| If you ask a pet store employee if you can | | | | After you have Nitrate, test carefully to |
| have fish right away after setting up a tank, | | | | make sure all Ammonia you add gets converted, |
| a good employee will tell you yes. A nice | | | | then do a massive water change with properly |
| fish lover will tell you that you need to | | | | treated water. (Treated water is water with a |
| cycle the tank, or you will be coming back to | | | | de-chlorinator added so that you will not |
| get more doomed fish soon. | | | | lose the effort you just made due to chlorine |
| | | | or chloramine in tap water. ) Now add fish. |
| The cycle is when an aquarium is readied to | | | | You can normally nearly fully stock the fish |
| support life. An newly setup aquarium is | | | | tank now that it is cycled, just stop adding |
| incapable of supporting any kind of life, as | | | | ammonia when you add fish, and make sure |
| it does not have the correct bacteria and | | | | there is no ammonia or nitrite present before |
| such in place to convert waste into less | | | | you add them. |
| harmful forms. This change is a constant | | | | |
| cycle in an aquarium, but the first time is | | | | Cycling with Fish (Traditional Cycling) |
| the important one. | | | | |
| | | | Materials: |
| There are two ways to cycle a tank. Most | | | | |
| other ways are just variations on these two. | | | | Some fish you don't like |
| The first is fishless cycling, and the second | | | | |
| is cycling with fish. | | | | Fully setup aquarium |
| | | | |
| Fishless Cycling | | | | Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate Test kits |
| | | | |
| Materials: | | | | Time |
| | | | |
| Clear Ammonia (should not foam, or have | | | | Buckets for twice weekly water changes |
| colors or dyes added) | | | | |
| | | | Time: 4-6 weeks |
| Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate Test kits | | | | |
| | | | Add several fish you do not care for, as they |
| Tank, fully setup, but with no animals in it. | | | | will often be very damaged by the cycling. |
| | | | Common choices are danios, or feeder |
| If you can decorations, gravel, or filter | | | | goldfish. |
| media from an already cycled tank | | | | |
| | | | Test the water, and when Ammonia begins to |
| If you are going to keep live plants, add | | | | appear, start your water changes. You want to |
| them now. They will speed the cycle. | | | | keep the ammonia as low as possible, because |
| | | | ammonia kills fish. The main reason this |
| Time: From 9 days-3 weeks | | | | method takes so long is the water changes |
| | | | that continue to dilute the ammonia and keep |
| The first step is to add ammonia to the tank. | | | | the fish alive. The water will slowly go |
| Add enough that the test kit measures ~ 5 | | | | through the same cycle as in Fishless, but |
| ppm. Remember how much you had to add to get | | | | don't forget that Nitrite is also very |
| that amount, as ammonia comes in very | | | | poisonous to fish, and that level needs to be |
| different concentrations. Add the same amount | | | | kept very low as well. |
| every day. After 3-4 days begin testing for | | | | |
| Nitrite, but continue adding Ammonia. | | | | Once you get Nitrate, your cycle is done. Do |
| | | | a large water change to lower the Nitrate |
| When nitrite appears wait for it to spike, | | | | level. Now you can return the fish you used |
| i.e. no Ammonia 24 hours after adding it, but | | | | to cycle, and get only as many fish as you |
| tons of Nitrite. Cut the Ammonia dosage by | | | | returned. Or you can add a few fish every few |
| half and begin testing for Nitrate. It takes | | | | weeks because the bacteria only grew enough |
| longer for Nitrate to appear than Nitrite. | | | | to process so much fish waste, so more than |
| When Nitrate appears Nitrite should | | | | its expected amount would just start the |
| disappear. | | | | cycle again. |
| | | | |