Aquarium Cycling?

Question

My aquarium has been running for about 12 days now. 1 Ryukin Goldfish and 3 little minnows. How often do you change the water while your new tank is trying to cycle? The petstore told me to add the water they gave me to the tank because it was 'established water'. Is this going to speed things up?

I admit I've changed the water 2 or 3 times since day 1. I'm afraid to leave it be, because I hear the cycling process can kill alot of the fish. I dont want my fish to die. :/ Am I supposed to leave it alone, or is changing the water fine?

Please no long lectures on the importance of cycling. I KNOW. I want to simply know if water changes once a week is fine. If it slows down the cycling, fine. I just don't want to stress my fish. That's cruel. What good is cycling the tank to keep your fish healthy if cycling it near-kills it?

Answer 1

"established water" doesn't mean much. "established" tanks have lots of good bacteria that break down ammonia, but these bacteria reside mostly in the gravel and the gravel sponge - not in the water itself.
For the next few weeks, while your tank is cycling, it's a great idea to do small daily (or every other day) water changes, about 10% - this will help remove and dillute the ammonia. It will not slow down the cycling because the bacteria develop in the gravel and filter, NOT the water.

Once your cycle is complete (ammonia and nitrites will read 0, and nitrates will be at 10-30ppm), then 25-30% weekly water changes will be sufficient.

If ever you get more fish, don't keep the water. It's fine in a brand new tank, but petstore water can cary parasites and diseases that you don't just want to release in your tank. Rather, after you float the bag, net the fish, release it, and throw the water in the bag away.

As for your last question, well, ideally, you would cycle BEFORE adding your fish to the tank, to save your fish the pain and possible death of ammonia and nitrite poisoning. As I said, cycling is developping these bacteria in the tank. These bacteria respond to ammonia, so you can either trhow a piece of shrimp in there and let it rot, or feed the tank some fish food (with no fish in the tank, of course) every few days. This process takes about 4 weeks, and at that time, your tank will be ready for fish. ALternately, you can purchase biospira, which is the LIVE bacteria in a pouch, and this will pretty much instantly cycle your tank.

Answer 2

Mostly good info,but some of it is pure crap,too. There is no such thing as instant cycling. The reason for this is that the bacteria that do the work are present almost every where,but they don't do any denitrifying until they have formed colonies on the solid surfaces of the tank and filter. This is why sponges and other porous materials are good substrates for Nitrosonomas and Nitrobacter(the guys that do the work).However, I just read that there is research going on now that may prove that there more bacteria at work that just these two,stay tuned! The other component to denitrifying biology is oxygen,both kinds of bacteria need it to work. Small water changes every couple of days will help keep your fish from suffering too much. Just watch for signs of distress,always use dechlorinated water, match the new water's temperature as closely as you can to the tank's temp and siphon out the excess food and "stuff". It's good to hear that you are trying to learn fish keeping the right way. I commend you. Good luck.----PeeTee

Answer 3

How big is the tank. For a ryukin, in anything less than 10 gallons you should chang ethe water daily while it cycles. It was bad to take the fish store water. The beneficial bacteria does not live in the water, only on the filter media and surfaces in the tank. Parasites and bad bacteria can live in the store water though. That's why you should never dump the bags of water with fish into the tank, you dump them in a seperate bucket and net them into the tank, then dispose of the store water.

Answer 4

You should change water any time your ammonia or nitrites rise above .25 ppm. If you don't have a test kit, you are going to need to get one. Don't waste your money on the always unreliable and inaccurate test strips, go for a liquid test kit instead. Liquid test are much more accurate and very reliable as long as you can follow directions.

Changing water once a wekk will slow down the cycle because ammonia/nitrite will rise way too high and can actually kill the bacteria in high enough levels. Of course it won't matter much, because by the time it gets high enough to hurt bacteria even a little bit, your fish will be long dead. You are probably going to need to change water every day to keep your water safe for your fish, maybe even more.

Adding "established" water will do nothing. Nitrifying bacteria is not waterborne. It grows on surfaces like gravel, decor, ect. and mostly in the filter.

Answer 5

NEVER add water from your local fish store, you never know what is in it.
Most fish stores run a number of tanks through 1 filter in the back room that you never see, Therfore if a fish in any of those tanks have any diseases that become water born you have a very high chance of introducing it to anything that you have in your tank.
Use a dip net to put your new fish from the bag into your aquarium, this will cut your chance of introducing CRAP to your aquarium greatly.

Answer 6

Get a test kit, and test once every other day, if ammonia rised above .5, do a water change of about 25%

Answer 7

Changing 10% to 25% of your water weekly is fine. Just make sure you add in dechlorinated water (water that has either sat for 24 hours or has had dechlorinater added)