Originally Posted by gm333

After the nitrites hit zero and the nitrates are still falling rapidly wait till the nitrates even up or fall to zero (perfect nitrates are 0) then you can do a waterchange. I do 20-30% waterchanges every week on all my tanks. Find a schedule that works good for you, at least 30% every 2 weeks. As far as filter maintenance I only clean my floss material every couple of weeks. I keep lots of ceramic media in my tanks and they only need to be rinsed with tank water when they start to get slimy looking. Dont clean the gravel and filters the same week. This tends to drastically reduce your bacteria levels causing problems.