Ok, I got my self a new aqurarium three weeks ago, and I am really frustrated to see that information regarding aquariums is different depending on the source. In the pet shop I was told that I should wait for 4 weeks without adding any fish, and they would insist, until the nitrite levels drop. In other place I was told to add some hardy fish so ammonia will be produced and the cycle will begin. In other places they recommend a 10% water change every now and then to help the nitrite levels go down and others say that a water change would only slow it down.what the hell? what am I supposed to do here??
Answers:
First off are you starting a salt water tank or a fresh water tank. Usually you can get away with a week to two weeks for a fresh water tank but you have to wait a month for a salt water tank. You don't want to add fish in a new tank without it going through the nitrogen cycle first because you could end up with "new tank syndrome" which isn't good. Now since this is a new tank only add a few fish at a time (depends on the size of the tank). Again it depends on the size of the tank (I'm suppose to clean 10%-20% of my water every week to two weeks; but I do it every month but I also check my water quality to) you only need to change 10%-20% of the water and no more unless you tank is really bad but don't go below 50%. You want to keep a living bacteria in your tank (good bacteria). You basically use a siphon to clean the gravel and that will take the 10%-20% water out. But having a tank set up without fish for more than a week is also okay you just know by now that bacteria has finally grown in your tank. By the way fish need this type of bacteria it helps with the nitrogen cycle basically. Going back to cleaning tanks. don't go beyond a month for cleaning tanks you want to get that fish waste out. And remember only add a few fish at a time you don't want to add too many at once (again "new tank syndrome"). Like for a 10-gallon I'll only add 2 fish, 20-gallon I'll only add 3-4 fish, 50-gallon I'll only add 6 fish, and so forth. After putting those few fish in the tank you want to wait a week before adding any other fish in the tank. Remember 1 inch per gallon (fresh water community tank), 1 inch per 3 gallons (goldfish), 1 inch per 5 gallons (juveniles fish-saltwater), 1 inch per 3 gallons (adult fish-saltwater). So if you have a fresh water community tank you you purchased a fish that is only an inch big but it will grow to 6 inches that's 6 gallons gone. You need to go by how big the fish will get so you know for sure you won't overcrowd you tank.
Here is a website I have used in the past..Good Luck
http://www.thefunplace.com/house/pets/aq.
It's best to take the fish and put then in an alternate container about every 2 to 3 months so you can change out about 90 percent of the water. After the fish are out and before you change the water, you should vacuum the bottom of the tane to reduce the amount of waste. That is probably the best way to keep a healthy tank.
test the water they now have chemical to regulate the water. i just add good water to my tank (30 gal and not changed in a year.but clean gravel weekly have a variety of different fish and good rooted live plants ,dont overfeed it works for me
Your cycle has already started as the bacteria turns the ammonia into nitrites. The only part of the cycle that is left is the bacteria that turns the nitrites into nitrates.
I have always found it more helpful to 'seed' my new tanks with a bit of gravel from a well established tank so that the cycling takes only a week. No matter what you do, the bio-load will increase with every fish that you put in your tank and the number of bacteria will have to increase to cope. If your tank has been running for three weeks and you still have a spike in our nitrites you only have two choices. You can do a partial water change to lower the nitrites and add a fish, or wait until it subsides.
Salt for freshwater aquariums can be used to prevent nitrite poisoning, if the chloride ions are 30 times the concentration of nitrite ions (add one level teaspoon for every 5 gallons).
Cycling your tank for four weeks or so with no fish is ultimately the least stressful on both you and your fish.
If you add fish before the tank is cycled, there is not enough "good" bacteria available to convert ammonia into nitrite and then into nitrate. Fish do not need to be added to start producing ammonia, and in fact, if you do add fish right away, they will become stressed and possibly get sick (even the hardy ones). You CAN kick-start the process by adding a little bit of fish food to the water so that ammonia producing bacteria have something to feed on (I wouldn't add a lot though). Water changes before cycling is finished WILL slow down the process, but you need to do changes of between 10-20 percent every week or so on a healthy, cycled tank.
At three weeks, you are nearing the time that the cycling will be completed. Get some tests for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate, and you will have a more complete idea of where you stand. You'll want ammonia and nitrite levels to be at zero, and nitrate levels to be at 20 ppm at the HIGHEST (if you have between 5 and 15 ppm, that's preferable)
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/index.html. is a GREAT site for any questions you could POSSIBLY have. EVER. I've never found a more inclusive site (on any topic). They have an extensive article base and lot's of FAQ's-and are willing to accept new FAQ's (and the three that I've sent in were answered within five hours).
Good luck and congratulations on your (future) pets!
i have had fish tanks for about 6 years now and every time i get a new one what i do is i set it up with water and all in it, wait about a week or a week and a half and add some cheap fish like feeder guppies or something so they can set the levels up i guess you can say and after a couple days i slowly add the actual fish that i want
Nitrogen cycle
The nitrogen cycle in an aquarium.Of primary concern to the aquarist is management of the biological waste produced by an aquarium's inhabitants. Fish, invertebrates, fungi, and some bacteria excrete nitrogen waste in the form of ammonia (which may convert to ammonium, depending on water chemistry) which must then pass through the nitrogen cycle. Ammonia is also produced through the decomposition of plant and animal matter, including fecal matter and other detritus. Nitrogen waste products become toxic to fish and other aquarium inhabitants at high concentrations.
