Small water changes during cycling??

[Reefaddict]

Is it a good thing to do small water changes while the tank is cycling or better to wait?

Thanks

 

[two11devan]

I think doing water changes while the tank is cycling would be defeating the purpose of the cycle. The idea is to get the amonia levels to spike in the tank during the curing process. I would think that by doing water changes, you would be lowering the levels in the tank. Wait untill after the tank has cycled to do your changes. I let my tank cycle and didn't do a water change for a few weeks after i had added my fish. Now, im not sure if that was the best idea, but it had no adverse affects on the fish. Someone please correct me if im wrong here!

 

[reefrunner69]

Are you cycling with uncured LR? If not, then no water changes durng the cycle, it will only prolong the cycle and make for a weaker bacteria population. I you are cycling with uncured LR and that is to be your biological filter...I do recommend water changes

 

[fishfreek]

This is a highly debated subject.

If your cycling with fish then you are obligated to keep the ammonia levels at a managable level out of interest of the fish's health.

If your cycling with live rock then you can do one of two things. You can not do any water changes reguarless of what the ammonia levels get to. Doing such will vastly increase the amount of die off and lower the amount of hitchhikers you get on your live rock that survive the cycle. Doing water changes to maintain a managble level of ammonia and nitrite will prolong the curing process some but it will also increase the amount of life remaining on the rock when your done the cycle.

 

[reefrunner69]

To show the debatability of this subject...

Doing water changes to maintain a managble level of ammonia and nitrite will prolong the curing process some but it will also increase the amount of life remaining on the rock when your done the cycle

I disagree with this statement. If your curing LR, water changes will shorten the cycle time. The high ammonia levels will also kill beneficial bacteria, IMO, the bacterias are still present, even on uncured rock, they are simply weakened and overwhelmed by the die off. Keeping the ammonia levels low by way of waterchanges allows more of these bacterias to survive and reproduce more quickly than if no water changes were done

 

[two11devan]

I didn't do any water changes with my LR....is that why i haven't seen any hitch hickers yet? or does it take time? Its been running for almost 2 months

 

[reefrunner69]

Could be, it also could be that there wasn't much to begin with :?

 

[Reefaddict]

Thanks alot fellas!!!

 

[fishlips12]

Now I am leary. Help me out here because I start my first tank this week and don't know if I should or should not do a water change and if so how much of a water change for a 55g tank 70 pound of live rock and 4 inch DSB. It makes sense to do some sort of water change so that you do not kill off any life that may later prove beneficial.

Do I add the live sand on day one?

Please Help

 

[fishfreek]

Well how much and how often to do a water change is based really upon personal preference and your ammonia readings.

Lets say I am you. And my ammonia readings never get above .5 then i might elect to not do a water change at all. Now lets say my ammonia gets to 1.0 in a very short time period. I might elect to do a 20% water change and test my ammonia the following day. If its still 1.0 I might monitor it and see if its going to climb or fall. If it continues to climb i might do another water change.

The above holds if your concerned about keeping a fair amount of live on your live rock and your curing your live rock as your cycle. If you dont really care about the life on the rock then you very well might just let the rock do its thing.

 

[fishlips12]

Thanks once again for your help. As I mentioned I am finally ready start my first tank . After two months of research and education it is about darn time. I just wanted to be patient with this endevor as the results can be dishearting and expensive. My live rock comes in on Thursday.

 

[Reefaddict]

What about if you add Amquel or some other ammonia killer instead of a water change???

Would that suck or be ok

 

[reefrunner69]

The ammonia detox will lower the ammonia, but will do nothing for the nutrients in the system. In a tub of fresh uncured LR, you are really creating a sesspool, I'm not sure the salt wouldn't be cheaper than the amquel to detoxify that much ammonia.