water changes

[christine]

I've been changing the water in my tank 20-25% per week. Is this too much . Also, I haven't really had an ammonia spike yet, it went up a little once so I changed the water , and I will be leaving soon for a couple days, is it a good idea to change the water before I go, or should I not, and collect the good bacteria? Also, Ihave 2 gold platies, 1 silver mollie. The platies swim up to each other and then they will face each other for about 1 minute, and the bigger one then will swim on it's side for a few seconds away from the other... Is there something wrong, or is it just a territory issue?
I was thinkin' about getting an algae eater as soon as my tank cycles. But i have slightly brackish water.... I read mollies eat algae , so will they be enough....I plan to get another mollie.. I only have one, and then a couple guppies ( Ihave a 10 gal.tank)

 

[platypus]

Hi Christine,

Water changes has been a hotly debated topic recently, check out this post for details!

As for changing your water now, I'd say as your tank is still cycling it's probably good to change your water regularly as you don't want to have an ammonia spike while you're away. So maybe do a 25% water change a day before you go. Other people may disagree with this however!

If you haven't already had a look, please read this article on new tanks, it should help to explain what to expect during these early stages.