How long do I wait to change the water in a new tank that I am cycling

maverick2402

maverick2402

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Feb 19, 2005
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I just started up a new 20 gal planted tank a week ago and just added some BioSpira last night and was wondering how long do I wait to start doing water changes and how much.I am getting a small ammonia reading and 0 nitrite reading .I have a Bio wheel filter running and 6 zebra danios in the tank along with about 20 assorted plants.
 
About the only thing I do know is, No reading of ammonia is a good reading. So if you even have a little, start doing partial water changes. A good place to start is a 20% change and then retest in a couple hours.
 
What about the nitrate levels? Bio-Spira is ment to be added with a full fish load because there is bacterica in it that needs to be feed. Now you can not add a whole lot of fish like you could of had from the start. When you are adding new fish only add a few at a time or else you will run into problems.
 
If the danios have been in there a week and you haven't done a change yet, do one immediatley. I cycled almost exactly the same way as you (21 gallons, 6 black neons, rather than danios, and stress zyme rather than bio-spira), and i did 25% changes every 3 days for about 4 weeks. i didn't have a test kit, and have since lost one black neon after the tank cycled, so you might want to change more water more frequently than i did. Apparently, you can never do too many changes (gsk177!), as long as the incoming water is as close as possible to the existing tank water, minus the nasties. the best way to do this is to test your tap water too.
 
In your case a water change isnet really needed. It might take off any good bacteria in the water that still hasent attached to someting. I wouldent do a water change untill you post your nitrate levels.

And Monkey44, Stress Zyme is grabage, while Bio-Spira works most of the time. When you used it, it did nothing for your tank and you are doing a fishey cycle. Compared to maverick2402 that has good bacteria already in his/her tank.
 
Water changes do NOT remove bacteria from your tank!! If they did, we'd be recycling every week after our weekly water changes :D
 
Monkey44 said:
If the danios have been in there a week and you haven't done a change yet, do one immediatley. I cycled almost exactly the same way as you (21 gallons, 6 black neons, rather than danios, and stress zyme rather than bio-spira), and i did 25% changes every 3 days for about 4 weeks. i didn't have a test kit, and have since lost one black neon after the tank cycled, so you might want to change more water more frequently than i did. Apparently, you can never do too many changes (gsk177!), as long as the incoming water is as close as possible to the existing tank water, minus the nasties. the best way to do this is to test your tap water too.
Click to expand...
Stress-Zyme != Bio-Spira
Bio-Spira are the actual nitrifying bacteria, and when it works correctly (which it seems to more often than not) tanks cycle within a week. Bio-Spira is meant to be added with a full bioload of fish for the tank. The bacteria of the Bio-Spira then settle and begin to work on converting the ammonia into nitrites into nitrates from the moment the fish are in. You would certainly test when using Bio-Spira and I would wait 24 hours after adding Bio-Spira and fish before doing a water change, just to make sure the bacteria have time to settle in.
 
Oops, my bad. I misread the original post and thought maverick had added the bio-spira the same day as the fish a week ago :)
 
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