To change water or not to change water!

[bartown]

Yesterday my were nitrites 0.3-0.8 and nitrates were 30 at a guess, we are two weeks into the cycle and have four fish, so the fish have been in for four days and are doing fine.

There is amonia, but at a safe level so I'm not worried about this, anyhow I thought I'd give the fish a break yesterday and did a 25% water change, and I expected the levels to drop this morning, they haven't if anything to test samples are darker, therefore slightly higher than yesterday.

Should I do another water change today to dilute it further, or should I just leave it be?

I have 3 plants in the water, so I'm hoping they will gobble up the nitrates, but its the nitrites I'm a bit worried about.

Wendy (again!!)

[Kuli_Loach]

Any levels of ammonia or nitrites aren't safe. I would do water changes, probably a 50 % and and then fill it up and do a 15-25%.

[Lady Hobbs]

I'm not able to understand your test numbers. I use the liquid tester and my nitrites read .25, .50, 1.0, 2.0, 5.0 so I'm having a hard time understanding your numbers. .03 sounds pretty low to me, however, but as Kuli stated, any ammonia and nitrites are toxic to fish. Nitrite cause Brown Blood desease which is fatal to fish.

However, you are cycling a tank and there's no way to get away from having some toxins but the trick is to keep them low enough so not to kill your fish.
You have to have some ammonia for your tank to cycle and of course that turns into nitrites so keeping them both at 0 is pretty impossible during a cycle.

Aquarium salt is beneficial at this point from keeping the nitrites becoming too toxic. It helps fish with gill function. I would be more concerned with the nitrate level. They should not be over 20. Altho you have plants, unless you have a heavily planted tank, those should be lowered with a water change to somewhere between 10-20.

You have not been cycling for long but with nitrites and nitrates already, you appear to be progressing along very well. It won't be long at all before you have finished.

Once you are done, add fish just a few at a time to not throw your cycle off again and over-load your bacteria. Two or three at most each week. Do not over-feed now, either. Fish can go long periods without food........days, at least.

Another plus to using tank salt right now would be that many fish that go thru a cycle develop ick due to the stress on their immune systems. The tank salt will eliminate that problem for you now as well.