Does that mean that I should start changing the water once either the ammonia or the nitrite levels reach 0.25 as my upper level?
quote name='waterdrop' date='Aug 19 2009, 10:53 PM' post='2504341']
No, your pH is fine for now, I'd just set that question aside for the moment and you can come back to it later. Having a stable pH is more important than what the numerical pH actually is. I'd come back later thinking of pH as a sort of "fine tuning" question that's related to what tap water you've been given and what fish species you hope to keep. Its not as important at the moment as other basics you need to get a feel for.
OK, so the main thing for you right now is the water change skill. You're exactly right in your thinking. Now that you have a good test kit, you can use that as a tool and no longer have to blindly change water just based on a time period having gone by. Doing weekly water changes -is- a very important habit once a tank has been cycled, but during cycling we have to be more detailed than that.
Your goal is to test perhaps twice a day (usually at some convenient times about 12 hours apart) and log the results to use like a detective. You want to attempt to not go over 0.25ppm ammonia (high ammonia levels cause permanent gill damage, varying on a species basis, and can lead to shortened lives or death) and not to go over 0.25ppm of nitrite(NO2) (high nitrite(NO2) levels destroy the hemoglobin protein in fish blood, causing the equivalent of suffocation, leading to permanent nerve and brain damage and shortened lives or death.) That makes it sound worse than it often is. The real situation varies by species and sometimes the fish can vary their microenvironment by moving around.
Anyway, when you change water and then re-measure it a half-hour or hour later (after its had time to be better mixed by the filter) you're hoping the ammonia and nitrite will now show as zero or just very low traces. This gives you growing room for it to head upward toward your 0.25ppm upper line during the next 12 hours before you test again. Twelve hours or so later when you test if its already hit or has gone over 0.25ppm then you know you'd maybe like your changes to be a little higher percentage perhaps. Of course you've got both percentage and frequency to work with to try and make life easier.
As long as you condition and temperature match the replacement water (we're assuming your tap water stats are good) then you can pretty much change any percentage right up to the point where the fish still have a little to cover them just above the substrate, lol. Oh, and the way you're going to know that a fish-in cycle is over is when you can go two days without changing any water and get solid zero readings for both toxins. That gives you the right to just watch it for a week and see if it comes back on you. Otherwise you can relax into feeling you are cycled and will be able to think about gradually introducing new fish.
~~waterdrop~~
[/quote]
quote name='waterdrop' date='Aug 19 2009, 10:53 PM' post='2504341']
No, your pH is fine for now, I'd just set that question aside for the moment and you can come back to it later. Having a stable pH is more important than what the numerical pH actually is. I'd come back later thinking of pH as a sort of "fine tuning" question that's related to what tap water you've been given and what fish species you hope to keep. Its not as important at the moment as other basics you need to get a feel for.
OK, so the main thing for you right now is the water change skill. You're exactly right in your thinking. Now that you have a good test kit, you can use that as a tool and no longer have to blindly change water just based on a time period having gone by. Doing weekly water changes -is- a very important habit once a tank has been cycled, but during cycling we have to be more detailed than that.
Your goal is to test perhaps twice a day (usually at some convenient times about 12 hours apart) and log the results to use like a detective. You want to attempt to not go over 0.25ppm ammonia (high ammonia levels cause permanent gill damage, varying on a species basis, and can lead to shortened lives or death) and not to go over 0.25ppm of nitrite(NO2) (high nitrite(NO2) levels destroy the hemoglobin protein in fish blood, causing the equivalent of suffocation, leading to permanent nerve and brain damage and shortened lives or death.) That makes it sound worse than it often is. The real situation varies by species and sometimes the fish can vary their microenvironment by moving around.
Anyway, when you change water and then re-measure it a half-hour or hour later (after its had time to be better mixed by the filter) you're hoping the ammonia and nitrite will now show as zero or just very low traces. This gives you growing room for it to head upward toward your 0.25ppm upper line during the next 12 hours before you test again. Twelve hours or so later when you test if its already hit or has gone over 0.25ppm then you know you'd maybe like your changes to be a little higher percentage perhaps. Of course you've got both percentage and frequency to work with to try and make life easier.
As long as you condition and temperature match the replacement water (we're assuming your tap water stats are good) then you can pretty much change any percentage right up to the point where the fish still have a little to cover them just above the substrate, lol. Oh, and the way you're going to know that a fish-in cycle is over is when you can go two days without changing any water and get solid zero readings for both toxins. That gives you the right to just watch it for a week and see if it comes back on you. Otherwise you can relax into feeling you are cycled and will be able to think about gradually introducing new fish.
~~waterdrop~~
[/quote]
