Do I need to do water changes??

[PeteLockwood]

It's strange that nitrite would be high. And that's something you can't afford to mess with - high nitrite will kill your fish if you don't address it.

Since you had a nitrite reading, you need to buy the test kit - without it, you're just guessing whether or not the water is toxic.

 

[Zoodiver]

so i got the water tested and no ammonia, nitrates and nitrites we both a tiny bit high and pH is at 7....all he said was that it is water change time

That helps you figure out where you are for a starting point. Having nitRITE in there means you're still esablishing your aerobic bacteria colony for the load you have going on in the tank. I wouldn't do more than a 20% change right now. Keep it stable. When you are at this stage, you don't want to disrupt the natural process by doing a big water change. A lot of people make that mistake and swear they are doing the right thing anyway.

 

[Zoodiver]

Side note: Thread just took 20 minutes to clean up. Keep it clean or infractions get handed out.

 

[mcm83]

it is recommended that you do water changes weekly. but in a tank that size weekly 50% water changes would suck. the fish will really appreciate it though.

 

[heatha]

i ordered a test kit, its gunna be $45 and will be here in about a week

 

[kdrun76]

Did you get numbers for the nitrite and nitrate? What does "high" mean?

Nitrites over 1ppm are bad news, nitrites over 5ppm are lethal.

 

[heatha]

Did you get numbers for the nitrite and nitrate? What does "high" mean?

Nitrites over 1ppm are bad news, nitrites over 5ppm are lethal.

he told me there was the tiniest bit of nitrite in there and nitrates were just a little bit over just right. i did not get the numbers. he just showed me the colors on the cards

 

[hereticlosmorte]

it is recommended that you do water changes weekly. but in a tank that size weekly 50% water changes would suck. the fish will really appreciate it though.

it's not all that bad. i water change a 300gal, 90gal, 60gal and a 10gal every week roughly, and it takes about 2.5 hrs for all of them. once you've done the actual glass scrubbing, the water change portion is easy, just look over at it while you do other stuff. very simple.


as for your nitrite amount, it sounds like your tank might not be fully cycled, but finishing off its cycling process. nitrites are not what you want to be having in a ray tank (or any fish tank for that matter).

 

[hereticlosmorte]

out of curiosity, what size of wet/dry sump do you have on that 300gal tank? i looks to be like a 30-40 gal sump. if so, you might actually have too little filtration on the tank for the bioload.

 

[J.Lake]

I agree waterchanges are not that big of a deal. I pull 250 gallons out of my tanks evry saturday or sunday. I also try to sneak in a 100 gallon bi weekly pull of water from my rays in addition to their weekend wc.