My Tank Is Finally Cycling! Yippee!

[vcmtik]

Hi everyone.

After 2 months of a fish-in cycle, it has finally established. My readings have been consistently Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Ph 7.4.

Now that it is cycled, I believe that it's the nitrate readings I need to watch. It is currently sitting at 10ppm.

When should I do my next water change and approximately how much? I don't want to overdo it or neglect it - now that I have sorted it!!

 

[JustFrozen]

from what i've read, complications start happening to fish at about 30 ppm, but i would stay well below that to be safe

 

[vcmtik]

bump

 

[ellena]

Most fish can live with quite high nitrate. If you just keep on top of weekly changes it should be fine What size is the tank?

 

[vcmtik]

It's 4ft, and holds approx 110l.

 

[OldMan47]

10 ppm of nitrates is not a problem at all. Try doing a 20% weekly water change and just monitor the nitrates. If they stay below 20 ppm, you are doing enough for almost any fish we keep.

 

[waterdrop]

Agree, its important to establish the habit of a good gravel-clean-water-change each week. It should be at least 20% (my feeling is that experienced fishkeepers often end up somewhere between 15% and 50% depending on various factors) and the gravel-cleaning being good is more important than artificially limiting the amount of water changed.

A good filter cleaning habit for beginners to start with is once a month or when the flow lessens if that comes sooner.

Regular nitrate(NO3) test results over time can help you fine tune your percentage of water to change weekly and the frequency your filter cleaning should be. If the nitrate(NO3) is staying quite low (at 5 or 10ppm above whatever your tap water nitrate is) then these maintenance amounts should be enough. If the nitrate pushes on up to 20ppm or more above your tap water level, or nitritae in general just keeps creeping up, then that's a sign to increase your maintenance a bit.

~~waterdrop~~