What happens with the cycle of Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate when a tank is cycling before fish are added. Since there is carbon in the filter, bacteria will begin to grow on this, but will they have the right enzymes/inhibitors to break down Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate when fish actually are added?
2006-12-19 13:45:29 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pets ➔ Fish
Basically the water stabilises and becomes better for the fish that you will put in it.
2006-12-19 13:53:25 · answer #1 · answered by ? 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A tank will not cycle if there is not source of ammonia for the bacterial to feed on.
If you setup a tank, fill it with water and turn on the filter and stuff, what happens is that the water get aged. If there is chlorine in the water it'll go off (evaporate) and maybe some bacterial will start to inhabit the tank but not in useful numbers because there is no food (ammonia) for enough of them to exist.
So when you add in your first fish, the tank will then seriously start the cycling process as your fish starts producing ammonia.
Carbon can host bacterial which contributes to the Nitrogen cycle but carbon isn't the best media to for that purpose. There are other media specifically design to host Bacterial.
2006-12-19 23:36:03 · answer #2 · answered by dragonfly_sg 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the cycle of a tank does not begin until a fish is present in the water to produce waste. Then bacterias will form to begin the process of breaking down the ammo into no2 and no1
2006-12-20 01:26:33 · answer #3 · answered by talisy77 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not much, unless there is a source of ammonia.
I'd recommend finding some ammonia without additives and doing a fishless cycle to get your biofilter bacteria in place before getting fish. That would be much easier on you and on your fish!
http://thegab.org/Articles/FishlessCycling.html
2006-12-21 16:50:04 · answer #4 · answered by Betty H 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
When I first got my fish tank, the salesperson told me to add the water and turn everything on. If they are saltwater fish you need to add aquarium salt. Let it run for 24 hours and everything should be ready for the fish to be added. That's for regular old fish from Wal-Mart, if you have a special needs fish check out the link below.
2006-12-19 21:57:36 · answer #5 · answered by colbykaplan 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
you have to add small amounts , it wont cycle from osmosis
2006-12-19 21:56:49 · answer #6 · answered by Bob K 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