Did a water change during a fishless cycle. Anything I should change?

[chrono1081]

Hi guys,

Sorry for constantly posting but whats going on in my tank doesn't follow what goes on in the fishless cycling FAQ and its been over a month so far and I don't want to screw this up and have to start all over again.

I just did a 70% water change since both nitrates and nitrites were off the chart. I think I still need to do yet another one in my quarantine tank but I'd like some advice before I do.

Also I'm currently dosing the tanks back to 2ppm ammonia. Any advice would be greatly appreciated The main tank is 8 gallons, the quarantine tank is 1 gallon.

 

[jlk]

It looks like your living room tank is right on track. You will need to start dosing it with ammonia on regular basis (daily) to bring it back up to 4ppm when it drops below 2ppm. I would also consider doing water changes when your ph starts to drop- it seems to be all over the place. This is something that may need to be addressed if water chages do not help because rapid fluctuations in ph like your showing are not a good situation for fish. What is your taps ph (after gassing off)?

The Qt tank needs another water change (or two) to bring the nitrite levels down to a readable number (2ppm or less) because they have been high for quite awhile. Then keep the ammonia dose @2ppm for now & let see where it goes. Hope this helps!

 

[chrono1081]

Thanks!

The pH of my water straight out of the tap after gassing off is 6.8. I assume it dropped because of the big water change I did. Should I maybe add some pH up to it before I change the water? (I know that stuff is usually frowned upon).

 

[jlk]

No ph stuff needed! Ok, thats fine then- i thought your tap ph was reading 7.6 & steadily dropping! If it gasses off to 6.8, then your tanks are fine. Just watch if in the event it starts to drop below 6.8. A bit of ph fluctuation is fine during cycling. We just dont want it to drop below 6.5 or you risk your cycle stalling. A water change can keep things in check if theres an issue.