OK, so if I cover something you already know please forgive me.
As I am sure you are aware, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are all bad for fish. Ammonia and nitrite are very deadly and nitrate is when in high concentrations. The good news is there are bacteria that will take care of the ammonia and nitrite. To cycle the tank you want to establish a good colony of each type of bacteria. This happens naturally but you have to have ammonia present to kick start it. If ammonia is present, one type of bacteria will start to grow and feed on it. The byproduct is nitrite. Once nitrite is present a different type of bacteria will start to grow and feed on it. The byproduct of that is nitrate. Unfortunately there is no bacteria that consumes Nitrate but we control it through water changes.
So, most people refer to the cycle process as something that starts and finishes but in fact, once started it never ends. The bacteria continues to consume the ammonia created by decaying food and fish waste.
So, to get the cycle kicked started you need an amonia source. Some sprinkle a bit of food in the tank and let it decompose over time. Others use a normal raw shrimp from the grocery and let it rot on the sand bed. I used the pure amonia method. You have to make sure you use pure ammonia (Ace Hardware brand Janitorial is pure). Add it one drop at a time and test between drops. You want to get the ammonia level up to 4ppm (parts per million). Once it is at 4ppm leave it be. After some time (could be days or weeks) you will see the ammonia level start to decline and the nitrite levels start to climb. Add more ammonia to get it back to 4ppm. Continue this until you see both ammonia and nitrite dropping and nitrate starting to climb. That tells you that you have both types of bacteria present and the cycle has started.
Just because it has started it doesn't mean you have a ton of bacteria and go straight to adding fish. You want to be able to dose it to 4ppm and then have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite 24 hours later. At that time, you can start doing water changes to get the nitrate down below 5 ppm but as close to 0 as you can get. Now you are ready for a fish or two. You can't put a bunch in at once because the bacteria colonies are small and wont be able to handle a large bio load. After a few weeks of having one or two fish the bacteria is starting to catch up and another fish can be added. Each time a fish is added the bio load increases and the bacteria needs time to catch up.
Hope that helps.
Rich
As I am sure you are aware, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are all bad for fish. Ammonia and nitrite are very deadly and nitrate is when in high concentrations. The good news is there are bacteria that will take care of the ammonia and nitrite. To cycle the tank you want to establish a good colony of each type of bacteria. This happens naturally but you have to have ammonia present to kick start it. If ammonia is present, one type of bacteria will start to grow and feed on it. The byproduct is nitrite. Once nitrite is present a different type of bacteria will start to grow and feed on it. The byproduct of that is nitrate. Unfortunately there is no bacteria that consumes Nitrate but we control it through water changes.
So, most people refer to the cycle process as something that starts and finishes but in fact, once started it never ends. The bacteria continues to consume the ammonia created by decaying food and fish waste.
So, to get the cycle kicked started you need an amonia source. Some sprinkle a bit of food in the tank and let it decompose over time. Others use a normal raw shrimp from the grocery and let it rot on the sand bed. I used the pure amonia method. You have to make sure you use pure ammonia (Ace Hardware brand Janitorial is pure). Add it one drop at a time and test between drops. You want to get the ammonia level up to 4ppm (parts per million). Once it is at 4ppm leave it be. After some time (could be days or weeks) you will see the ammonia level start to decline and the nitrite levels start to climb. Add more ammonia to get it back to 4ppm. Continue this until you see both ammonia and nitrite dropping and nitrate starting to climb. That tells you that you have both types of bacteria present and the cycle has started.
Just because it has started it doesn't mean you have a ton of bacteria and go straight to adding fish. You want to be able to dose it to 4ppm and then have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite 24 hours later. At that time, you can start doing water changes to get the nitrate down below 5 ppm but as close to 0 as you can get. Now you are ready for a fish or two. You can't put a bunch in at once because the bacteria colonies are small and wont be able to handle a large bio load. After a few weeks of having one or two fish the bacteria is starting to catch up and another fish can be added. Each time a fish is added the bio load increases and the bacteria needs time to catch up.
Hope that helps.
Rich
