Aquarium Cub

Tank Cycling

The chemistry changes that occus in your new aquarium before it naturally balances itself are described below.

Some people set up the tank and leave it for a week before putting the fish. However, the result will be the same as putting the tank 1-2 days because this practice only removes chlorine from tapwater and nothing else.The tank will NOT cycle without any ammonia in the water.
To add ammonia to the water, many people suggest that cheap hardy fish should be introduced. Anywhere from two to four inches of fish may be used per ten gallons of water (any less and the tank may go through another, but lesser, cycle when more fish are added in future; any more and the water condition may go beyond what the hardy fish can tolerate).

But these people never mention what to do with these cheap and hardy fish after the tank has cycled as these fish might not be compatible with the fish you intend to keep. So i would suggest regular addition of ammonia by other means, either you could add a little fish food which on decaying will give ammonia or you could get hold of ammonia chemical ( which is available in many fertilizers but beware of other ingredients in the product), but remember that you will have to keep on adding ammonia regularly every day.
In the first day, with the introduction of the cheap, hardy fish or fish food, there should not be enough ammonia produced to be measured. But if you add chemical ammonia then their will be some readings in the test.

Keep testing the water every day and you would find that ammonia level is going up but Nitrite level in low, unmeasurable quantity. After 3-4days you will find that nitrite level starts increasing slowly First stage bacteria that consume ammonia and convert them into nitrite are growing to become established, but the amount is still very low.

After 5-6 days you will find that ammonia level start droping down while the nitrite level starts rising as your bacteria colony is growing. After 8-9 days you will find that ammonia level is negligible and nitrite level is still rising. Wow your first stage bacteria colony is setup. now we have to wait for the stage two colony, that will convert nitrite in nitrate. But the stage two bacteria grow slower than the stage one bacteria, and don't forget to add the ammonia regularly.

After 14-15 days nitrite level will be at the maximium level, and then will start reducing slowly and nitrate level will start to increase very slowly.

After 28-30 days nitrite level will be negligible and nitrate will is non toxic to fish to except in very high concentration will be present. Now your tank is cycled and ready for you fish.

But if can't wait for this long or if you don't want to spend money on the water test kits, then i will suggest another quicker alternative.

and that is if you are any of you friends have a established aquarium which has been working for atleast 3 months, then add your new filter to this tank and keep it running along with the older filter for alteast a week and then you can use your new filter in you tank and add fish to your new tank.

thanks for this post it was most helpful a newbie

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