The Nitrogen Cycle / The Ultimate Guide To Your First Aquarium Part 5
- 6 years ago
The best way to make sense out of what the nitrogen cycle is to explain it like this. You feed your fish every day, the fish eat the food, digest it and then what? Well they poop. The fish poop drops down into the gravel of your tank or it gets sucked up into your filter and starts to decompose. When the poop decays it creates ammonia in the water. Ammonia is extremely toxic to fish and will absolutely kill them if its aloud to get to high levels. So what do we do? How are we able to keep fish in glass boxes with this? Well its because of the nitrogen cycle.\r
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Heres what happens. Your aquarium has denitrifying beria that breaks down that ammonia and converts it to Nitrite and then Nitrate. Nitrate is far less toxic to fish. So where does this denitrifying beria come from? Well it builds up naturally in your aquarium.\r
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When your aquarium is new there is none of this denitrifying beria so this is why everyone will tell you that you should never put fish into a brand new tank. You set your tank up, throw a bunch of fish in, they eat then poop, the poop starts to decay and theres nothing in the tank to take that toxic ammonia and detoxify it and what happens. Well your fish die, thats what happens. And they dont just drop dead, they suffer while the elevated ammonia levels are burning their gills until they finally suffocate. (try to find a video)\r
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So what do we do? Well this is why you set up your tank and give it some time to run and naturally build up that denitrifying beria before you put fish in it. You allow this process to happen to a point where the beneficial beria is built up to a level where it can handle the load of the tank. This build up of bb is what we call the cycle.\r
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So what Im gonna do now is go through a list of the most commonly asked questions about the cycling process.\r
\r
Q#1 How long does the cycle take?\r
- It depends on a number of things\r
\r
Q#2 How can we make it happen faster?\r
Use dirty tank water.\r
Use live beria in a bottle.\r
Take dirty filter cartridges from a friend and squeeze all that brown water in the tank.\r
There are some that recommend putting pure ammonia in the water to accelerate the process but Ive never done this.\r
\r
Q#3 Can you take water from an already established tank and put it in the new tank, wont that make it instantly cycle?\r
No, the bb is not in the water. BB grows on surfaces like your substrate, rocks, decorations and especially your filter, NOT in the water so taking used aquarium water and putting it in your new tank will literally accomplish nothing.\r
\r
Q#4 Can I use some cheap hardy fish to accelerate the process?\r
- Yes but……\r
\r
Q#5 How do I know when the cycle is complete?\r
One of the first things you shouldve purchased when you bought your tank is a master test kit. During the cycling process you should test your water every couple of days. If you dont have a test kit most pet stores will test your water for you.\r
Ammonia will spike\r
Then Nitrite\r
Then Nitrate\r
Then its done and should be safe for fish but you should continue to test your water regularly to ensure the beria has established itself enough to handle the extra load of the fish.\r
\r
\r
\r
@kgtropicals on Twitter\r
kg_tropicals on instagram\r
\r
Free music provided by purpleplanet.com\r
\r
Music:
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Heres what happens. Your aquarium has denitrifying beria that breaks down that ammonia and converts it to Nitrite and then Nitrate. Nitrate is far less toxic to fish. So where does this denitrifying beria come from? Well it builds up naturally in your aquarium.\r
\r
When your aquarium is new there is none of this denitrifying beria so this is why everyone will tell you that you should never put fish into a brand new tank. You set your tank up, throw a bunch of fish in, they eat then poop, the poop starts to decay and theres nothing in the tank to take that toxic ammonia and detoxify it and what happens. Well your fish die, thats what happens. And they dont just drop dead, they suffer while the elevated ammonia levels are burning their gills until they finally suffocate. (try to find a video)\r
\r
So what do we do? Well this is why you set up your tank and give it some time to run and naturally build up that denitrifying beria before you put fish in it. You allow this process to happen to a point where the beneficial beria is built up to a level where it can handle the load of the tank. This build up of bb is what we call the cycle.\r
\r
So what Im gonna do now is go through a list of the most commonly asked questions about the cycling process.\r
\r
Q#1 How long does the cycle take?\r
- It depends on a number of things\r
\r
Q#2 How can we make it happen faster?\r
Use dirty tank water.\r
Use live beria in a bottle.\r
Take dirty filter cartridges from a friend and squeeze all that brown water in the tank.\r
There are some that recommend putting pure ammonia in the water to accelerate the process but Ive never done this.\r
\r
Q#3 Can you take water from an already established tank and put it in the new tank, wont that make it instantly cycle?\r
No, the bb is not in the water. BB grows on surfaces like your substrate, rocks, decorations and especially your filter, NOT in the water so taking used aquarium water and putting it in your new tank will literally accomplish nothing.\r
\r
Q#4 Can I use some cheap hardy fish to accelerate the process?\r
- Yes but……\r
\r
Q#5 How do I know when the cycle is complete?\r
One of the first things you shouldve purchased when you bought your tank is a master test kit. During the cycling process you should test your water every couple of days. If you dont have a test kit most pet stores will test your water for you.\r
Ammonia will spike\r
Then Nitrite\r
Then Nitrate\r
Then its done and should be safe for fish but you should continue to test your water regularly to ensure the beria has established itself enough to handle the extra load of the fish.\r
\r
\r
\r
@kgtropicals on Twitter\r
kg_tropicals on instagram\r
\r
Free music provided by purpleplanet.com\r
\r
Music: