Water Changes During Cycle

[Dquad18]

So I talked to my LFS and they tested my water for me (having been testing mine just wanted a second opinon) and they told me i'm not quite done but I have a ton of nitrates, and advised me to do 5 gallon water changes (tank is 15 gallons) every 3-4 days. I havent gotten around to testing my water today but I was just curious, If im doing water changes every couple pf days should I keep adding ammonia to feed the cycle? Or is that countering the entire point of doing the water changes? Thanks

Am I cycled already?

So my tank has been set up for roughly a week and a half now, and I have been using dr Tim’s and ghost feeding to start the cycle. As my test kit just came in the mail today these are the results of my first test. It looks like there is trace of nitrates already, could I possibly be cycled...

www.reef2reef.com

More about my tank if you want more details

 

[stanleo]

Unless your nitrates are through the roof, like above the limit of your test kit, I wouldn't do any water changes until you're cycled and you won't be cycled till your full dose of ammonia is processed within 24 hours. You will however when you are done cycling want to change about 90% of your water. This is assuming of course you don't have any fish in the tank yet.

 

[Dquad18]

Unless your nitrates are through the roof, like above the limit of your test kit, I wouldn't do any water changes until you're cycled and you won't be cycled till your full dose of ammonia is processed within 24 hours. You will however when you are done cycling want to change about 90% of your water. This is assuming of course you don't have any fish in the tank yet.

No I’m doing a fish less cycle with dr Tim’s, just wasn’t sure cause they said do water changes every three days or so, should I keep dosing the ammonia then?

 

[Sparkymarc]

I also used dr. Tim’s. I just kept ammonia levels at about 2ppm until my tank could drop it to zero in 24 hours, just like stanleo said. So if I dosed proper amount of ammonium chloride to bring ammonia levels to 2ppm and in 24 hours it was 1ppm, I would do half dosage to bring it back to 2ppm and just continued until it was zero in 24 hours. Then your cycled. From what I have learned, keeping the ammonia levels at 2ppm encourages faster bacteria growth. It took about a month

 

[lapin]

To add to the equation if you have nitrites your nitrate reading will be off.
I would also wait on the water change and do one big one.

 

[Letterkenny]

I’m in a similar position where my ammonia goes down pretty quickly but my nitrites are high. I was told to not dose up the ammonia again until my nitrites are zero. Any further insight on this?

 

[lapin]

It takes a lot longer for the types of bacteria to grow that process nitrite into nitrate. Its my ipinion that the ammonia processing bacteria will be fine if you dont dose ammonia for a week.

 

[Letterkenny]

The one thing I really dislike about these test kits is interpreting the reading. This is my most recent reading with (first photo) and without flash (second photo). My wife puts this at ammonia is between 0-.25 and nitrite at 2ppm. Thoughts?

 

[lapin]

Because the API test for ammonia is not the best, most users with .25 have less or none at all.
PS: wife has good eyes

 

[Letterkenny]

Thanks - so I guess I will wait it out a couple more days without dosing ammonia to see if nitrites drop.

 

[JoshMack]

Because the API test for ammonia is not the best, most users with .25 have less or none at all.
PS: wife has good eyes

I also use my wifes eyes to judge color on API tests. Much better than mine

 

[Letterkenny]

Would the Red Sea kit be better?

 

[stanleo]

The one thing I really dislike about these test kits is interpreting the reading. This is my most recent reading with (first photo) and without flash (second photo). My wife puts this at ammonia is between 0-.25 and nitrite at 2ppm. Thoughts?

I would say judging by those pics you're at 0 ammonia and 2 nitrite which puts you right on track. Wait a couple days and test again. You could do a half dose of ammonia at that time, this is called a snack dose when cycling. Nitrite bacteria does take a little longer to propagate than the ammonia kind. Just test every other day, soon your nitrite will start to come down and then you can test for nitrates.

Red Sea test kits are better, yes but API are sufficient for cycling. You could wait til you are done with cycling and have fish in your tank to shell out more money.

 

[stanleo]

No I’m doing a fish less cycle with dr Tim’s, just wasn’t sure cause they said do water changes every three days or so, should I keep dosing the ammonia then?

I wouldn't even bother testing for nitrate until your nitrite starts to drop. Test every other day and every four days do a half dose (snack) dose of ammonia just to feed the bacteria and keep that population stable. This cycling takes weeks not days. If you're lucky, 4 weeks but it could take up to 8 weeks.

 

[Letterkenny]

I would say judging by those pics you're at 0 ammonia and 2 nitrite which puts you right on track. Wait a couple days and test again. You could do a half dose of ammonia at that time, this is called a snack dose when cycling. Nitrite bacteria does take a little longer to propagate than the ammonia kind. Just test every other day, soon your nitrite will start to come down and then you can test for nitrates.

Red Sea test kits are better, yes but API are sufficient for cycling. You could wait til you are done with cycling and have fish in your tank to shell out more money.

Thanks - it’s been about 3 days with ammonia at this level and nitrites reading 2ppm. I’ll give it a couple more before dosing back up to 1ppm on ammonia. Will it even be worth getting Red Sea for just ammonia and nitrite? I’ve heard that I should switch to salifert for everything else once cycles.

 

[Hermie]

If your nitrates are OVER 20ppm and you have no nitrate export system setup then, yes, I would do water changes, at least to maintain that level

 

[stanleo]

Thanks - it’s been about 3 days with ammonia at this level and nitrites reading 2ppm. I’ll give it a couple more before dosing back up to 1ppm on ammonia. Will it even be worth getting Red Sea for just ammonia and nitrite? I’ve heard that I should switch to salifert for everything else once cycles.

No, for ammonia and nitrite API works just fine. for things like nitrate and phosphate, you need something more precise for reef tanks. (recently learned this myself)

 

[Dquad18]

The one thing I really dislike about these test kits is interpreting the reading. This is my most recent reading with (first photo) and without flash (second photo). My wife puts this at ammonia is between 0-.25 and nitrite at 2ppm. Thoughts?

Just tested my water again today, My results looked exactly like this, with the additon of my nitrate reading being very high, in the 80-160ppm range

 

[stanleo]

Just tested my water again today, My results looked exactly like this, with the additon of my nitrate reading being very high, in the 80-160ppm range

A lot of people including me when they do a fishless cycle don't even bother testing nitrates until the cycle is done. A few reasons, one is that without fish, nitrates aren't going to harm anything except feed algae and that can be battled fairly easily and two is for this reason. You see the high numbers and kinda freak out which is normal. A third reason is that the results aren't very accurate during a cycle, especially using API test kits. Just get through your cycle, change 90 % of the water in one go and then test your nitrates. If they are still high, wait two days, and do 50% changes every two days till the Nitrate reading is what you want. You should be cycled soon with those readings. Say another week, maybe two.

 

[Hermie]

So the moral of the story is, do a water change or don't, it's not going to make a difference except to your peace of mind.