick to 50% water changes each day as it seems to have worked so far

 

[fishnovice]

Well its 12 gallons with 2 goldfish. I can't afford a test kit, so I think im just going to stick to 50% water changes each day as it seems to have worked so far

I'm afraid 12 gallon tank is far too small for goldfish as even fancies grow to at least 8in and common goldies can reach 18in. You must get a larger tank, at least 3ft long if you plan on keeping the goldfish. In the meantime keep up the daily 50% water changes as you said and increase the amount of water changed if goldfish show any signs of distress esp gasping for air at the surface which is a danger sign that needs immediate water change.
You can buy API test kits on Ebay for £15. Or ask you local fish shop where you bought hte goldfish to test the water for you at least weekly.

Where do you live? There may be another forum member in your area who can let you have a small piece of sponge from their old filter to speed up your cycling process.