Cycling An Aquarium - Everything You Need To Know!
#aquarium #fishtank #nature
Nitrogen Cycle, Ghost Feeding and X-Factors!
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Aquarium cycling (NOT the bicycle sport) is a term most outside of the hobby don't understand. However, cycling your fish tank is arguably the most important factor every fish or shrimp owner, beginner to expert has to master to have their livestock survive longer than a week. There are a few factors that can effect your aquarium cycle as well as some things you can do to help speed it up. I try to cover all of them in today's quick guide!
To cycle your aquarium is to remove all the toxic chemicals from your aquarium’s ecosystem by creating a healthy amount of beneficial bacteria as part of the tank’s biological filter. This is very important because all newly set-up fish tanks have dangerously high amounts of toxins, namely ammonia. Without cycling, this will cause major stress and illness to your fish leading to them dying within a few days. To sum up briefly, in a full cycling process the toxins in the water start off as ammonia, become nitrite, and finally gets digested to become nitrate.
Check out this quick video explaining all this and more!
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Criminally underrated fish channel.
thank you so much! tell your friends about me ;) haha
brand new learner and i'm so excited!!
Let me know if there's anything I haven't covered that you'd like me to!
One of the best explanations. I have too much ammonia to n my new tank. Thats why the melting of my plants. Took me so many videos to get to this one!!
So happy I could help! Some people like to overcomplicate things, one of the reasons I made my channel in the first place :)
Hey, do you do water changes daily and how much if so when starting a cycle?
Well done brother 👍👍👍
Thanks so much!
Hallo Bob from Greece! I am setting up a 20ltr neocaridina tank with inert substrate (gravel). Can i put a little bit o bacter ae, on the bottom of substrate?
Riding my bicycle. I'm cycling a new 10 gallon cull tank now. I think I'm on week 3. I tried using an old filter to jump start the cycle but it didn't seem to do anything. I may have added the used media too soon and there wasn't enough ammonia yet from decaying pellets I put in. It still took over a week before I had any nitrates. I don't know, this is only my second tank. Have you ever dealt with scuds? There was a couple on plants I got off ebay and I did an alum dip but I don't know how long I should quarantine before it's safe from those. Everything I found says they're invincible.
There are a few things that may factor into that. Size of old filter, parameters of the old and new tank and bioload as you mentioned. The bacteria could actually die off if the tank parameters are vastly different, as they are cultured for specific pHs and hardness. Just take your time and measure your levels, never rush aquarium stuff. Personally, no. From what I have seen, manual removal is the best option. Anything that can kill scuds can kill shrimp so I avoid that kind of stuff, but you could try something with a decent copper level in to poison them. High doses of hydrogen peroxide could work or a bleach dip as well. Thank you for watching and making it to the end! It really means a lot!
For a dark start method were you don't change the water, would you suggest to keep adding fish food sparingly over the course, as I have inert substrate?
Yes! It's very important to have a constant ammonia source during cycling so that the bacteria can establish itself.
🚴 i guessing there is a chemistry set to buy that measures all those parameters . Or is it easier than what i am imagining? Good video.
Oh ya, I should have mentoined that haha. API master test kit + kh/gh test kits will tell you all your parameters
Welp. First time trying with a master kit. Took me three times to eventually test without dropping them. Already broke one of the four tubes. All I wanted was some fish. Lol
@@Loralanthalas ouch, i have yet to break one, but i also do my tests on the floor so if they fall they don't have far to go
Dude, I'm dying over here :DDD
Glad you liked it! I try to have fun haha
what is the little grass on the front right of that tank shown the most? and i have tap water at 30 gh 240+ Kh 7.5 pH i want to keep low ph acidic fish....am i screwed or do i learn how to deal with it?
It's dwarf hair grass. I have some available in my webstore. If I remember correctly it's a 'minima' strain so it stays super short. I would say keep what will live in your parameters. chasing pH is almost never a good idea.
Just got over the man cold too. My nose was running for Congress!
I hate spring and fall for the colds and the allergies lol
10 days ago i started cycling my new 20 gallon tank with Dr TIm's ammonia/one and only but my tank is looking pretty cloudy. the Ammonia is only between 2-4ppm and according to my test strips I do see nitrites and nitrates but i'm waiting on my masters test kit to come in so I know exact numbers. Will the cloudy water clear up or am I stuck trying to cycle it again?