A well-balanced tank contains organisms that are able to metabolize the waste products of other aquarium residents. The nitrogen waste produced in a tank is metabolized in aquaria by a type of bacteria known as nitrifiers (genus Nitrosomonas). Nitrifying bacteria capture ammonia from the water and metabolize it to produce nitrite. Nitrite is also highly toxic to fish in high concentrations. Another type of bacteria, genus Nitrospira, converts nitrite into nitrate, a less toxic substance to aquarium inhabitants. (Nitrobacter bacteria were previously believed to fill this role, and continue to be found in commercially available products sold as kits to "jump start" the nitrogen cycle in an aquarium. While biologically they could theoretically fill the same niche as Nitrospira, it has recently been found that Nitrobacter are not present in detectable levels in established aquaria, while Nitrospira are plentiful.) This process is known in the aquarium hobby as the nitrogen cycle.
In addition to bacteria, aquatic plants also eliminate nitrogen waste by metabolizing ammonia and nitrate. When plants metabolize nitrogen compounds, they remove nitrogen from the water by using it to build biomass. However, this is only temporary, as the plants release nitrogen back into the water when older leaves die off and decompose.
Although informally called the nitrogen cycle by hobbyists, it is in fact only a portion of a true cycle: nitrogen must be added to the system (usually through food provided to the tank inhabitants), and nitrates accumulate in the water at the end of the process, or become bound in the biomass of plants. This accumulation of nitrates in home aquaria requires the aquarium keeper to remove water that is high in nitrates, or remove plants which have grown from the nitrates.
Aquaria kept by hobbyists often do not have the requisite populations of bacteria needed to detoxify nitrogen waste from tank inhabitants. This problem is most often addressed through two filtration solutions: Activated carbon filters absorb nitrogen compounds and other toxins from the water, while biological filters provide a medium specially designed for colonization by the desired nitrifying bacteria.
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Cycling
New aquaria also do not usually have the required populations of bacteria for the handling of nitrogen waste. In a process called cycling, aquarists cultivate these bacteria as fish and other producers of nitrogen waste are gradually added to the tank over the course of several weeks. Aquarists use several different methods to jump start this process, including the use of water additives containing small populations of the bacteria, or "seeding" a new tank with a mature bacterial colony removed from another aquarium (such as can be found on gravel or biological filter media).
Other cycling methods that have gained popularity in recent years are the fishless cycle and the silent cycle. As the name of the former implies, no fish are kept in a tank undergoing a fishless cycle. Instead, small amounts of ammonia are added to the tank to feed the bacteria being cultured. During this process, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels are tested to monitor progress. The silent cycle is basically nothing more than densely stocking the aquarium with fast-growing aquatic plants and relying on them to consume the nitrogen products rather than bacteria. According to anecdotal reports of aquarists specializing in planted tanks, the plants can consume nitrogenous waste so efficiently that the spikes in ammonia and nitrite levels normally seen in more traditional cycling methods are greatly reduced, if they are detectable at all.
Improperly cycled aquaria can quickly accumulate toxic concentrations of nitrogen waste and kill their inhabitants.
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Other nutrient cycles
Nitrogen is not the only nutrient that cycles through an aquarium. Dissolved oxygen enters the system at the surface water-air interface or through the actions of an air pump. Carbon dioxide escapes the system into the air. The phosphate cycle is an important, although often overlooked, nutrient cycle. Sulfur, iron, and micronutrients also cycle through the system, entering as food and exiting as waste. Appropriate handling of the nitrogen cycle, along with supplying an adequately balanced food supply and considered biological loading, is usually enough to keep these other nutrient cycles in approximate equilibrium.
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Biological loading
19 Liter Aquarium, seems to be overcrowdedBiological loading is a measure of the burden placed on the aquarium ecosystem by its living inhabitants. High biological loading in an aquarium represents a more complicated tank ecology, which in turn means that equilibrium is easier to perturb. In addition, there are several fundamental constraints on biological loading based on the size of an aquarium. The surface area of water exposed to air limits dissolved oxygen intake by the tank. The capacity of nitrifying bacteria is limited by the physical space they have available to colonize. Physically, only a limited size and number of plants and animals can be fit into an aquarium while still providing room for movement.
In order to prevent biological overloading of the system, aquarists have developed a number of rules of thumb. Perhaps the most popular of these is the "7mm per liter of water" which dictates that the sum in cm of the lengths of all fish kept in an aquarium (excluding tail length) should not exceed the capacity of the tank measured in Liters (one inch of fish per U.S. gallon). This rule is usually applied to the expected mature size of the fish, in order to not stunt growth by overcrowding, which can be unhealthy for the fish. (Note that this rule of thumb breaks down for thick bodied fishes like some catfish, and aggressive fish like most Cichlids.) For goldfish and other high-waste fish, many aquarists recommend doubling the space allowance to one inch of fish per every two gallons and others even debate the usefulness of the "inch per gallon" rule because if fails to consider other important issues such as fish temperament, activity, compatibility with other tank mates(i.e. two male bettas shouldn't be kept together) dimensions of aquarium, and the filtration capabilities of the aquarium. The safest method of determining the stocking limits and compatibility is to talk to an experienced aquarist or group of aquarists at a local organization or a dedicated online forum.
The true maximum or ideal biological loading of a system is very difficult to calculate, even on a theoretical level. To do so, the variables for waste production rate, nitrification efficiency, gas exchange rate at the water surface, and many others would need to be determined. In practice this is a very complicated and difficult task, and so most aquarists use rules of thumb combined with a trial and error approach to reach an appropriate level of biological loading.
I have a 120 gallon tank started off with fresh water and moved to salt water (which I reccomend) - I put the water in my 120, got the filters running and threw the fish in and had NO PROBLEMS and I had 4 good size arrowana's in it that cost $40 a piece
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