Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrite

OK system has be running for a week, with uncured live rock.

I've been doing the water tests and ammonia has gone down to 0-0.1mg/l
Nitrate is around 20-50 and nitrite 1.6-3.3

I read through some paragraphs in my test books and it tells me to do a 20% water change if the nitrate and nitrite are so high.

Should I do the water change while the tank is still in the early stages of the cycle?

 

no water changes sabe. not during the cycle, it will just prolong it. water changes to reduce nitrate levels and such are used for after the cycle. your cycle sounds like its moving along nicely. y6ou will slowly start seeing all the readings drop slowly now over the next little while.

 

Thanks

That is what I thought, just wanted to make sure

I expect a couple more weeks before I add any livestock, but we will see

 

Use SeaChem Purigen, you won't have to worry about the nitrogen cycle anymore.

 

Then you need to worry about getting Purigen and continually replacing it, which is more hassle than it's worth when you can have a legitimate nitrogen cycle and the bacteria that it entails for your various inhabitants to eat (good luck keeping a sand sifting star when you use Purigen, and countless other things [stars and snails, for sure] that would feed on free floating bacteria or bacteria dwelling on rocks).

As for your cycle Sabe, it likely won't be a couple more weeks if you already have 0 ammonia, it should be much sooner. You can start once nitrites go down to 0 with some of the hardier fish, like occelaris clowns or damsels, after a water change or 2 to lower your nitrates to good levels.