water changes while fishless cycling

[tylixxa]

ok, stupid question but just curious if it matters one way or another. when doing the massive water change 90% at the end of fishless cycling, do you add the dechlorinator to the water before it goes into the tank or can you add it after it is in tank?

[MyShrimpDied]

when i do a water change, ill add the dechlor to the gallon that im adding THEN add it to the tank, that way it mixes much more.

~ MyShrimpDied

[tylixxa]

uh oh, we did a massive water change of 90 percent a couple days ago thinking cycle was complete and ready for fish. but now nitrates is about 15 ppm The ammonia reads .5ppm, which is good. pH is about 6.8, good too. Now this doesn't make sense... nitrIte is 5ppm, and nitrAtes are about 15ppm. I dechlorinated the water after I put it in the tank. is this the cause for the high nitrates? and what can i do to remedy this? i got fish coming next week, and want my tank fully cycled.

[Slannesh]

Even if you cycle was finished isn't a week without any new ammonia going into the system going to kill off your bacterial colony?

[tylixxa]

checking the ammonia level every day and adding as needed, til fish get here

[daveedka]

If you are adding ammonia every day, the cycle should have held. the large water change may have effected it if you didn't dechlorinate right away. usually if you add the dechlorinator and then the water, or add it to the water during the process it poses no risk. if you added it a while after the fact that could be the problem. on the bright side, the production of nitrAtes shows that there are both types of bacteria at work. The ammonia is consumed by one type, which produce nitrIte, the nitrIte is consummed by another type which produce NitrAte. the nitrAte level will continue to rise as you add ammonia, and it is eventually processed into nitrAte. Water changes are the only good way to reduce nitrates (plants do also but water changes are still needed for other reasons) 15 ppm nitrate is not bad at all, many people are happy with 40 or below, neuritic people like me target 20 and below. I'd just keep adding ammonia and monitoring, and when the fish arrive, do another 80-90% water change with dechlorinator right before you add the fish. once the fish are in just monitor the levels and there should be no problem.

[anonapersona]

Originally posted by tylixxa
uh oh, we did a massive water change of 90 percent a couple days ago thinking cycle was complete and ready for fish. but now nitrates is about 15 ppm The ammonia reads .5ppm, which is good. pH is about 6.8, good too. Now this doesn't make sense... nitrIte is 5ppm, and nitrAtes are about 15ppm. I dechlorinated the water after I put it in the tank. is this the cause for the high nitrates? and what can i do to remedy this? i got fish coming next week, and want my tank fully cycled.

Does you water have chloramines? If so, using a dechlorinator that only treats chlorine will free the ammonia. some water conditioners say they "break the chloramine bond" but do not add that they make it safe, so that means free ammonia also. Some say they make ammonia harmless and then you will read the ammonia on the test kits if it is a Nessler based kit but it is not going to hurt the fish. Some say the ammonia is harmless to fish but available to the biofilter (Prime)

So, what water conditioner do you use. And does your water have chloraimine?

Lucky you still have a few days to get this settled. Or you can just get Prime and use it to ease those first few days if there is an overlap of cycling and new fish. Prime will detox ammonia and nitrite and leave them available to the biofilter.