Cycling

[Ksturg]

ok so I'm in need of some advice...I have been doing a fishless cycle and I have a question on weather or not I should do a water change. 0 ammonia 2ppm nitrite and over 80 ppm nitrate it's blood red! Should I do a water change or just keep letting it go since I have no fish in it?

 

[FLAdaboy]

How long have you been cycling? What are you putting in the tank for nutrients?

 

[Ksturg]

I have been cycling 5 weeks I have some once live rock but now dead rock never boiled or bleached it just rinsed it left all bristleworm carcasses on it to start the cycle.

 

[Ksturg]

I have already had My ammonia spike also I forgot to mention that.

 

[Ksturg]

I have already had My ammonia spike also I forgot to mention that.

 

[Tahoe61]

At 5 weeks in with no detectable ammonia, then yes I would proceed with a water change.

 

[FLAdaboy]

Are you using a light now? With your nutrients that high, you may start getting an increase in algae if you're running lights, IMO. I don't run lights when I cycle, once I start seeing nitrate build up, I do a huge water change then slowly introduce light so I don't get algae blooms. After the big water change (50%) I do normal water changes weekly (10%). If I start getting a little algae, I will introduce a small cleanup crew. Maybe one big snail (depending on tank size and amount of algae) and a lawnmower blenny.

 

[Ksturg]

I have a 55gal and I have been running lights in a 12 hr cycle full spectrum during day blues at night. I have seen 2 little spots of brown and that's it. I haven't seen any movement in nitrite and nitrate in a week. And I have been running my skimmer I have read a lot of conflicting posts about weather to run it during my cycle or not. I've never had this problem when cycling so I'm not sure if I'm done or not. If I'm not done I really don't want to do a water change.

 

[Ksturg]

So I did a 50% water change tonight and I checked my nitrates they have come down to 40ppm I'll check again tomorrow but my nitrites are still high can't tell if it's 2ppm of 5ppm