When to do a water change with NitroCycle?

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pseudorand

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I have a QT cycling with Fritz quick start and NitroCycle. Seems to be going well, but do I hold off on water changes until ammonia and nitrite are both 0?

I'm 6 days in. Yesterday ammonia was 0.5, nitrite was 5ppm+ and nitrate was 160ppm+ (both off the chart with my API test kit). This morning my seachem ammonia alert says I'm ammonia free.

I expect I'll still have some nitrite when I test again, and possibly ammonia (I think the seachem shows only toxic ammonia while api shows the sum of ammonia and ammonium). Do those sky-high nitrite and nitrate numbers help or hinder the cycling process? Should I be doing interim water change, or just wait until I have nothing but nitrate?

I've never seen numbers that high before, and every fiber of my fishkeeping being is screaming "water change"! But of course the tank has nothing living visible without a microscope, so it's just about how to most quickly complete the cycle.
 

Cflow

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Too soon. I’ve never done one before about a month after a new start. Even with heavy bacterial / carbon dosing with the start up. Let it be.
 
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pseudorand

pseudorand

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I'm hopeful it's cycled sooner than a month, but I'm not putting living things in with 160ppm nitrate. So I'll have to do a water change when ammonia and nitrite get to 0.
 

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