Newbie asks: prepare change water in advance?

I just set up my first 10-gal goldfish tank last week and intend to change
out 2 gals per week. Right now I'm in the "cloudy water" bacteria bloom
stage.

Is it OK to change water before cycling is complete, or should I wait?

Is it OK to prepare the change water a few days in advance and keep it
ready for use? I'll remove chlorine, adjust Ph, and add a bit of acquarium
salt.

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Charles Gillen -- Reston, Virginia, USA

Charles Gillen wrote:

I just set up my first 10-gal goldfish tank last week and intend to
change
out 2 gals per week. Right now I'm in the "cloudy water" bacteria
bloom stage.

Is it OK to change water before cycling is complete, or should I wait?

Is it OK to prepare the change water a few days in advance and keep it
ready for use? I'll remove chlorine, adjust Ph, and add a bit of
acquarium salt.


First the good news, don't worry about adjusting the pH. Removing
chlorine/chloramine is good too.

You probably ought to do a bit more research on cycling... Start here...
http://fins.actwin.com/mirror/begin-cycling.html

So... If you were fishless cycling, "no" you wouldn't want to do water
changes.

However, if you've got fish in there, you're going to want to monitor
the ammonia and nitrite levels and keep them within a reasonable range
(like no higher than the first level indicator on your test kit). This
will mean LOTS of water changes...

Let us know a bit more information about your tank/filtration and
number/size/type of fish and we can help further...

-Donald
--
"Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving
that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the
proof." -Galbraith's Law