What do people mean when they cycle the water in their tank??

Question

I heard people say you must cycle the water before introducing the fish. What does it mean, and should I do it, coz I don't think I have ever and even though, my goldfish are extremely healthy.

Answer 1

Cycling the tank means dosing ammonia to build up nitrifying bacteria that consume deadly ammonia and convert it to nitrites. Nitrites are just as deadly so you also have to build bacteria to consume nitrites and convert them to nitrates. Nitrates are only deadly in very high amounts, so water changes must be performed to prevent them from building too high. It normally takes 4-8 weeks to cycle a tank.

If you have fish in an uncycled tank, partial water changes must be performed daily to remove ammonia/nitrites or else the fish will die.

Many people for some reason believe that cycling means putting water in the tank and letting it run through the filter for a few days, but this does nothing. It builds zero nitrifying bacteria because there is no ammonia source and not enough time to build bacteria anyway.

Answer 2

Some of the answers are almost correct. 1- The beneficial bacteria are always present(in air and water). The free floating bacteria cannot remove any ammonia. They must form colonies on solid surfaces. This is why you can't cycle by just adding water from a cycled tank. 2- The first colony of bacteria to grow are called Nitrosomonas,they eat ammonia and excrete Nirtite (note the spelling). Nitrite is as toxic as ammonia. 3- Nitrobacter (the second colony) eat Nitrites,and excrete Nitrate(note spelling). Nitrate is much less toxic,but still not great for your fish. 4- The way to remove the Nitrate is to do a 20% water change every week. If you see the Nitrate numbers getting ahead of you,do more water changes or quit feeding so darn much. The water change should involve gravel vacuuming and filter cleaning. Clean the filter elements in water that you've just removed from the aquarium. This will save the bacteria that are growing in your filter media. 5- If you can learn to properly care for these bacteria,the fish will do just fine. Another point in bacteria care is to pre-treat your replacement water at water change time (remove the chlorine/chloramine before it goes into the tank,(no stress on the bacteria). The replacement water temperature should closely match the tank water to avoid stressing the bacteria. 6- The tank will cycle faster if you don't have fish in it. Here's why,as the ammonia numbers rise to toxic levels in a tank with fish in it you have to change water or kill fish. Removing ammonia slows the growth of the Nitrosomonas. The longer it takes for the Nitrosomonas to establish their colonies the longer it takes for them to excrete the Nitrites that the Nitrobacter require to grow,and therefore the longer it takes to complete the cycle. 7- One other thing you probably don't want to hear, once the first cycle is completed you shouldn't add fish rapidly,add two or three fish,then wait a couple of weeks,and add a couple more. This is to allow the bacteria colonies time to adjust to the increasing bio-load. The number of fish that you add at one time is dependent on the size of the tank. 8- You will find that a good(not necessarily expensive) book will provide a handy reference to help with your hobby. To the guy that freaked out about adding ammonia to the tank,you can't cycle a tank without ammonia,just don't torture fish by subjecting them to it. Adding a tiny amount of plain household ammonia is the fastest way to get a tank cycling,of course there should be no fish present. That's why they call it fish-less cycling. Any way that you decide to cycle, it takes a number of weeks,and should be monitored by weekly tests.

Answer 3

It is based on the nitrogen cycle...basically when you put your goldfish in the water they start producing ammonia as a waste product...special bacteria convert that to nitrite...but these bacteria take time to develop...both ammonia and nitrite are toxic to fish...another bacteria is able to convert nitrite to nitrate which is less toxic and is used by plants....but again this bacteria then takes a while to reach high enough levels....if your fish are in water with high levels of toxicity they can become used to it...if you added a new fish it would probably kill it...this doesn't mean that it's good for the older fish either...these bacteria should be in your gravel and filter system

Answer 4

cycling means making a natural bacteria filtration system out of the substrata in your tank. for most people that mean your gravel has bacteria in it that eat ammonia and nitrates. you can do this with chemicals like stress zyme or cycle so you don't have to really wait a month to establish a cycle. plants help too -- with goldfish you can get java fern and tie it to rocks or driftwood and it looks good and helps establish a healthier tank too.

Answer 5

the water changes for the better so you can put fish in

Answer 6

The natual build up of natural bactirea

Answer 7

There is a good link listed here:
http://www.marinefishforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=109

Hope this helps :)

Answer 8

Before you put fish in your tank you should put the water in and let it run through your filter for awhile and then change out the water again