The cloudy water is just a bacterial bloom that is very common during cycling. Give it time, it should clear up.
@@BobMossNanoTanks Thanks for your quick response! This is my first time even hearing about cycling a tank my last fish years ago we didn't do this. I'll give it more time.
I want to ride my bicycle! I want to ride my bike! 🚴♀️
Thank you for making it to the end, hope you liked it!
I love how funny the video is 🤣
thank you so much :) i try to have a little fun with my content
Love those random noises 😁
I try to have fun here haha
I’ve watched a bunch of these videos and I feel like this may be a silly question but are you supposed to do any cleaning/water changes during the cycling? This is the one thing that I haven’t seen specifically mentioned.
after each week you can do a 10-30% water change depending on the ammonia levels. you basically just want to keep them below 5ppm until you get nitrates and then it will take care of itself. it's not necessary but can be helpful.
@@BobMossNanoTanks Thank you for your advice!
Very helpful video, but can you clarify? I first I just need to get the ammonia between like 3 and 5 ppm and check it every day and keep it there? And I still need to ghost feed the tank even when I get nitrites? I should only stop feeding the tank when nitrates show?
Pure ammonia source. Pee on a cup. Put it in the tank ❤
The larger the tank, the longer it takes to cycle. 10 to 20g tanks take around 4 wks to cycle, but anything over 50 will take anywhere from 6 to 10 weeks.
Interesting. Are you using larger sponges as well in the larger tanks? I could just be a surface area issue?
@BobMossNanoTanks Definitely a surface area issue
Does fluval stratum leech ammonia?
it has the potential to but not nearly as much as an active substrate
Been cycling for 2 weeks now, I have no ammonia but my nitrite and nitrate readings are really high, what do I do? 😩
You can do a water change to lower the nitrates if it's bothering you but I tend to leave it until week 4. Make sure this is an ammonia source or the first stage of bacteria will slowly die off!
@Bob Moss Nano Tanks Thank you! Its definitely an ammonia source, last week my ammonia was reading 4.0ppm. I'll do a partial water change because my nitrate are reading about 80ppm!
maybe how many pcs of malaysian trumpet snails are enough in my 70L tank? to cycling? And if i add snails in my cycling tank, i don't have to add any fish food to produce ammonia?
a handful, 10-20 should do the trick. they'll reproduce and soon you'll have hundreds. It's good to add a food source, otherwise what are the snails eating? :)
@@BobMossNanoTanks thank you! is it okay to feed powder goldfish food in my tank every week? or should i put more oftenly?
@@ichokimsh while cycling just keep enough in there for the ammonia levels to stay up. Once a week is probably fine tbh. After you have shrimp in there it's all down to how much they eat in a two hour window
@@BobMossNanoTanks thank you! i will start cycle my tank today :) i will add some 6 pcs of malaysian trumpet snails with pinch of powder goldfish feed :) thank you so much again Bob!
Does algae powder also turn into amonia like fish food?
if you overdose it, some will rot.
This is the first time I'm doing an old fashioned cycling. And I'm really really itchy to get a new fish. My first betta passed a month ago. 😭 I'm trying to be patient as hell, but I want a new fish! How often should I test the water parameters? And should I add more bacteria? (I recently did a ghost feeding.) I don't want to waste the chemicals, naturally.
If ur itching for something in the tank, consider getting some snails for now
@@peopledonotexist thank you, but I'm concerned about my ammonia levels rn.
hardier snails like ramshorn, malaysian trumpet snails and bladder snails don't care about ammonia at all, if you want some life in there as Cameron mentioned. That said, to answer your question. I test after 3 weeks because I know not much is going to happen before then. I wouldn't test more than twice a week as it's just a waste of chemicals. If you are curious about tracking the cycle, just do one test a week and write down the different levels, you should see the ammonia slowly shift to the nitrites and nitrates. As for bacteria, totally up to you. I add stability once a week regardless. It's not gonna hurt, right?
@@BobMossNanoTanks thank you!
