Water Changes in the Cycling Aquarium

Don't Water Changes Keep the Biological Filter from Maturing?

Some people recommend not doing water changes while the tank is cycling because they believe that this will disturb the bacteria that are colonizing the biological filter and will either prevent the tank from cycling or will make it take longer to cycle. This is actually one of the common misconceptions in the aquarium hobby.

In my experience, not only does performing frequent small water changes while cycling the tank does not delay or hamper the cycling process, in fact, in many cases it seems to speed it up slightly!

In addition, if your tank is cycling and has fish in it, the elevated ammonia and nitrite levels are almost always fatal to the some, if not all, of the fish before the biological filter is up and running if you do not perform regular, frequent, small water changes to keep these toxin levels low.

Performing small, frequent water changes while the tank is cycling is not only beneficial to the cycling process and helpful to the bacteria you are trying to establish, but it is also crucial to the health of the fish in the tank.

My snail mail address is: Keith Seyffarth, 217 W. Koch, #308, Bozeman, MT 59715.
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Page most recently modified: November 26 2006 11:02:06.