# cycle?



## quinn808 (Jul 12, 2013)

Is cycling my tank essential? What does it do? And could someone dumb down the steps for me? The thread above didnt help much... sorry im a noob.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

It's not something you do really, the cycle will happen once you put fish in it - naturally. You can either chose that route or add ammonia manually to force it to happen. Ammonia starts it all and the fish's waste will cause it to occur.

I would search for the aquarium nitrogen cycle on google or something and read up. Short article usually and easy to understand.


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## SeanMcC (Jul 5, 2013)

Fish poop and pee in the water. This is toxic to them and an enclosed environment like a fish tank it builds up pretty quick. There are good things in the tank that break down the waste into less harmful stuff. Once that less harmful stuff gets to a level that is bad for the fish, we change out some of the water in our tanks. 

The conversion of the waste into less harmful stuff is "the cycle" . If you tank is not ready to cycle, then the toxic stuff builds up pretty fast and either kills or harms your fish.

The stuff that runs the cycle is invisible and lives in your filter, gravel and other places and is bacteria. This bacteria has to grow to a sufficient level to support your fish. If you add fish too quickly, the bacteria is not ready to do its work and fish die or are stressed.

Hope that helps.


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## L.West (Apr 26, 2013)

What I did with my tanks was to put about 6 hardy fish like Danioes or Platys in (I have large tanks 75 and 55 gallon) and bought an API Fresh Water Test kit.

Once the fish start to basically pollute the tank - you need to test the water pretty much daily to watch your Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate readings. You will need to do frequent water changes thru this process in order to not harm the fish.

After a couple of weeks you will start to see Ammonia showing up, then Nitrite will show up and Ammonia should drop off, then Nitrates will show up and Ammonia and Nitrites will both drop off - at this point you will have cycled your tank.

Some people don't advocate cycling with live fish but I did it and still have my orginal Danioes and Platys in a community tank - they did just fine thru it all. You have to be willing to invest the time to do frequent water changes though in order to succeed.

It sounds worse than it really is - once you do it once it will all click for ya.

Be sure to use something like Prime to decholinate your tap water when doing the water changes.


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## yekoms (Jul 7, 2013)

As a beginner I did the fishless cycle to our 45 gal freshwater tank with a few plants and driftwood in it. I am very glad that I did the fishless cycle. 
With the help of the fishless cycle info, jrman83, Coralbandit, Ty and other peoples posts about cycling on this site and this (A Quick Guide to Fishless Cycling | DrTim's Aquatics) it was a great learning experience. 
The cycle was over in 14 days ( Aug 6 )but to be sure I dosed ammonia to 2.-3.ppm for a few more days and we were busy with family stuff so fish didn't get added until Aug 11. (4 Otos, 8 Neon Tetras)
Aug 21 we added 7 Serpae Tetras and all is going great.
Do an advanced search on me( yekoms ) to see the advice that helped me through it.
I hope that this helps you as others have helped me...
Smokey


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

Here's Smokeys thread on cycling
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f66/i-started-fishless-cycle-need-encouragement-53610.html
The fishless cycle is the fastest,easiest least harmful way to get your tank ready to be FULLY STOCKED.
If you cycle fish in then it will take probly 4-8 weeks,you will become a water change expert (or watch fish die day after day after day),and only be able to stock your tank slowly(a couple additions per week or so).Some fish require to installed all at once(african cichlids,and some other territorial fish) so fish in cycling is not a good option.


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## Raymond S. (Jan 11, 2013)

The Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle


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