can i change water during first cycle?

[scriptwiz05]

Ive had my tank about 2 months now and it still isnt cycled, how long does it take? i do have fish in there and have been doing regular water changes as my ammonia would rise. I would change water and it would go down. but now, only a couple days ago i did a 50 percent water change as the ammonia was at 2.5, i checked it today, its still at 2.5, is my tank finally cycling? can i change the water or leave it? what about the fish as they are acting weird and have also got some ich. i put coppersafe in there yesterday but they still seem anti social. could i place ammonia reducers in there in the meantime rather than water changes? what do i do?

[spudbuds]

Since you have fish in, you should definitely keep up the water changes. Do them daily if needed. This will slow down your cycle, but leaving the ammonia that high will harm your fish.

Are you adding any product to help cycle the tank with the fish? If not, try getting one of these: Seachem Stability, Bacter Boost by Marc Weiss Co., or StressZyme (by API I think), or Bio-Spira. I've heard all of these work with varying levels of success.

Also, to get a better idea of where your cycle is at, you'll need to test for nitrite and nitrate as well as the ammonia. Just knowing the ammonia reading isn't enough information to know where your cycle is at.

There is also a sticky about making the best out of cycling with fish. Give it a read. There's some good info in there.

- Bill