Water Change or Not??

[kube]

Hello,
I am cycling my first salt water tank, and everyone at the pet stores have told me that i don't need to cycle the tank at all. But fortunately I have been lurking around here for a few months and am going to cycle with live rock and sand, today my ammonia started to go up to like .5 so when it goes higher should i do a water change or not I have read many posts on here that contradict each other, so what do you think and why?
thanks
Kube

 

[trigger11]

My opinion:
Assuming you have no livestock in the tank at the moment. No fish or inverts.
Then,
Let the tank finish cycling completely before doing any water changes. (Also do not add anything that says helps cycle faster)
Have you only added the live rock and sand so far? Did you put a dead shrimp in there to start the cycle? The reason I ask is because if your LS and LR were truly live then there wouldnt have been much of a cycle. Unless it took you a while to get the rock home then you could have had considerable die off in the rock. That would be cause to have the ammonia go up like it has. In either case it sounds like the cycle is well on its way and I would let it finish.
Congratulations on taking the plunge for the most addictive and expensive hobby on the plant.

 

[kube]

Yes all i have is live sand, and live rock in the tank, the rock wash shipped from this site, and yes I have a shrimp in there doing its thing in the corner, and there is no live stock in there
Kube

 

[reefkprz]

now that your ammonia has reached 0.5 take out the dead shrimp. allow your tank to do its thing if your ammonia reaches 0.75-1.0 I would do a waterchange otherwise I would just let it do its thing. the why would be to keep the ammonia levels low enough that more microfauna survives the cycle making for a more biodiverse tank.

 

[aztec reef]

i agree, reefkprz you beat me to the punch..

that's fine, you can do a WC if you like and ONLY if Ammonia goes over 1ppm, the reason: there's infauna in live rock that may not make it through high ammonia levels.. But you don't have to, it is best and easier to just let the tank do it's cycle on it's own..