Should i do a water change during cycleing ?

75 gallon tank with crushed coral and 20 pounds of live sand with a few live rocks, a couple of damsels, Magnum 350 filter, sand filter, and two power heads to keep the water moving. Using equipment I already had for this tank.... will be getting new stuff for the 125 gallon, but anyhow, Everything has been up and running for 3 weeks..... ammonia is at 2.0 nitrates are at 2.0.
We have two LFS's in town, one told me today to do a 10 percent water change every few days. What do you experienced reefers think ?

 

No, just let it go and let nature take its course...You really won't gain anything from doing a water change and may prolong the cycling process. The Damsels will be fine and if their is any die off on your live rock etc., it will rebound from it!
Good luck with the tank(s)!
Just make sure your tank cycles completely before adding anything else to your tank! What kind of Damsels do you have for your cycling? You may want to remove them before getting more involved with your tank( many types of Damsels are aggressive and will invoke chaos upon other livestock...trust me as I had a 4-stripe damsel in my tank-killed everything that I tried adding to my tank after it acclimated itself!

 

Thanks, I was thinking I should leave it alone, I have a 3 spot damsel and a blue damsel. Appreciate your advice

 

i started with the damsel thing towards the end of my first cycle GET THEM OUT THEY ARE LITTLE BASTARDS THAT ANNOY DELICATE FISH
leave your tank alone now you wont have troubles down the line

 

NO!


Leave it be. If you do a water change you will be defeating the purpose.

Even after you have finished the cycling I would wait a week or so before adding any new stock, and even then add one at a time and wait a couple of weeks before your next addition. You don't want to burden the new tank with an excess bio-load.

Good luck.

 

+1

Damsels are very territorial and depending on which type of damsel you have can be extremely aggressive to the point where they will not tolerate any new tenants in the tank! As a rule of thumb, territorial (and aggressive) fish should be one of the last additions to your tank.

I don't want to rain on your parade but they are lightning fast and trying to catch them can be an adventure. Since your tank is relatively new I would move some of your rock to one side of the tank and with some eggcrate box the damsels into the part of your tank with no rock. This will lessen the amount of swimming space they have and just net them out.

Good luck with your tank. Keep us posted with your progress.

Cheers!

 

let the tanks fully cycle as everyone has said. if you have the opportunity get those spotted damsels out. as for the green one if it is a blue-green reef chromis which are sold as damsels he is ok. i have had one in my reef since day one and he is a model citizen.

 

Like everyone else I say don't change any water it will do better if you don't. Also in one of my old tanks I had damsels and they are a pain to get out so when I set up my 90 gal I bought 8 green chromis and they are awesome they school together and look really cool in the MH lights.

 

so after the tank has cycle, when should you do a water change?

 

New tank cycling

I am new to this game .50 gall tank 6 weeks old. I have 20lb live sand, 25 kilo live rock,3 power jets, aquamedic bio flotor skimmer, 8 snails, 8 hermits ,cleaner shrimp and fire shrimp that I never see.
I have just put in a soft coral and a feather duster.
Ref cycling- books I read say ,even with no fish , initially I should get high ammonia then high nitrite then this converts to nitrate. This doesn't seem to have happened. All readings (phosphate, nitrite ammonia etc are low. PH is 8.3
Algae seems to be keeping low-I have some brown but this has now disappeared from the live rock which now has great colours - purple green etc
Has the tank gone through the nitrate cycle, when should I add 1 or 2 fish
Any help would be appreciated