Some Info For Newbies!

[plecostomus-mad]

RESEARCH!!


if you are new to the hobby, do your research first.find out what fish you like the most, research what conditions the fish like, whether they are all compatible together and whether or not your tank is suitable for them.

another thing that is really really REALLY important is cycling your tank, cycling is a process your tank must go through to support your fish. cycling is basically accumulating friendly bacteria in your filter media.Some call it the biological cycle, the nitrification process, new tank syndrome or even the start-up cycle. They all are referring to the same cycle - The Nitrogen Cycle. This very important cycle is the establishment of beneficial bacteria in the aquarium and in the filter media that will help in the conversion of ammonia to nitrite and then the conversion of nitrite to nitrates.

This process can take from 2 weeks to 2 months or longer to complete. It is vital for anyone planning on keeping aquarium fish to understand this process. Learning about this process will help you to be successful in keeping fish and it should definitely improve your chances when keeping tropical fish. The best way to monitor the nitrogen cycle is to purchase an aquarium test kit that will test for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and ph.

Test your aquarium water every other day and write down your readings. You will first see ammonia levels rising. A few weeks or so later you should see the nitrite levels rising and the ammonia levels dropping. Finally, after a few more weeks you should see the nitrate levels rising and the nitrite levels dropping. When you no longer detect ammonia or nitrites but you can detect nitrates you can assume that it is safe to add your tropical fish.

Nitrogen Cycle Stages

Stage 1
Ammonia is introduced into the aquarium via tropical fish waste and uneaten food. The tropical fish waste and excess food will break down into either ionized ammonium (NH4) or un-ionized ammonia (NH3). Ammonium is not harmful to tropical fish but ammonia is. Whether the material turns into ammonium or ammonia depends on the ph level of the water. If the ph is under 7, you will have ammonium. If the ph is 7 or higher you will have ammonia.

Stage 2
Soon, bacteria called nitrosomonas will develop and they will oxidize the ammonia in the tank, essentially eliminating it. The byproduct of ammonia oxidation is Nitrites. So we no longer have ammonia in the tank, but we now have another toxin to deal with - Nitrites. Nitrites are just as toxic to tropical fish as ammonia. If you have a test kit, you should be able to see the nitrite levels rise around the end of the first or second week.

Stage 3
Bacteria called nitrobacter will develop and they will convert the nitrites into nitrates. Nitrates are not as harmful to tropical fish as ammonia or nitrites, but nitrate is still harmful in large amounts. The quickest way to rid your aquarium of nitrates is to perform partial water changes. Once your tank is established you will need to monitor your tank water for high nitrate levels and perform partial water changes as necessary. There are other methods to control nitrates in aquariums besides water changes. For freshwater fish tanks, live aquarium plants will use up some of the nitrates. In saltwater fish tanks, live rock and deep sand beds can have anaerobic areas where denitrifying bacteria can breakdown nitrates into harmless nitrogen gas that escapes through the water surface of the aquarium.

Getting The Nitrogen Cycle Started............

There are two ways to get the aquarium cycle started, either with fish or without fish.

Starting The Nitrogen Cycle With Fish
This is not the preferred way to get the nitrogen cycle started because the fish are being exposed to ammonia and nitrites during this process. Many fish can not and will not make it through the cycling process. Often times the fish become stressed and fish disease starts to break out. I wonder what percentage of disease is caused by the cycling of new aquariums?

Certain species are hardier than others and seem to tolerate the start-up cycle better than others. For freshwater tanks, the zebra danio is a very hardy fish that many use to get the nitrogen cycle started. For saltwater tanks, some have reported success using damselfish to get the process started. Again, using fish to cycle is not a good idea and you may be throwing your money (on dead fish) out the window. There is a better way. Read on

Starting The Nitrogen Cycle Fishless

There are a few different ways to get this process started.

Option 1:
Using Fish Food ( not advised )
Drop in a few flakes every 12 hours. As the food decomposes it will release ammonia. You will have to continue to "feed" the tank throughout the process to keep it going.

Option 2:
Use a small piece of raw fish or a raw shrimp
Drop a 2 inch by 1 inch chunk of raw fish or a raw shrimp into the tank. As it decomposes it will release ammonia into the tank.

