riflemn Posted July 21, 2009 Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 I am setting up a new 50 gal tank and have had it running for about 2-3 weeks without fish. and am looking for a little advice. Everything seems to check out okay as I used Prime in the water and used media from one of my son's tanks. I plan on putting fish in it very soon. Am I required to do a water change even though I have not put fish in it yet? What is the purpose of changing water other than getting rid of fish waste? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted July 21, 2009 Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 Have you been adding ammonia this whole time(fishless cycling)? If you have then you need to do a 100% water change to bring down the nitrates. If you haven't been fishless cycling all this time then you still have to cycle the tank. All the used filter media you added will now be dead from lack of food(ammonia). So you can either add a few fish and cycle it slowly that way, or start a fishless cycle now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riflemn Posted July 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 Have you been adding ammonia this whole time(fishless cycling)? If you have then you need to do a 100% water change to bring down the nitrates.If you haven't been fishless cycling all this time then you still have to cycle the tank. All the used filter media you added will now be dead from lack of food(ammonia). So you can either add a few fish and cycle it slowly that way, or start a fishless cycle now. I just checked the nitrates and it is at .01 and ammonia is at .0. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted July 21, 2009 Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 (edited) That means your filter is dead. If your filter was good, you'd see at least 5ppm of nitrates. You now have to cycle your tank by adding fish slowly, or fishless cycle, like degrassi mentioned. Edited July 21, 2009 by jvision Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riflemn Posted July 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 That means your filter is dead. If your filter was good, you'd see at least 5ppm of nitrates. You now have to cycle your tank by adding fish slowly, or fishless cycle, like degrassi mentioned. Thanks very much. It is a steep learning curve from 40 years ago:-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted July 21, 2009 Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 Google fishless cycling, there is lots of info about it. Its the fastest and safest way to cycle your tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riflemn Posted July 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 (edited) Google fishless cycling, there is lots of info about it. Its the fastest and safest way to cycle your tank. Yes thank you. I was on google today and there is lots of info. I added a couple of rainbow zebras today to get it started and changed about a 1/4 of the water. I will see how that goes. Edited July 22, 2009 by riflemn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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