Water Changes

[johnkristie]

When my tank is fully cycled and stocked how often should I be changing my water and how much each time? I've got a 200 gal with a wet/dry. No fish yet. I'm about 3 weeks into the cycling process. Oh, and also should I be doing any water changes during the cycling?

 

[loganj]

How often you have to do water changes depends on the fish load in the tank. Since most FO systems tend to have a high bioload, I'd say 10% per week. Whatver it takes to control the nitrates. Assuming you are doing a fishless cycle using shrimp or equivalent, I wouldn't do any water changes until ammonia/nitrite have dropped to 0.

 

[johnkristie]

So, I'm assuming you leave the shrimp in the whole time of the cycle, until it disintegrates.

 

[dralarms]

So, I'm assuming you leave the shrimp in the whole time of the cycle, until it disintegrates

Only leave it in until ou get your ammonia spike, then you take it out, or your ammonia will just keep going up.

 

[Guest]

I would let it disintegrate, it allows for a full spike. i did, and my tank is now thriving.

 

[johnkristie]

I have had an ammonia spike at around Day 4 of 0.5 mg/L. Since then it has dropped down to zero. My nitrites have held steady around 3.0-3.5 mg/L for about two weeks and my nitrates have held steady at around 20mg/L. The shrimp are still visible, but are all mushy and black. I originally put the shrimp in Feb. 19th. Does this all seem to be going the way it is supposed to go??? I'm thinking about adding another dose of bacteria to give it a boost. What do yall think?

 

[dralarms]

I honestly would get that shrimp out of there. If you don't you may have another ammonia spike. Your nitrites should start dropping any time now. Of course I'm still learning this stuff and someone with more wisdom and experiance will probally chime in to either correct me or confirm my assesment. 8O