Option 3:
Use 100% pure ammonia.
Using a dropper, add 5 drops of ammonia per 10 gallons of aquarium water. If you don't get an ammonia reading with your test kit, add some more drops until you start to see an ammonia reading. Keep track of how many drops you've used so you can repeat this process daily. Continue to dose the tank with ammonia until you start to get nitrite readings with your test kit. Once you can detect nitrites you should only add 3 drops of ammonia per 10 gallons of aquarium water, or if you added more drops originally to get an ammonia reading cut the amount of drops used in half. Continue this process daily until you get nitrate readings with your test kit. Do a 30% water change and your tank is ready.

Option 4:
Use gravel and/or filter media from an established and cycled tank
This is the best and fastest way to go. This will seed the tank with all of the necessary bacteria for the nitrogen cycle. "Feed" the tank daily with flake food until you are getting nitrate readings. Depending on how fast you were able to get the gravel and filter media into your tank, you may be getting nitrate readings in only a day or two. There are some drawbacks to this method. Ask your source if they have recently used any copper medications in the tank. If they have and you are planning to have invertebrates in the tank you should probably not use this method. Invertebrates will not tolerate copper. Get a copper test kit to determine if it's safe to use.


If you are seriously considering buying fish for your aquarium, buy a water testing kit! i cant emphasize this enough. too much ammonia or nitrite and your fish will suffer and quite possibly die. FACT!

A good anti chlorine solution should be used to take the chlorine out of the tap water, some also remove heavy metals that are also present in tap water and some even have added qualities to help the fishes slime coat, gill and fins.

I have only touched the surface of fish keeping. everyone on this forum are really friendly and will try and help anyone posting emergencies in the emergency section of the forum, in fact they will help out with there knowledge anywhere in the forum if advice is asked for, and if they think that something isn't right they lend a helpful hand they will 9 times out of 10 ask for water stats --> your ammonia, nitrate,nitrite and ph levels, tanks size, stocking. when you pick out your tank, grab a water testing kit!! the API Master Testing Kit is a preferred kit across the forum

If anyone would like to add or correct anything I've mentioned, you are more than welcome too. also if I've missed anything, tell me.lol.

mark

 

[waterdrop]

Hi there Mark and thank you for your comments for beginners! Its always good to encourage awareness of the Nitrogen Cycle. Probably the vast majority of problems that those New to the Hobby have are due to a lack of introduction to this important principle.

A few comments: It should be noted that we have reference articles on both the Nitrogen Cycle (by BTT in the Beginners Resource Center) and the Fishless Cycle (by RDD in the Beginners Resource Center.) The bacteria now thought to play the role of converting nitrite(NO2) to nitrate(NO3) is Nitrospira spp., not Nitrobacter. Your information source may have been similar to the many sources, such as the fishlore site, around for a long prior to RDD and BTT working on their articles.

Continuing with a few more things, when we mention test kits we usually like to encourage the use of liquid-reagent based test kits to help steer beginners away from paper strips, as its very common for these to get them in trouble. Likewise, we like to emphasize the use of parts per million (ppm) measurements and the use of our calculator as a starting point for getting the starting ammonia concentrations right in the fishless cycling process rather than using drops.

Another thing we like to do in articles for beginners is to try hard not to present the use of prawns/shrimp, fishfood on an equal level with the use of household ammonia. Forums such as ours have been trying to help move beginners away from those confusing practices, towards the more controlled use of household ammonia as the cycling agent, except in exceptional cases.

Similarly, when mentioning the use of mature media and aquarium gravel, we try to emphasize that filter media moved from old filters to un-cycled filters is much more effective than normal aquarium gravel. In the past many have repeated information that simply moving gravel from aquarium to aquarium will cycle the new aquarium and this is misleading at best.

Despite my comments, I do think its always good when each of us beginners turns around and encourages the still newer beginners to become aware of the large turning point in the hobby that was caused by fishless cycling and the importance of learning about the Nitrogen Cycle and the Fishless Cycle! Thank you for your contribution.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[arobinson1984]

Just following up on what WD said.

A good post for new members on here new to the site and fishkeeping. As mentioned by waterdrop, there a few bits of wording to tweak etc.

The one I was going to point out has been covered by WD, the option 4. Gravel from an established tank will not really do any good at all unless the gravel has come from an established tank that is running an undergravel filter in which case it would have generally the same effect as transferring filter media.

Andy

 

[Nick16]

Just following up on what WD said.

A good post for new members on here new to the site and fishkeeping. As mentioned by waterdrop, there a few bits of wording to tweak etc.

The one I was going to point out has been covered by WD, the option 4. Gravel from an established tank will not really do any good at all unless the gravel has come from an established tank that is running an undergravel filter in which case it would have generally the same effect as transferring filter media.

