I am confused and would like some advice from anyone out there one website I came across say's you should do a 10% - 15% water change every other couple of days after you have added fish to a new tank that is cycling and it say's that if you hear not too that where ever you heard that from should be questioned and so the question is should you do any water changes durring cycling or not some say yes some say no??? any help would be apprecitated the fish I have in there are zeba danio and there are six little small ones and they are in a 15 gallon tank and have been in there for 1 week and 2 days.
Water Change Durring Cycling?
- Thread starter jeepgirl
- Start date
Daigle107
New Member
If you are doing a fish-in cycle, it is important to do a water change pretty much every day from my understanding. The point of this water change is to reduce the amount of ammonia in the water, which is poisonous to the fish you are using to cycle. The better option is a fishless cycle which I have very little experience with, but the water change is only needed at the end to reduce the amount of nitrates that have been produced by the beneficial bacteria. I can see that you are doing a fish-in cycle, so it is very important for the comfort of the fish that you do a water change to help keep the fish alive, if at all possible relocate the fish in your new tank and for the fishes' sakes switch your method to a fishless cycle.
waterdrop
Enthusiastic "Re-Beginner"
Water changes with good technique are the primary work that's done during a Fish-In Cycling Situation, which sounds like what you're in. Do you have a good liquid-reagent based test kit? This can help you tailor the size and frequency of your water changes so that you don't have to do more than is really needed, but also don't expose your fish to levels that cause damage to their tissues. Many of us like and use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit to measure ammonia, nitrite(NO2), pH and nitrate(NO3).
A water change entails gravel cleaning with the wide cylinder end of of a gravel cleaning siphon. The tap water that replaces the removed water needs to be treated with a good conditioner to remove chlorine/chloramines and should be temperature matched (your hand is good enough for this.) Testing should take place morning and night, about 12 hours apart. Your goal is to figure out what percentage and frequency of water changes will keep both ammonia and nitrite(NO2) below 0.25ppm until you can be back home again to change water. The water change will bring you down to or near zero ppm ammonia and nitrite(NO2) and then it will begin to creep back up. You want to catch it at or before either poison hits 0.25ppm and take it back down again. Does that make sense?
~~waterdrop~~
A water change entails gravel cleaning with the wide cylinder end of of a gravel cleaning siphon. The tap water that replaces the removed water needs to be treated with a good conditioner to remove chlorine/chloramines and should be temperature matched (your hand is good enough for this.) Testing should take place morning and night, about 12 hours apart. Your goal is to figure out what percentage and frequency of water changes will keep both ammonia and nitrite(NO2) below 0.25ppm until you can be back home again to change water. The water change will bring you down to or near zero ppm ammonia and nitrite(NO2) and then it will begin to creep back up. You want to catch it at or before either poison hits 0.25ppm and take it back down again. Does that make sense?
~~waterdrop~~
Yes everything you said makes perfect sense. Thank you for all your help and advice I really apprecitate it.
The others have given you excellent reasons to do large daily water changes so I'll cover the misconceptions you've enountered.
Many people, including vets and other 'experts', suggest doing small water changes very 24-48 hours, usually in the region of 10-25%. This is largely because there is a belief that large water changes do more damage to the fish than the elevated ammonia and nitrite. If water changes are conducted correctly, this is not true. There is also a belief that large water changes remove essential bacteria, thus preventing the cycle. This is also not true. Some people believe that a cycle takes considerably long if large water changes are performed due to the removal of ammonia. This is not true and would it really matter if it was?
Finally, some people just think fish are expendable and don't really care if a few get sick from ammonia poisoning as long as their tank cycles quickly.
That is only partly true Assaye.
When I first started in the hobby, everyone knew that water changes of more than 10% were deadly. All of the experienced fish keepers of the day had done larger changes and lost fish. Once a fish settled into a tank, it was never moved to a new tank, too may died when you did that. Things were very different then.
We did not have any kind of test kit worth having, so we were truly working in the dark.
There was no such thing as dechlorinator so we left water sitting out and hoped it was becoming dechlorinated.
Nobody understood cycling and most of us thought of tanks being "mature" when they stopped killing new fish.
When large water changes were done, it was always done in desperation, not by choice and the extreme change in mineral content from concentrated water to fresh water was quite stressful to the fish.(some would inevitably die in the process)
The old timers among us who were reluctant to do large water changes were far more successful than the upstart kids who thought differently. Now that we understand that frequent water changes can prevent the build of minerals in the tank and the build of poisons in our water, some of us have adapted our methods. Some, like the "experts" you are referring to, have not grown and learned.
When I first started in the hobby, everyone knew that water changes of more than 10% were deadly. All of the experienced fish keepers of the day had done larger changes and lost fish. Once a fish settled into a tank, it was never moved to a new tank, too may died when you did that. Things were very different then.
We did not have any kind of test kit worth having, so we were truly working in the dark.
There was no such thing as dechlorinator so we left water sitting out and hoped it was becoming dechlorinated.
Nobody understood cycling and most of us thought of tanks being "mature" when they stopped killing new fish.
When large water changes were done, it was always done in desperation, not by choice and the extreme change in mineral content from concentrated water to fresh water was quite stressful to the fish.(some would inevitably die in the process)
The old timers among us who were reluctant to do large water changes were far more successful than the upstart kids who thought differently. Now that we understand that frequent water changes can prevent the build of minerals in the tank and the build of poisons in our water, some of us have adapted our methods. Some, like the "experts" you are referring to, have not grown and learned.
I can totally appreciate that
I just think that with the resources and information we have avaliable now, those who are writing books and online guides have access to enough info and experiences to have moved on from recommending tiny water changes during cycling. If someone is writing a new guide they should be researching the most up to date methods and at least presenting those as options, even if they wouldn't do it themselves. Obviously not every seasoned fishkeeper has the internet but the ones who are writing online guides probably do
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