Water change during ammonia spike?

[sernger]

I just got an ammonia spike of over 3 ppm. NO2 and NO3 are at 0. pH at approximatly 7.9-8.0. Salinity between 1.022 and 1.023.

 

Question is, should I or should I not do a weekly water change? The water is really dirty and stinking. It's been about a week now of cycling, and just discovered ammoina spike today.

 

Main question is, water change or no? And how much of a water change if yes, and when if yes. Also do I need lights on or off?

 

Greatly appreciate some helps!

[~_~]

If the water is foul smelling and ammonia is high, do a waterchange. I guess around a 20% is what I would do, but it really depends on how foul the water is and how much the waterchange lowers ammonia.

 

I use lights to cycle, The ammont of light I use depends on whats on the rock. If there are no large corals, then I start off with a few hours a day of light, then slowly increase it over several weeks time. If its rock like TBS that has full corals on it, then I start off using around 5 hours a day and increase the lighting faster.

[Dennis_said]

I have the same situation as Sernger.. but I did a recent water change but to no avail... maybe I took out too little? I'm afraid to do a water change right now... or any time soon because I think it'd be taking out too much water in too short a period... don't want to screw up my bacteria growth or whatever... what should I do?

[Dennis_said]

Bump Anybody?

[~_~]

You can do a larger waterchange if the ammonia is still high or it still smells the room/house up.

Allot of people do small waterchanges every day when cycling/curing rock to keep the ammonia from going too high to preserve more of the life on the rock..

 

You won't do any harm to the cycle or anything by doing waterchanges. You only need a tiny bit of ammonia to cycle, not a whole sewer.