Cycling tank questions

[raseii]

Hi,
I am in the process of cycling my 10 gallon tank with 2 swordtails. After a week of being set up, my ammonia was 0.25, nitrites were 5.0 and nitrites were at 20. Yesterday I tested it and every thing read the same, so I did a 20% water change and my nitrites dropped to 3.0. You read so many different things, but should I be doing regular water changes through out the cycle also? I thought I read somewhere that as long as the fish were doing fine, it would go faster if you didnt do the water changes. So water changes or not? What should I be doing at this point?
Thanks for any advise. this is the first tank we have owned and we want to do everything right.
Thanks

 

[B75]

Any reading on nitrites above 0 are bad for fish, I pesonally would advise that you do water chabges every day for about 5 days then take another reading. High nitrites can cause severe illness in fish, basically messes with their immune systems.

 

[Polardbear]

I've had a lot of problems with Swordtails and high nitrites! Please, do daily water changes to get that reading down for your swordie's sake. Swordies can be quite sensitive to nitrite and it will lead to a ton of other problems such as columnaris, fin rot, ich etc. It weakens their immune system, causes them stress and a stressed swordtail is almost quarenteed to quickly become a sick swordtail.

 

[raseii]

Thanks for the suggestions. How much of a water change do you recommend doing daily until the nitrites drop? I did 20% this morning and just now did another 20%, I hope that wasnt too much for them, I just wanted to get that number down. I am planning on getting a larger tank and will most likely do a fishless cycle. Do you also need to do water changes on a fishless cycle?
Thanks

 

[raseii]

I'm sorry, I was reading someone elses post and wanted to ask another question. I've been checking the readings on my tank every other day and My Ammonia in the tank has only got as high as .25 and then the nitrite spiked. Should I expect it hasnt cylced past the ammonia spiking stage yet or has it?
Thanks again

 

[Polardbear]

In my 10 gallon tanks I usually do about 40% of the water, but I think most people would consider that kind of extreme. You'd probably be better off doing 20-30% at a time. Twice a day several hours apart is also good if you have the time to do them.

With a fishless cycle you don't have to do a water change until the very end when the tank has cycled and your ready to add your fish.

My first 10 gallon tank took almost 6 weeks to cycle with fish (and it was very hard on them). I did a fishless cycle on my 55 gallon that I bought 4 weeks after the 10 gallon and it was cycled in 2 1/2 weeks. If you know anyone with a healthy aquarium that would give you some of their gravel or used filter media you could use it to speed up the cycling of your 10 gallon.

 

[Polardbear]

A lot will depend on how much you are feeding your swordtails. My 10 gal's ammonia readings went way higher than that. It's difficult to keep the little tanks clean, it seems like by the time you get the gravel vacuumed you've syphoned over half the water. If you overfeed at all you will get ammonia and nitrite spikes all over the place.

If it's only been set up for a week you're probably just starting into the spiking phases. I would expect to see higher ammonia readings. Just keep testing frequently and see what happens. The frequent water changes may slow down the process of cycling but they will keep your fishes alive.