to water change after the cycle...or not to...

[danoreef]

I am in the process of cycling a 24 gallon aquapod. its going like this;

2/1/07
Ammonia= 0
PH= 8.2
Nitrite= 0
Nitrate= 0

After shrimp (fishless cycle)
2/3/07
Ammonia= .50
PH= 8.0
Nitrite= 0
Nitrate= 0

2/5/07
Ammonia=2.0
PH= 7.8
Nitrite= .5
Nitrate= 0

2/7/07
Ammonia= 1.0
PH= 7.8
Nitrite= 2.0
Nitrate= 10

should I perform a water change right after the cycle? and how much (what percentage)?

or not?

[sir_dudeguy]

there's a good chance you will need to because you generally end up with quite a bit of left over nitrates.

So i would say that yes, you will need to, but i'd only do like 10 gallons tops.

[BurntOutReefer]

I'd only do a 10~15% change at first.......

[Agu]

I prefer to save the life I paid for and minimize the cycle by doing several waterchanges during cycling.

[danoreef]

bump

[six.line]

Yes, do a water change or two. They can't hurt and they speed things up.

[danoreef]

what percentage of water do you think?

[jag1979]

I just did a 15%, which is what I do every two weeks now.

[danoreef]

Thank you all for your replies.
I think I have an Idea as to what I am going to do. I will perform (for my next trick) a whopping 50% water change. even though I feel like that might be to much, does any one else have any input to how much water I should change?

[Dragon Queen]

Danoreef, it seems like the water changes that are done on FW do that a lot, but almost never have I seen anybody doing that on SW. Its almost like the SW systems can't handle that much on one change. Possible doing a 15% every other day for a week? Someone jump in if I am way off track.

[ricanboy57]

I'm curious on why a 50 % after the WHOLE cycle is done would hurt? You have tons of nitrate in the tank and the benificial bacteria isn't in the water column. If anything your killing any inverts that are in the tank with such a higfh nitrate level.

[spence0416]

50 percent waterchange shouldn't effect the completed cycle as it's not the water that is getting cycled, but rather the tank and media.

The 50 percent change could effect anything living in the tank if the parameters are not close to what was already in the tank. If the parameters match then I would say it's not a big issue for a large volume change.

[sir_dudeguy]

They can't hurt and they speed things up.

on the contrary, doing water changes during a cycle slows things down.

also someone mentioned that there is tons of nitrates left over. Usually there is, yes....but what if there arent? I've usually used cured/cycled rock for my new tanks and i never really get any nitrate spikes at the end. I mean sometimes they'll go up to like...5 or something. But i honestly havent done any water change immediately after the cycle before and i've never seen any problems. I still recommend doing one tho, since there prolly will be nitrates, but i'm just saying, if there is no need to do one at that point, i dont see why you'd HAVE to do one.

[danoreef]

I have'nt done a water change yet because the nitrites are still present however the nitrates are now through the roof the are at 80 ppm. Should I do one now? or wait until nitrites have left the building.

[sir_dudeguy]

Personally i'd wait. Once the bacteria for the nitrite is done building up, then there will be a bit of bacteria to break down nitrates growing too (if you're using live rock that is...stuff like bioballs and other filter medias do not grow this bacteria to break down nitrates).

While its still cycling that bacteria hasnt brown much yet, so i'd wait for about a week after the nitrites.

Just the way i'd do it.

[danoreef]

thanks sir_dudeguy