Is the guy at my LFS and idiot?

[adiliegro]

Or is he telling me the truth? I have read on here and numerous other forums to change water at least weekly when you are doing a FISH cycle. This guy tells me that I should NEVER change the water during a cycle because the water holds the bacteria. I thought the filter held most of the bacteria.

Who is right here?

 

[Menagerie]

Most people will change the water during a fish cycle to keep the ammonia and nitriate levels in check. Often this means doing small water changes daily or every other day. The bacteria is in the water, but it does best on substrate--for example in your filter and on the substrate.

 

[TankGirl]

I don't think he is an idiot, but this is just an extremely old school and very harsh way to cycle, kind of like doing a fishless cycle with the living ammonia factories, and not changing the water for the fish's sake. The fish used for this are usually considered disposable, which is probably not how you view your Africans, lol!

Nowadays people don't like to kill their fish by putting them through that, so you do partial water changes as often as necessary to keep the fish from suffering. I am amazed at what I hear at the LFS, so this is not the first time you will walk out of one with eyebrows raised.

 

[deli_conker]

The water has some bacteria in it, but for the most part, the bacteria lives and colonizes the surfaces of your tank. Glass, decorations, substrate, filter, etc. The more surface area an object has, the more room for bacteria to live. This is why filter medium and substrate are the most advised objects to move from an established tank to a new tank (they can hold a greater population of bacteria).

Doing lots of small water changes won't make any noticable changes to your bacteria population but it is worth saying that you shouldn't disturb any decorations or substrate until the tank cycles. Moving gravel around kills bacteria so hold off on the gravel vac until you are 100% cycled. Even then you have to go slow on the gravel vac (at first) because there is often a lot of garbage in your gravel that you don't want to stir up. Doing so could cause an ammonia spike.