Water changes for 16.6 gallon

[Firefly]

hey:) i recently bought the Juwel Rekord 600 , tank its 16.6 gallons. ive bought my gravel and driftwood and will be buying lots of live plants as i want it to look like a jungle:P i wanted to know how often i will need to do water changes and what the quantity should be per water change. I wont have many fish, just my betta and a few (2 or 3) other fish, so there wont be alot of waste build up too often. :)

[Hadouken441]

Ok please hear me out. Coming from someone who is a plant freak. Do not do too many water changes. Please. People say get zero nitrate levels but you do not want that at all. Plants need nitrates. And if you have plants and zero nitrates, you have a chance of getting Blue Green Algae which is a pain the the ass. Changing water too much lowers nitrates to zero.

So to answer your question I would only do it once a week, 1/3 the water, up to about 1-2 months. Then when your tank is bangin and well established do it less often. unless your dosing lots of ferts then you keep doing once a week.

But if your going the easy maintenance route, No ferts and just plants, Only like once every 12 d days or so.

[Firefly]

Okay cool thanks:D my previous tank i was a bit lazy with the water changes (this is all going to change tho dont worry) :P, and my plants were growing almost out of the tank!! they were those long stalky plants with the branchy things growing out. lol. anyway they were growing out of control, i had to trim huge chunks of it off every week otherwise i wouldnt be able to see my fish. and they seemed to love the water conditions and were breeding like rabbits. But ill go with the 1/3 water changes per week until its well established. What are ferts? :/

[Hadouken441]

fertilizer sorry haha. If your interested in basic easy fertz that require no thinking get these two

Seachem Flourish
Seachem Flourish Excel

You dont have to get the Excel if your planning on doing co2 as the Excel is just liquid carbon. If you need help with co2 Let me know haha

[Firefly]

Okay well fill me in on the CO2 cause im a complete noob:D haha well ive had tons fish before but i didnt go all out and didnt know much about proper care so could u plz explain:)

And also, how long should i cycle my tank for before i add my Betta?. It will be a fishless cycle. All plants and driftwood and gravel will be in while i cycle it

[Hadouken441]

It should only take like a week and a half.