Andy Sager
Aquarium Advice Addict
Why will water changes help the bacteria?
Water changes don't help the bacteria, they help the fish by reducing the ammonia levels to a manageable level. The use of PRIME however will detoxify the ammonia making higher levels of ammonia ( actually then converted to ammonium) safer for the fish to be in.
The big debate on fish-in vs fish-less cycling is that ammonia, which is bad, kills fish so you want as little of it as possible when fish are present. However, the BB needs ammonia in order to survive. The problem is, the understanding of term "Cycled." That just means that there is enough BB present to handle the bioload present at that moment. So in reality, the more ammonia/ammonium present in the beginning, the stronger your BB bed will be. Since the bacteria bed is a living thing and grows and shrinks according to the bioload present, doing water changes during the cycling period makes for a weaker bacteria bed but a safer environment for the existing fish. Confused? It can be confusing for sure. This is where PRIME comes into play. Because it makes the water safer for the fish and leaves the food source for the bacteria, it works better than ammonia blockers. Smaller water changes can be done without harm to the fish from excessive ammonia levels. The thing is, it only lasts about 24-48 hours so you will need to re-dose frequently. Follow the directions on the bottle.
Hope this helps.