Water change during cycle?

Yannick
  • #1
I know the usual answer is probably no... But I'm starting to doubt, considering both NO2 and NO3 values are at the end of the scale my test can show...
My last water reading from today:
NH4: 3 ppm
NO2: 1 ppm (chart doesn't go beyond 1)
NO3: 200 ppm (chart doesn't go beyond 200)

I started the cycle on the 9th of Feb and used a primer for bacteria and added ammonia. I think I might have added a bit to much ammonia as the reading was maxed out at 5ppm since I added the ammonio. It's only today that the NH4 started to drop from 5 to 3.

My NO3 also jumped from 60 to 200ppm today which is the biggest jump i've seen so far. Normally it was an increase of around 10ppm per day.

NO2 never dropped so far. I only increased and was 0.9 yesterday, now 1 and chart is maxed out.
I assume that's because there is still plenty of NH4 in the water. My NO2 will only start going down if the NH4 is gone?

So... because of all this, should I do a partial water change? If so, how much?
Or should I just leave it be and wait for the ammonia to drop to 0?

It's a fishless cycle of course
There's plenty of plants in the tank as well, if that will make any difference...
 

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Alicy
  • #2
I can't actually answer this with more then I know plant roots can die if you get more then 150 nitrates and might want to consider water changes.

I'm actually going through the same so mainly just following the thread :>
 

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kallililly1973
  • #3
Personally I would do a 50% WC but don't do any gravel vac filter cleaning or glass scraping. just drain 50% and fill it back up with some water conditioner and retest tomorrow.
 
Yannick
  • Thread Starter
  • #4
ok thx. WC will have to wait to tomorrow.. Don't have time today...
 
TWiG87
  • #5
That is unusually high, but yea, a 50% WC will be fine as long as you don’t disturb the BB
 

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