Sasukii

Ok, so I'm reading and reading and reading about cycling. I'm trying to take it all in, but a little information I keep finding varies... so straight forward question as I try and fully understand... and I just want to double check my information.

I can basically change the water as much as needed to keep it clear, as long as I do not change or touch the filter and the water inside the filter? I'm just curious because I had stumbled across some information that said that anything more than a 50% water change more than once every two weeks can set you totally back. I want to try and get this tank as sparkling as possible, and if the cycling can happen while I keep the tank pretty nice that would be great. I guess I'm just a little confused. I've been tossed link after link through different places, I guess I just want to know if I keep tabs on my levels, can I continually clean my tank once a week doing between 10-25% water changes depending on how in depth my cleaning goes? If my tank is not fully cycled, will that harm my process since I am not disturbing the filter at all? I've never changed it yet... and it's almost 2 months old.

jdhef

The water doesn't hold any bacteria, but it does contain ammonia and or nitrites during cycling. So changing out too much water will remove too much ammonia/nitrites and therefore the bacteria that feeds on ammonia/nitrites will die off.

But as you are cycling with fish, you cannot allow the ammonia/nitrite levels to get high, since it will poison your fish. So while cycling you should do 50% daily water changes, using a product called "Prime" as your water condition. The "Prime" will make the ammonia/nitrites non toxic to your fish (but available to the bacteria) for 24 hours, at which point you would do another water change.

You can swish your filter media in the dirty tank water to clean out the debris, without killing off the bacteria.

But as you go thru the cycling process, your tank will cloud up for a few days occasionally, due to the growth of the bacteria. But it will clear back up, and once cycled, you shouldn't experience cloudy water anymore.

Lucy

It took me forever to understand the cyling process and like you the more I read the more confused I became.

My answers tend to be lengthy, but I'll try not to confuse you further. Here's my basic explanination of what happens and what to do when cycling with fish in the tank:

First your ammonia (from fish waste and left over food) will rise.
In a few weeks you'll see the nitrite levels rise and the ammonia levels start to drop.

After a few more weeks you'll see the nitrate levels rise and the nitrite levels drop.

Ammonia and nitrites are toxic to your fish.

So until your cycle is complete, you need to keep the levels down with daily water changes.

When you having readings of 0 on both ammonia and nitrites with some nitrates showing, your cycle is done.

The water contains little bacteria so changing it out will not effect the cycle in that regard.
However, it does contain ammonia the bacteria needs to develop, it's not free floating. It attaches it's self to the gravel, decorations and more importantly, the filter media.

Since the ammonia and nitrites in the water harms or can kill fish, we have to keep the level down.
That's why it takes longer to cycle with fish than without.

If there were no fish in the tank, we could just add a source of ammonia (fish food or pure ammonia) and leave nature to take it's course and cycle naturally.

I hope that helps.