Happy Friday everyone! I have been cycling my new tank for a few weeks now, and I have always read that it is best practice to do a big water change after cycling but before adding your first livestock. I'm questioning whether I need to do that at this point (planning on first fish this weekend), you'll see why below.
I started the tank with the refugium starter kit from Algae Barn, which included the Fritz Turbo Start 900. I realize some have said I shouldn't have been running a fuge in a brand new tank, but I've been dosing phyto daily and adding a small pinch of freeze dried shrimp every few days and the macro and pods seem to be very happy. Let's compare the parameters I tested one week ago to the ones I did just today:
A week ago:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate ~25ppm
Phosphate less than 0.01ppm
Today:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5ppm
Phosphate .05ppm
It seems like the macro is doing a good job exporting nutrients, and all other parameters stable, do I need a water change before adding fish? The phosphates did go up a bit, because last week I was worried they'd bottom out so I added some flakes. Not trying to skip steps here, just genuinely curious. Thanks in advance!
I started the tank with the refugium starter kit from Algae Barn, which included the Fritz Turbo Start 900. I realize some have said I shouldn't have been running a fuge in a brand new tank, but I've been dosing phyto daily and adding a small pinch of freeze dried shrimp every few days and the macro and pods seem to be very happy. Let's compare the parameters I tested one week ago to the ones I did just today:
A week ago:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate ~25ppm
Phosphate less than 0.01ppm
Today:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5ppm
Phosphate .05ppm
It seems like the macro is doing a good job exporting nutrients, and all other parameters stable, do I need a water change before adding fish? The phosphates did go up a bit, because last week I was worried they'd bottom out so I added some flakes. Not trying to skip steps here, just genuinely curious. Thanks in advance!