There is no such thing as a stupid question.
Cycling a tank refers to building up beneficial bacteria in the filter of a tank. If you don't know what it is, you probably haven't done it. Do you have a tank set up with a fish in it? How long has the tank been set up? Do you have a filter?
If you have not cycled the tank and you have a fish in it, you may end up doing a fish-in cycle, where instead of adding ammonia to a tank without fish, you do multiple water changes everyday to manage ammonia levels. If at all possible, try to get mature filter media- this will add bacteria to your filter. Don't buy any bottled filter boosters; they really don't work.
Someone could probably explain it better than me, though.
