I have a 20 gallon freshwater tank that I just set up. How long should I wait until I do my first water change?
changing water
- Thread starter celts88
- Start date
Is your tank cycled? (0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, only nitrates present) The frequency and amount of water changed should be dependent on the nitrate present. You need a fresh water master test kit, such as the one by API, to test your water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrates. Keeping nitrates below 20 ppm works well for many types of fish. There are some fish that require even lower nitrate levels to do well.
If you have not cycled your tank, please consider fishless cycling, instead of cycling with fish. Fishless cycling is a superior cycling method that harms no fish, but does take time and requires patience.
If you have not cycled your tank, please consider fishless cycling, instead of cycling with fish. Fishless cycling is a superior cycling method that harms no fish, but does take time and requires patience.
+1 for the fishless cycling, I actually think it's a lot easier and quicker than using fish to cycle (using Ace hardware Ammonia).
you can do partial water changes while the tank is cycling. In fact if there are inhabitants I would recommend it. The bacteria don't need much to continue growing, and as long as you only doing partial changes you won't get anywhere near all of it out.
i know it prob varies but usually how long does it take for a tank to cycle? The tank, gravel and filter have been used for a while before if that makes any difference
It only makes a difference if they were moved directly to your tank from the other tank. If it was not moved directly from one tank to the other then all of the bacteria would have died.
I've cycled a couple of tanks recently, fishless using Ammonia and Seachem Stability, 40g breeder took 8 days, 16g Sera just finished yesterday which is day 17.