Water changes?!

[Stagette]

Hiya, I cycled my tank before adding my fish and they was in there a week and the levels stayed at 0 but since the nitrite in particular has gone sky high again, the nitrate has also dropped slightly, for the last week i have been doing a 30% water change each day and the levels have dropped a little, am i doing the right thing in changing the water? Will it make my tank start to cycle again?

Any help would be appreciated

 

[clutterydrawer]

If you have more than 0 readings of ammonia and nitrite, your tank IS cycling again. You should keep doing water changes to protect your fish. keep them below 1ppm. do you know why the levels have gone up again? seems a bit odd. are you sure it was fully cycled in the first place?

 

[Stagette]

Yes, id have readings of 0 for over a week and before that they had been sky high. Only other thing i've added apart from the fish is another plant do you think this might have something to do with it or am i just being silly lol?

 

[kev_kb]

Water changes won't do any harm to the cycle as far as I know, well they didn't in my experience. I think I've seen posts on here saying plants can affect the cycle, not sure about a fully cycled tank though, can't really see the logic behind that!

 

[Stagette]

Well my fish seem ok not gasping at surface or laying subdued on the tank floor, they are darting around and only time they go near the surface is when they are looking for food. Hopefully the levels will drop again as quickly as they rose!

 

[clutterydrawer]

Water cahnges do prolong the cycle, but in this case it's a choice between a longer cycle or dead fish

I have no idead what could've caised it I'm afraid keep up the water changes and it should be fine though

 

[CathyG]

Did you add a lot of fish in one go to your newly cycled tank? This might've caused your parameters to spike...

And to answer your question, water changes are necessary to keep the parameters below one, and lessen the stress on the fish. It may or may not prolong your mini cycle, but at least your fish will thank you for keeping the levels low. Good luck!