I had just gotten a new fish tank and was in the process of cycling for the past 3 weeks. But everytime i open the lid it reaks of strong ammonia, is that normal or should i constantly do water changes.
If you can smell the ammonia the ppm might be too high, which will slow down your cycling process
@@BobMossNanoTanks I don't have one of those good testing kits for nitrite and ammonia and I don't know what it smells like so i don't know if it's the smell of ammonia, nitrite or just the aqua soil but what I do have is the aqua test strips. I tested it twice and it's saying the hardness is 250, chlorine was 0.5, free chlorine 0.5, PH is 6.8, total alkalinity 180, cyanuric acid is 0. I don't have anything in the fish tank all i have inside is just live plants, lava rock and stratum fluval soil and been pinching a small amount of tropical flakes to put inside fish tank.
@@BobMossNanoTanks if you can help what would be best to do because I don't know too much and on a budget atm was planning to go to petsmart for prime and stability liquid.
@@AsianAmericanGuy do you have a test kit for ammonia? if not i would probably just do a 50% water change and leave it.
@@BobMossNanoTanks thank you. No, i don't got the test kit but I will purchase sometime in the next few weeks and get the masters test kit.
Finally 7 weeks later and I have. 25 ammonia, 25 nitrate and 1 nitrate. I dosed with prime and stability so as to not let it spike. Have I reached a full cycle now and should no longer need these chemicals?
pretty much, are you using active substrate? they can take 8 weeks to stop leeching ammonia.
@@BobMossNanoTanks great thank you. Subtract was added brand new 7 weeks ago with crushed coarl for pH since it's a cichlid tank
@@davidsobczynski4436 wait, you have active substrate but crushed coral?
@@BobMossNanoTanks no, just gravel and crushed coral mixed in
@@davidsobczynski4436there may be something leeching ammonia in your tank
My parameters are confusing me . GH- 180 KH- 40 PH- 7-7.5 Nitrate - 160 Nitrite- 0-0.5 All my plants are growing, I have algae growth and some snails . All my fish look colourful and active, but over the last few weeks my gourami fish have become sick looking, only my gold ones, the rest are fine . I’ve been doing water changes every day with 12 litre bucket and my tanks 200 litres. The fish were a few years old but a couple have died and other gold one looks sick …. But everything else looks great . Any help or pointers would be appreciated 😊
That is very high on the nitrates which would lead to issues with the fish IMO. Try a large water change to bring that number down.
Water affects my cycle? What can I do to the water to make my cycle longer than once a month? The longer the better.
Well the water is what will hold the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate so doing too many water changes can slow it down. Tbh the speed of the cycle doesn't really matter, I've had the tanks cycled in anywhere from 2-8 weeks depending on my own processes. Using old sponges will help speed it up, using active substrate will slow things down. 4 weeks is the sweet spot for inert substrate setups with no filter seeding.
@@BobMossNanoTanks Was kind of making a joke about the monthly cycle us ladies experience. No worries though. It was a stupid joke, and your discussion of the ammonia cycle was very well presented. Made it much clearer to me. Keep up the great work!
@@ChompchompyerdedHEY! I'm the only one allowed to make jokes here! lol oof, right over my head.
I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike.
Thank you so much for watching until the end!
I like to ri... Wait! I'm not going to do that! Just take my word for it. I watched the whole thing. Just take my word for it.
Thanks a ton! It is truly appreciated!
Bicycle, bicycle, bicycle :-)
You say black, I say white
You are fineeeeee
Oh my, thank you!
I want to ride my bicycle but its snowing.
friggin winter!
Bicycle my ride to want I.
nailed it
I want to ride my bicycle, “Freddie Mercury
thanks for watching!
I want to ride my bicycle 🚲
Thank you so much for watching!
First thing you need to know is that there is no such thing lol
Pardon? Are you saying there is no such thing as the nitrogen cycle?
I want to ride my bicycle
I WANT TO RIDE MY BIIIIKKKEEEE!
i dont want to ride my bicycle taking a break from arguing with internet vegans
thats a fight you won't win, friend. tap out and move on haha.
I want to ride my bicycle
Thanks for making it to the end! Really appreciate it!