Good timing for first water change

[NDonily]

I am wondering when I should do my first water change? Probably stupid question but I cant seem to find this on the search.

 

My readings are as follows

 

Nitriate 50

calcium 20

Nitrite .3

Ammonia .1

Phos 5

Ph 8.1

 

I have been cycling for almost a month now, have been adding lr and ls slowly. I am finished adding my rock and sand now, the last time I added this was 7 days ago or so.

 

Thankyou for your help and advice

 

Nathan

[Twins Guy]

hey nate-

there are no critters in the tank right? if that's the case i'd wait until your ammonia and nitrite levels come down to zero and then i'd do maybe a couple 20% changes on weekly intervals. after that i'd fall into the weekly 10% routine. if you've got algae going nuts in there you might even start up (with the waterchanges) before then-so it doesn't get a great foothold. the waterchanges will deplete nutrients that feed the algae. once your ammonia and nitrite are zero-ed i'd put in some clean up critters, hermits (if you like), snails, the hardier stuff to make sure everything's stable. if they do ok it's prolly time for a fish and maybe his brother a couple weeks later (in a 10 gal 2 fish will be plenty, 2 relatively small, nano-friendly fish).

 

one other thing-i suspect you're reporting drops on the calcium titration test but really you should report it in parts per million (ppm). you're just missing a conversion factor-prolly something like 15 or 20ppm/drop. all tests are different that's why its important to use a common unit of measure like ppm.

later

tg

[NDonily]

Ya it is one drop, wich equals 20 ppm.

[Brianc_4]

O.K, first things first. If you just finished adding your live rock today, then you have'nt been cycling for a month. you really just started today. Your live rock will have die off, this die off will start the cycle. so, if you just added more LR today you have started the cycle over. This is the reason why it is important to add the vast majority of your LR in the begining before stocking.

As far as water changes go during the cycle, it has been debated. I, personally believe that regular 10- 20% weekly to bi-weekly water changes during the cycle is a GOOD thing. The reason why some people do not like to change water during the cycle is that they think it will prolong the cycle. This is because nitrifying bacteria is building up and you want to keep it, therefore in this train of thought it would be bad to remove water because you would remove some of this developing bacteria.

My thinking, however, is that you have purchased LIVE rock. This rock has all sorts of organisms unseen and undeveloped as of yet living in on and around the rock. Amphipods, worms, sponges..etc.etc. If you allow your water conditions to spike really high, you will experience more die off of these organisms. I would assume anyone would want to keep alive these free goodies. As far as these water changes prolonging the cycle, it is possible, but it would be minimal. The nitrifying bacteria colonizes mostly in your LR, sand bed, and filter. Therefore removing a small amount of water weekly would not be devastating to the bacteria colony, but it would be beneficial to the hitchikers on/in the rock. Next answer, yes I light my tank during cycle of LR, some of the hitchikers are photosynthetic.

Good luck