WATER CHANGES AND FISHLESS CYCLING

[fishweed]

Our tank is ten days old and we are currently fishless cycling. The nitrite is now about 3 now - which is good as it means that we are progressing along the cycle.

Should we change the water (10-25%) or will that dilute the nitrites that we are trying to convert into nitrate.? Obviously if we had fish in the tank we would have to change the water so that we did not kill them. But we have no fish yet.

Thank you

 

[fishfreek]

Should we change the water (10-25%) or will that dilute the nitrites that we are trying to convert into nitrate.?

Yes it would dilute the amount of nitrite. Im sure your wanting to get fish in there so you have something to look at other than a box of water. If you do a small water change like 10% this should give you a slight jump in getting the nitrites down to 0 and at the same time should impact your cycle just a small amount if there is any impact.


Your cycle is very important as thats what sets the stage for a healthy tank. Trying to rush the cycle to much can cause your tank to not be fully prepaird for fish when you finally do put fish in. The net result could be high levels of ammonia again or worse having fish deaths.

 

[fishweed]

Thank you - we are being very good and not getting any fish for at least another month. Patience is a virtue - so they say. Doing tests and water changes are quite fun. Luckily we also look after my parent's fish tank so we get our daily fish fix - except their Beta died yesterday which was very sad.