# RE: WATER CHANGES and cycle



## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

First off i would like to issue an apology to any members who felt i was hard on them, or came on too strong. The main thing i think is the confusion between the term "cycling" and "mature"... Cycle would be first traces of ammonia, mature would be stable and nitrogen cycle completed.

After tons and tons of research (every spare second i have had in the past week) on the topic, i found some interesting information (regarding saltwater, but similar concept) It turns out that we were both correct. Water changes do in fact prolong the amount of time of the "cycle", but the tank is almost "mature" once complete. And without, maturity takes a little longer but the "cycle" happens faster, *but both end up in the same place*.



> For a given bioload there's going to be a roughly set carrying capacity for the bacteria. Whether you do a waterchange or not, you're going to end up at the same place, you just change the path you take to get there and how long it takes.
> 
> If you don't do a WC you finish the initial cycle quicker but you overshoot the carrying capacity, so the population drops, overshooting it again. You end up setting up fluctuations in the population and prolonging the time it takes for the tank to "mature" or finally settle at the carrying capacity.
> 
> ...


Once again, sorry to any members that felt i was too personal or direct. And hopefully this can be put to rest









And i would also like to add, we are talking smaller water changes here (20% or less weekly)... if you are changing large amounts that can have diverse effects on your cycle, it wont apply to the graph above, and is a totally different subject.

Trying to be as clear as possible


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## Ba20 (Jan 29, 2003)

nice find skunk hopefully this wil help some people.


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## philbert (Mar 8, 2007)

this topic has been epic. nice post.


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