1 fish

[dartos]

Cycling a tank involves creating bacteria colonies throughout your tank which are involved in the nitrogen cycle. You have added the beginnings of the bacteria colonies that will be created in your tank through the gravel from your dad. The growth is going to occur from a bacteria called Nitrosomonas which will take ammonia and turn it into nitrite. These bacteria need ammonia to live and therefore you need to add ammonia to the tank so that these bacteria can multiply. The nitrite that these bacteria produce will then me "consumed" by another bacteria called Nitrobacter. This bacteria will take the nitrite, consume it and release nitrate. This is the basic nitrogen cycle in an aquarium.

To get the bacteria to grow and start the cycle, you must supply the ammonia. I am guessing you have decided on the fishless cycle, so therefore you must find a source of ammonia. You can find one from the pinned topic in this section called Ammonia Sources in the USA, UK, &. Once you buy your source of ammonia you are going to only need to add enough ammonia to reach between 2 ppm - 4 ppm. People will dispute just how high the concentration should be in your tank. Reread the fishless cycling articles and decide for yourself.

In summary, you need to feed those bacteria attached to the rocks that your dad gave you by adding some ammonia, just make sure you only add ammonia and not any harmful detergents or perfumes that come with many cleaning solutions. You will need to keep feeding your bacteria ammonia until the nitrite spike is gone. The ammonia you add is acting as a replacement for the waste that those hardy fish produce. I hope this makes sense and clears up some confusion. If not, just ask for more info.

 

[dartos]

So as a question: Why can't you use the water from the established tank to speed things up? Or just in total surely that will have the right balance of everything?

The bacteria needed for the nitrogen cycle will "attach" to either the rocks, plants, filter media, etc. in the aquarium to form their colonies. It is possible that you will get some of the needed bacteria floating in the water but it is unlikely. As far as chemicals go, there will not be a high enough concentration to establish a new colony of growth from the bacteria. The bacteria on the rocks from his dad will use up the chemicals from the established tank water in no time and will then starve from a lack of ammonia and/or nitrite.

Water from an established tank will have the right balance of everything for an established tank but not for a tank which still needs to be cycled. A constant ammonia source must be available to keep the nitrogen cycle happy.

 

[pumaf1]

cheers thats great!