kerberos

hey, I posted this exact text in the other forum but this one seemed livelier....

hello all, I just put together a 29 gallon freshwater tank. I had some questions about the nitrogen cycle. First off, is it even a big deal? Second, should I begin this cycle before I put fish in, or let it naturally happen? And last, if I begin the cycle fishless, why would I want to create an ammonia build up if ammonia is no good for the fishies? I just don't want floaters the first week. Thanks

Tom

At the moment I can only answer the third question. The answer is bacteria needs to grow to decompose the ammonia into something less toxic like nitrite and then into nitrate. Without any ammonia, there would be no bacteria until some fish are added which will produce ammonia. I think I covered it all.
Tom

AnnaEA

1. It is a big deal. In an uncycled tank, the ammonia and nitrites will accumulate and potentially kill your fish.

2. I prefer to cycle my tanks before I put fish into them -- this ensures that I am introducing the fish to a safe environment.

3. If you cycle fishless, you need to provide an external source of ammonia to feed the biofilter because there are no fish pooping into the water to provide the ammonia.


In a cycled aquarium you've established a colony of bacterias that eat up the wastes your fish will produce -- they turn the ammonia into nitrite, and then the nitrite into nitrate, then you control the nitrate levels through water changes.

A cycled tank will have an initial ammonia build up no matter what, until those bacteria multiply enough to eat up all the ammonia. If you use an artificial ammonia build up, by cycling fishless, you never put a fish at risk while the biofilter grows.

A lot of good threads on cycling, including cycling fishless, are in this forum: http://www.fishlore.com/Forum/aquari...e/index.0.html