The Fish Head

hey all, I'm new here, seems like a friendly fish forum to be a part of, glad to be here. My question is, if the water is clear, how do you know when to change the water in the tank? By a large nitrate reading? I just got a 29 gallon tank and the Petco manager advised me to buy a water pump for the 45-70 gallon tank and she said this larger pump is what she has for her 29 gallon tank, and she never has to do water changes. Does this sound right?
If the water is all fine in the chemical tests (including nitrate), should I not change my water? Also too my pump has 2 filters, should I change one every month so as the other filter will have the bacteria on it? Thanks for the help!!

sirdarksol

Welcome to Fishlore!
Step 1: Ignore the Petco manager. Petco managers are hired based on their ability to deal with people and to pay attention to the bottom line. They don't need to know anything about animals. Aside from this, Petco purposefully spreads misinformation about the aquarium hobby.
Step 2: Weekly water changes are always a good idea. Base these on your nitrates, and figure out the amount needed to keep the nitrates below 20 PPM.
Step 3: The pouch of charcoal should be changed out once a month, or, better (in my opinion) replace it with an empty pouch.
Step 4: Only change non-carbon filter media when it's about to fall apart. I've had the filter media in one of my filters for over a year now.
Step 5: Enjoy your tank.

CHoffman

Welcome to FishLore
Like sirdarksol said weekly water changes are best. You will learn a ton here. Enjoy.

capekate

Hello Fish head and welcome to fishlore.
You will find a lot of fact filled information here and there are many articles to read up on in the beginners section.
I cant imagine someone saying you dont need to change the water in your tank, but I am not surprised by the bad advice given by chain store employees.
Your fish will produce a lot of waste and with uneaten food at the bottom of the tank you will want to do regular gravel cleaning as well as water changes. All that 'gunk' on the bottom of your tank will increase your nitrate levels.
You should also get yourself a good water test kit such as the API water test kit.
There is a lot of information to read up on when you are starting out with a new tank and I hope you take advantage of the articles that are offered here in fishlore and learn all you can ... and always... ask questions when needed! There is always someone online to give you a hand!

catbtony

Welcome Fish Head,
The advice given is correct, one thing you might think of doing is starting a LOG-write down the day you started your tank, fish added and things like that and most important water change days-what I do -I have one day a week that is devoted to just AQUARIUM care day-(I have 7 tanks)
I did not see that you know what Cycled means lots of great information on this site for that, this is one of the most important things you must do with a new tank before you add any fish, we want your experience to be a good one, having a healthy fish tank is a wonderful hobby. Good luck

The Fish Head

Thank you dozey, capekate, choffman, sirdarksol, and catbtonyfor the great welcome and the helpful advice. lol, yeah I found out with Petco that if you ask 5 employees a question, they will give you 5 different answers. Speaking of which, my second day I had the tank, I was told by an employee that I could and should add about 10 fish (4-mollies, 4-platys, 2 tetras, and , so I mistakenly did (like a week and a half ago). So lost one platy right away so I took back to the store and another employee couldn't believe this guy there told me to do 10 for only a 29 gallon tank. Do you all think these fish will come through the Cycle, and if so, end up disease-susceptible? My ammonia spiked 3 days ago. I added some liquid form beneficial bacteria 3 days ago and got the bacteria bloom white cloud and it's clearing up now. The ammonia is down a lot now, to .50 ppm, tested with API ammonia liquid kit. So when that is down to zero, how long usually after that does the nitrites start spiking and then for it to go to zero, a week or two? Thanks everyone for the great help, really appreciate!!

-Hey catbtony, thanks for your help. Yeah, learned about the cycle, I kinda screwed up because a Petco guy gave me bad advice putting 10 fish in there the second day I had the tank. I just hope it doesn't harm the fish down the road. I wish I would have done it fishless

Dozey

Welcome Fish Head,

Pet store advice is primarily based on killing your fish so you buy more fish, medication and what ever else they can convince you to buy.

Weekly water changes will be necessary as you will need to vacuum the gravel. The amount of water changed will be based on your nitrate readings. For example if your nitrates are 10ppm then a small 20% water change will be sufficient. Should your nitrates be 40ppm then you are going to want to do a 50% water change.

If you are not cleaning the gravel regularly with you water changes your nitrates will continue to rise. I try to clean about 30% of my gravel with each water change. (nitrates 10ppm).

When you need to buy something go to your LFS (local fish store), when you need advice, come here.

Best of luck and hope you enjoy many years with your fish.

The Fish Head

Would you all recommend waiting to change my water until after the nitrogen cycle? Or should I do it before? I wasn't sure if vacuuming the gravel would slow the Cycle.

sirdarksol

If you have any ammonia/nitrites in your tank, it would be best to do a daily 25% water change, just to keep those numbers down. Once you have zero ammonia and zero nitrites, you should be okay going to weekly water changes.

So, to directly answer your question, yes, you should do water changes/gravel vacs while your tank is cycling. Yes, it will slow the cycle a bit, but it will help your fish survive it, which is the important thing.

Dozey

If your tank is still cycling then daily water changes is more advised (50%). This will cut down toxins by about 50%. As I’m not sure about your vacuuming question I’ll leave that to others to respond as I’ve never cycled a tank with fish in.

The Fish Head

Thank you sir and Dozey, I appreciate the help!!

jdhef

And just in case it hasn't been mentioned already, you should use a product called Prime as your water conditioner. Prime has the ability to make ammonia non-toxic for 24 hours, while still having the ammonia be available to feed your beneficial bacteria.

If you are doing water changes every day as recommended, you will be adding Prime every day and therefore your fish will not suffer from ammonia poisoning. On a side note, add enough Prime to the new water to treat the entire volume of your tank while cycling, this way all ammonia is detoxified.

The Fish Head

Thanks Jdhef for telling me about Prime, I will definitely use that. Petco pushes Amquel for the water changes. I have well water which is awful, so I only put bottled water in my tank, should I still use a conditioner with the bottled water?

jdhef

If it were me, I would. I don't know enough about bottled water to know if it has any chlorine, chloramines or heavy metals in it, so I would add it just to be safe. It's cheap insurance. Also, if instead of Prime, you use Stress Coat+ (make sure it's the +), you will get the same benifits of Prime, plus Stress Coat contains Aloe Vera which is good for your fishes slime coat. One thing a noticed about Stress Coat, it seems to leave a film on my acrylic tanks, so I only use it in my glass tank.

The Fish Head

thanks Jdhef, I will do that. I just found out the hard way to make sure you get a second heater to warm up your new water. I had my tank at 80 F and changed 5 gallons and the bottled water tank was at room temperature so this new water caused it to go down to 74 so learned my lesson to use a heater to match the new water with the aquarium water. Thanks again for the help!

Dozey

IMHO I'd stick with Prime. Although I do use Stress Coat if I have stressed or injured fish you are adding Aloe Vera every time you use it. Aloe Vera does not come out of the water so you adding more and more of it every time you do a water change. A good product for sure but for water changes I stick to Prime.

The Fish Head

Thanks Dozey, I appreciate!

soldieroffortune1974

I haven't put my in yet.
Welcome to Fishlore The Fish Head

I would agree with everything everyone has said so far..........

You said your well water is Horrible? Have you tested it for ammonia,nitrites,nitrates heavy metals? Does it have a lot of suspended matter in it?

I ask,because well water hasn't been treated with chemicals,but may contain some through run off.........Just curious.

The Fish Head

Hey SOF, thanks for the welcome and responding. Nah, I only put bottled water in my tank because my well water is horrible. When it was tested right after I had my tank setup, the pet store said everything was great, no chlorine and no hard water, etc so that's good. Do you guys think I should avoid cleaning my gravel until I'm cycled? Just stick to the water change only, correct? I don't want to disturb any bacteria buildup on my gravel. Then once I'm cycled, it's best to do a partial gravel area cleaning change each time correct? Definitely makes sense, just reading everyone's posts is a great info resource for a total fish newbie.

soldieroffortune1974

That's about it. Change the water.Leave the gravel alone until cycled.

After cycle is complete,change the water,vacuum half or 1/3 of the gravel at a time,you should be good. That's it.

The Fish Head

Thanks SOF, I appreciate that.