10gal Freshwater aquarium ive had for about a month now, I have done a total of 2 50% water changes. This was the levels BEFORE the second water change. Im still establishing the tank. It is planted and had (i believe) bladder snails that hitchhiked onto the plants i ordered online.
Ive been dosing with seachem prime and stability the past 2 weeks. As well as CO2 liquid every other day.
Should I do more frequent water changes? When I did my first water change last week, the nitrites where at 0, they are now spiked. My nitrates have been high.
I do not have any fish stocked, just the snails that came with the plants (and going to keep to clean the dead plants that didnt make it – unless someone suggests otherwise).
Im trying to get this tank cycled properly for maybe a betta later down the line.
Im still learning!! Any and all advice is welcome 🙂
Posted by BareTheBear66
1 Comment
Stop with the water changes. There’s no need to remove the nitrite, the bacteria need that to feed on to establish. By removing it from the water you are stalling the cycle. Just leave the tank alone, stop dosing things, and test your water twice daily and log the results. Nitrite will spike for a few days and that’s when you are in the last leg of the cycle. One day nitrite will magically disappear. Since you have snails feeding the ammonia, just wait 24 hours and retest. If ammonia and nitrite are 0, you’re cycled. Do a large water change just before adding fish to remove nitrate.
Prime is a great water conditioner when you have fish in the tank. Otherwise it’s not great to cycle with because it binds ammonia and nitrite. I’d switch to a regular conditioner that just removes chlorine, or skip the conditioner and just use aged tap water until you’re cycled.
Liquid co2 also doesn’t do anything for plants. It’s more of a gimmick if anything tbh. It does work well as an algaecide if over dosed, but find a better all in one fertilizer for low tech tanks if you’re trying to help your plants.