tank cycling and water changing questions
I've had a new tank for about a week now, so it is cycling now too. I've only cycled one other tank before, so I'm still new at this but I'll try to help!
There's really no set schedule for doing water changes. You just have to do your ammonia test and see how high it is. If it's not high, leave it alone -- you want SOME (not tons!) ammonia in there so the bacteria can feed on it. The bacteria will feed on the ammonia and break it down into nitrates. (right, everyone? I'm still somewhat new at this so please correct me if I'm wrong!) and that is what gets your cycle started. I use a nitrate test kit too so when my water shows the presence of nitrates, then I know my cycle is beginning. Too much nitrates, though, are bad too -- don't let them get too high (refer to test kit chart).
If the ammonia is moderate I would do a 25% water change and check again the next day. If it's high, do a water change every day (25-50% depending on how high) to bring the ammonia down. Changing this much water will slow your cycling, but it's better to have healthy fish!
Another poster gave you good advice about water changes. I also mix up my clean water before putting it in the tank. I filled the tank up with tap water when it was new (no fish in yet) and treated all the water in the tank, and stirred it around a little, let it sit for awhile, then plugged in the heater. For water changes now, I use a bottled water gallon jug, fill it with tap water, shake it a little, let it acclimate to room temp a bit so I'm not stressing the heater and the fish with cold tap water, add my declorinators, slime protectors, and a little bit of salt even though they are fresh water fish. I use a vac to remove a gallon of dirty water into another bottled water jug, and then add the new water.
If you have a heater, you should unplug it because they usually have a minimum water level that must be maintained, and when doing changes the water may fall under that minimum level. You don't want to risk the glass cracking.
I just removed some water using my vac, but I didn't sweep the gravel. I will check again tomorrow, and I will probably need to sweep in the next few days. You are sweeping up some good bacteria, but it's better to get out some of the fish waste that makes the ammonia rise! Also, the bacteria can live on the plants and decorations' surface too, so don't worry about removing too much good bacteria. If your ammonia is high then sweep more frequently. Check your dirty water bucket or jug and see how much waste you are removing. If you're not getting too much, you could just do a surface sweep, and save the heavier, deeper sweep for a little later, depending on your ammonia levels.
The thing that I had to learn for controlling my ammonia levels was learning how to feed the fish correctly! At first (in my other tank) my ammonia levels were way too high. I was feeding too much, and I had too many live plants. The
LFS said you don't have to add plants gradually like you do with the fish. But I don't know about that -- I think adding a lot of live plants right away added too much ammonia too.
So far, after about a week, my tank parameters are ok -- fingers crossed! Good luck with your tank! I hope this helped some!
