Rookie question

[ll206]

When should I do my first water change? At what readings? And during the cycling process, at what rate should my nitrite and ammonia rise?

 

[old salt]

Don't do a water change until your tank is done cycling, at the least... Your ammonia and Nitrite should be basically down to zero and your Nitrates should be on the rise... i think like 20-40 ppm...
You really should buy a good book... all the info you want and more....

 

[goofieones]

I wouldn't do your first water change until about 2-3 weeks after the tank is completly cycled. It's hard to say how far up all your readings will go, some of mine were off the darn chart!! But my readings were somewhat consistant, from the time my Ammonia peaked, it took 10 days to come all the way down, same with nitrite, it peaked and ten days later was down to zero agian. All and all took about 6 weeks. Seems like forever, but take it slow.