water change while cycling?

[ronboy]

my ammonia and nitrates are about .25 ppm and i have brown algae on my substrate.is it a good idea to do a water change or not.had some holes drilled in it and cleaned the substrate.lost all my bacteria.was setup for 3 years.

 

[reeffreak]

If your sure ammonia and nitrite is at zero than you can do a water change.

.25 can be a false reading for ammonia.I'm assuming .25 is your nitrite and not actually nitrate.I never seen nitrate test kits showing less than 1ppm.Moving the rocks and sand will cause a diatom bloom,it will eventually go away.

What are you getting for nitrate?

 

[ronboy]

says .25

 

[Doc]

if you have no ammonia then go ahead. If you have ammonia still, then no. If you are concerned about whether your water tests out right, take it to the fish store

-Doc

 

[yote]

I agree with Doc.Have you LFS test your water just to be on the safe side before you do anything.