should I water change before the end of the cycle ?

[rupes88]

Hello All

Just a quick question........

I'm now on day 17 of the cycle (fishless). From what I can see I'm almost there, I'm reading:

6.8ph
0 am
.25 Nitrite
2.5 Nitrate
29 degrees

My tanks is 99x47x75, Ive been using stress zyme and I also have a bag of peat in my trickle filter. Re plants I have moderatly planted Vals, crypts,Anubias and wisteria.

My question is regarding water changes. I havent done one as yet, should I wait till the cycle is finished or would it help things to do one now ? Any other tips at this stage would be great.

cheers ~ rupert

[Mulisha]

You might want another oppinoin on this before doing it ... but i would suggest waitting till nitrite has gone completly then doing a 95% w/c to clear out any nitrate in the water and you should be set to go...

Quick question how did you find stress Zyme working on your good bacteria colony?

Good Luck might wanna wait for a couple more oppinions though i might be wrong..

HTH

[Merrilyn]

Hi Rupert, a water change now will just slow the cycle. Let it go till the nitrite level naturally drops, then you can do a water change and add your fish.

[electric molecular]

Hey Rupes,

Gotta go with Merrilyn on this one. When I started my tank off and did do water changes, it did slow the process of the tank cycling successfully (and made more work for myself). I guess I mainly got anxious about doing WC because I had some dither fish in there, and I was worried about the traces of ammonia showing up in the tests.

If I were you, I'd wait until the nitrite comes good itself, and then do a WC to lower the nitrate--but with no fish making waste, your nitrate levels aren't a concern at this point anyway. Then you should be set to add fish. :)


Claire.