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Fishless Cycle (water changes)

W

Worshiper

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Joined
16 Aug 2013
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260
Sorry if this has been asked before. I know it is here in this forum somewhere but I just cant find it.

Can I do water changes during a fishless cycle?
I have added plants and been doing regular EI dosing with CO2 the past week but not sure if I should do a 50% water change.
(Been seeing some brown fluffy like algae growing)

Any advice will be appreciated ☺

Thanx guys.
 
I asked the same question, essentially your plant mass will absorb all the bad stuff. Filter bacteria will build up over time so don't worry about that, just continue with water changes as usual.

And don't forget the dechlorinator.
 
So the tank will mature even with 50% weekly changes then? I thought it would affect the balance so was a bit confused.

Thanx Julian!
 
Yes i am. I have put some filter media from an established aquarium too. ☺
 
My new setups get 75% daily water changes for the first week, 50% every other day for the next couple of weeks (ish) then 80-50% weekly depending on what I feel like doing. This is with pretty heavy fish stock. The brown algae is pretty common in new stups big daily water changes of 90% won't do any harm and should help the plants adapt.
 
As you've added in some media from an established tank, I'd be inclined to perform a couple of large water changes to reduce the ammonia (depends if you've an ammonia "detector" (Seachem's sensor works very well in my experience) & how much/final concentration you've added re anything more than 2-4ppm will inhibit the bacteria you're trying to encourage) & then just add an algae crew
amano shrimp
cherry shrimp
otocinclus

Depending on substrate you may have significant ammonia leaching (think ADA soils), so daily water changes may be needed (again depends on plant density & growth rates & pH)
 
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