Andy

any gravel from an established tank can help. a massive porportion of bacteria are in/on the gravel and it is very important in an aquarium. I think it is as important as having bacteria on the filter media. The only differenace is the media itself and the water continuosly flowing past/through it

 

[arobinson1984]

Only about 1-2% of the beneficial bacteria resides in the gravel of a tank unless as stated the tank runs an undergravel filter where the gravel then in effect becomes the media. This is compares to around 98-99% in the filter media.

Gravel 'can' help but I wouldnt consider it to make any better effect than using the so called 'cycle in a bottle' products. I have fishless cycled in the past using gravel from established tanks and found it to make absolutely no difference in relation to cycling times etc. I'm not saying dont use it, but dont expect it to make much difference whereas filter media would.

Andy

 

[hybwolf]

It should also be noted that the nitrogen cycle is a delicate balance and can be upset easily. The good bacteria will balance out for the load that is in the tank. Doubling the number of fish will double the waste, this will start a mini cycle.
Also once a tank is balanced, never ever rince the filter material under chlorinated tap water. This will kill off the bacteria and you will go through another cycle. The best way to clean the filter monthly is to dip or rinse the filter media in the water that was drawn from the tank when doing your weekly/bi weekly partial water change.

Some medications also will kill the good bacteria , so what I have always done while treating with medication was remove the filter media and place it in my water change bucket and drop an air stone in. Then I would sprinkle a wee bit of fish food in.

A good thing to have on hand at all times is a bottle of Amquel+ . This will de-toxify ammonia and nitrites if the tank ever goes through a mini cycle once fish are in and it won't destroy the good bacteria that is present. What it does is change the ammomia and nitrites to a non toxic form that is still consumed by good bacteria.

 

[Nick16]

so tell me this, if there is only 1-2% of bacteria in the substrate, why are there so many products to begin/promote the growth of bacteria within the substrate. Surely if there was only 1-2% then the market would not exist? - and such products would fail and be renered pointless, instead, many many aquascapers, especially in the planted world, use these products.

Secondly, getting mulm from you filter and squeezing it over your new gravel is a well known thing to do to help cycle your tank. That is because there is a large colony of bacteria present.

i dont belive for one minute that it is that smaller percentage, i would love to know where you got those figures from.

 

[arobinson1984]

The figures quoted were from a research article I read a while ago, I cant remember the author's name but it has been mentioned on this forum before as thats how I came to read it.

As for the products that promote bacterial growth in the gravel, in my opinion they are put into the same category as the cycle products that are so called 'proven' to instantly cycle your tank and the beauty products that are so called 'proven' to make you look younger which they charge an arm and a leg for.

There will always be a market for such products because people always 'want' to believe that they work. It is common knowledge on here that most cycle products don't tend to make any difference at all, yet the market for them still continues because the target audience for these products are usually newcomers to the hobby, setting up a first tank and dont know any different. If companies believe they can sell a product even by praying on the vulnerable then they will, thats just how it is.

Andy

 

[OldMan47]

I have seen estimates of anywhere from 1 or 2% up to about 20% of the bacteria living in aquarium gravel depending on the site or source of the information. I am sure that a lot depends on the flow patterns in the tank as far as the real percentage. Gravel in a direct water flow path will be exposed to much more ammonia and oxygen-rich water than gravel in an out of the way spot. You also see some sites mixing advice on salt water and fresh water tanks. In a saltwater tank, there are specific types of bacteria that are intentionally cultured in the deep sand beds used in those tanks. They are not the same as the bacteria that we culture in a freshwater tank. As to why a product is advertised for application to the substrate, I do keep a live substrate in my planted NPT tanks and encourage certain bacteria to live there to help with my plant growth, but they are also not the bacteria that we use to move ammonia to nitrites to nitrates. Instead they act to help the plants absorb nutrients from the substrate.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, very good points OM. I too have seen sites that are mixing in salt info with freshwater on this aspect and this may indeed be one of the ways these higher percentages get quoted. Salt substrate processes are significantly different. Likewise, NPT would be one of the few approaches in freshwater aquaria where you'd see higher substrate bacterial counts, due to the biofilms in the potting soil. Otherwise, in normal beginner freshwater tanks with gravel or sand the surface access to ammonia and oxygen would be nowhere near as efficient at feeding the autotrophs as the through-flow in a filter bed, with an undergravel setup being the exception of course.

~~waterdrop~~