Should I do a water change...

[sepuku]

Let me put some context around this question...
I built my tank up last weekend, using Tropica aquarium soil, plants. and (washed) small grained gravel/sand, then put in the water conditioner to dechlorinate the water, and some bio-boost (essentially to add some healthy bacteria).
Tropica advertise that the soil is likely to turn the water acidic, so I've waited 5 days to allow this to happen, before looking to do a water change. They recommend doing 2x 25-50% water changes a week for the first 4 weeks due to the water turning acidic.

I received my API master test kit yesterday, expecting to find the water being slightly acidic and prepping to do a water change.
However, when completing the tests (I followed the instructions to the letter), I had the following values:
pH - between 7.0 and 7.2
Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - between 5ppm and 10ppm

So my question is: Do I really need to do a water change right now? I dont see the point in doing one if all the levels are perfect, and the water is crystal clear...

Thanks in advance for the advice!

/sep

 

[Essjay]

Has the pH of the tank water changed at all over the time it's been in the tank?
What is the pH of your tap water - specifically a glass of tap water that's been allowed to stand overnight? Freshly run tap water and water that's been allowed to stand often have a different pH, and sinc ethe tank water isn't freshly run you need to compare it to tap water that's been allowed to stand.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Also, you've added no ammonia for the beneficial bacteria to feed on, to begin cycling the tank.

 

[Essjay]

It may be intended as a plant cycle?

 

[Slaphppy7]

Perhaps, I've never done one that way, so know nothing about it...

 

[Essjay]

It was just that using special plant soils usually means the tank is to be heavily planted, so I wondered if the intention was a plant/silent cycle. Though bacterial starters aren't normally used in plant cycles.

 

[Slaphppy7]

It was just that using special plant soils usually means the tank is to be heavily planted, so I wondered if the intention was a plant/silent cycle. Though bacterial starters aren't normally used in plant cycles.

Yep, the bottled bacteria is what made me assume....

 

[sepuku]

Sorry, I forgot to add that I'd initially (on the same day of getting the tank set up) put in some fish flakes to add as an ammonia source. I didn't put in a handful, just a healthy pinch.
As far as I've been able to find out, it takes approximately 3 days for fish food to start breaking down into ammonia. I'm on day 5 now, so I assume the food has been broken/in the process of breaking down into ammonia. I am able to source some bottled ammonia though (a neighbour of mine is a Professor of medicinal chemistry for a well respected university in the UK and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, with a home lab - I'm sure he'd knock something up for me )

Didn't know there was such a thing as a "plant cycle"... Still learning! As far as I was concerned, there was only one type of cycle needed, Ammonia -> Nitrite -> Nitrate.
Would love to learn more about the plant cycle though. When would you use this?

 

[Essjay]

Plants take up ammonia as fertiliser and they turn it into protein rather than nitrite. The faster growing the plant, the more ammonia it takes up. In a tank heavily planted with fast growing plants, the plants are capable or removing all the ammonia made by a tankful of fish. Slow growing plants will take up some ammonia but not all that a tankful of fish makes so for a plant cycle, it is important to use fast growing plants - and this includes floating plants.
With this method the tank is set up and plants put in. It is useful to take a photo of the tank at this point. After two weeks, the photo is compared to the tank as it is now to see how much the plants have grown. If they are also showing new growth, a few fish can be put in the tank. Ammonia and nitrite should be tested every day to make sure the plants are taking up all the ammonia. If there is no sign of either, a few more fish can be added a week later. As time passes, the plants will grow bigger as more fish are added so the plants keep up with the increasing fish load.
Bacteria do grow in the background but not nearly as many as in a tank with few or no live plants.



For your tank, it depends what type of plant and how many of them. If you would prefer, you can still do a normal fishless cycle, though using ammonia from a bottle is better as you know exactly how much ammonia is going into the tank while you cannot know how much ammonia and therefore how many bacteria have grown when using fish food. With ammonia from a bottle, almost all the fish can be added once the cycle has finished; with fish food, the tank has to be stocked slowly.