dud said:I heard that since the beneficial bacteria lives on various surfaces present in the tank, you should try not to disturb them as much as possible. So you probably don't want to clean (such as scrubbing and aggressively vacuuming) until your tank is fully cycled. But water change is a must.
dud said:Are you doing a fishless cycle or do you have fish in your tank? If you do have fish, water change is a must since you don't want to lose any of your fish due to excessively high nitrite or ammonia concentration. In that case a 'normal' water change (e.g. 20-30% per week) is required (if you have very light fish load), but make sure you are monitoring ammonia and nitrite level, since you will probably have spikes. You'll have to change water as necessary in those cases. Oh, and you're right, don't clean the gravel but just take out water.
dud said:Hmmm, you got me there. You're correct in that you don't want to starve the bacteria while cycling. But one thing for sure, you *DO* have to do water change to keep your fish healthy and happy.
That being said, for me I never had to do 'weekly change' while cycling because I always had a spike high enough so that I had to change water before a week went by. Of course the first 10 days when I didn't know about this forum I didn't change any water.
It'll probably depend on your tank size and fish load. What size of tank and how many fish (and what kind) do you have?
Menagerie said:Do not change your filter cartridge until the tank is completely cycled--even then, I would not change it until it is full of bacteria. With all my tanks, the filters do not get cleaned until they need it--once every two months or so. Let that bacteria grow and multiply. I would also caution you about gravel vacuuming--you need that ammonia source.
Do you have a liquid test kit for ammonia, nitrtie and nitrate? If so, what are your water parameters right now?