No water changes during cycling?

[staceyanna]

I did a web search about algae and cycling and got to a page on about.com explaining cycle and what to expect. And it states:

Important Note: If your tank is still cycling, DO NOT add any new animals, do ANY water changes, or perform ANY MAJOR substrate or filter cleaning tasks, other than to change dirty prefiltering materials and/or to QUICK siphon stuff off the bottom, until the tank has COMPLETELY FINISHED cycling. The unsightly brown algae can easily be removed temporarily from the walls of the aquarium by using an algae scraper, sponge or magnet, and scrubbed off the substrate and rocks with a toothbrush, where it can then be removed from the water through mechanical filtration, such as by adding a hang-on-tank canister filter (read product reviews and compare prices), and larger floating pieces can be removed with a net, turkey baster, or by light siphoning.

Taken from about.com

Is this accurate information? Doing water changes while cycling makes the cycle take longer? I have been reading stuff all over the net and never seen this recommended before. Thoughts?

 

[reignman40]

If you are doing fishless cycling there is no reason to do a water change or mess with the decor/gravel until the cycle is complete.

The only reason you hear about constant water changes during the cycle process is when people choose to cycle with fish. This does slow the process but constant water changes in this case are needed to keep the fish as much out of harms way as possible during a cycle.

If you're doing fishless cycling, don't bother with changing the water.

 

[RTR]

The web is loaded with poor to awful "information" on tank keeping. That is in the latter category.

 

[OrionGirl]

Agreed. Water changes don't increase the length of the cycle--the bacteria don't quit multipying just because the available food is only double what they need instead of ten times what they need.

 

[dougall]

I'm a little confused.. I basically understand, but am wondering if the bacteria colony would grow more quickly if there was a higher level of ammonia.

Now obviously I'm too lazy right now to actually research, but isn't is possible that the colony would increase in size more quickly if there was more ammonia available. changing water would have an obvious affect on that.

 

[wataugachicken]

in short, no. the bacteria grow at a steady rate, so adding more ammonia will not speed up the reproductive rate. the use of 5 ppm of ammonia in a fishless cycle doesn't make it happen faster, but it allows a greater amount of bacteria to grow over time so that there will be more than enough to clean up after the fish.

 

[dougall]

Thanks.

 

[Blueiz]

Its like when you walk into a room and its 100 degrees and the air conditioner is turned off, no matter how low you turn the thermostat the room will only cool off so fast.

 

[nlmadison]

Its like when you walk into a room and its 100 degrees and the air conditioner is turned off, no matter how low you turn the thermostat the room will only cool off so fast.

Could you PLEASE explain that to my husband!!!!!

 

[dougall]

When I was thinking about that, I was thinking about the exponential increase in my snail population when I'd feed my fishies too much.