What is cycling and what does it mean?

[fishdude]

how do you do cycling?

 

[LesGerber]

Cycling is the natural process of taking bad chemicals and bacteria( Ammonia and Nitrites) and converting them to safer bacteria in your tank. The whole process is to keep your fish happy and safe. You start with Ammonia, from excess food and fish waste and as it breaks down it becomes Ammonia, In turn the Ammonia is the kept in check by bacteria called Nitrites. As the Nitrites flourish you will have another bacteria come along (Nitrates) which keeps them in check. Nitrates are safer for fish and they are dealt with during your regular water changes.
So basically the cycling process takes the bad stuff that is harmful to your fish and converts it to safer stuff

Les

 

[fishdude]

how long does it take and do i have to do anything?

 

[Jamnog]

apparently it takes upto 6-8 weeks i presume thats if you do nothing. If you add certain of the types of waste that create the good bacteria it should reduce the time taken to cycle the tank. people might have differing oppinions on this i personally say it takes a day to get rid of the chlorine present in most tap water before the boilogical cycling starts i leave it a week with plants then a further week with a few fish i use gold fish they leave a lot of mess to get the filter active and they are cold water saves on the leccy bill. then i chuck em out in the pond whak in the filter and hey presto all my fish seem to love the water tho im not a keeper of the more sensittive fish.

 

[fishdude]

thanks I think i'll do that but how many gold fish should i get to do that.

 

[Tanked]

i would say 3 to 6 depending on tank size.

 

[fishdude]

yea but when the tank is cycled what happens when I do a water change does the cycled water go away?

 

[Jamnog]

Personally i dont do water changes unless im not happy with the water quality or i have an over stocked tank and my filter is not big enough to cope with whats in the tank (water wise). since in both of my tanks the filter is rated to upto a foot or two more than is in the tank i see no need yet. Others on the forum change their water religiously and are probably upset about my water changeing theorys meh they all change theirs allot i would say it does no harm so long as you keep it to 20% of the tank water per week any more and i think you threaten to reduce the amount of good bacteria in the water. so come on everyone dive in and critisise me
8)