spanko
Active Member
No not on your bicycle, after all this is about aquariums. For an understanding of the different ways to cycle aquariums first let’s look at a dictionary explanation of what a cycle is.
cy•cle (s k l)
n.
1. An interval of time during which a characteristic, often regularly repeated event or sequence of events occurs: Sunspots increase and decrease in intensity in an 11-year cycle.
2.
a. A single complete execution of a periodically repeated phenomenon: A year constitutes a cycle of the seasons.
b. A periodically repeated sequence of events: the cycle of birth, growth, and death; a cycle of reprisal and retaliation.
Myself, I like definition #2, b. as an explanation for what we will discuss here.
One of the cycles that occur in our aquariums is called the Nitrogen Cycle.
Many times you will read or hear a new aquarist ask “is my cycle done yet”? While we know that they are talking about the initial set up of the aquarium and its ability to now have life added to it, we need to understand that truly our aquarium never stops cycling. Remember, “A periodically repeated sequence of events”? Well that’s what happens in our aquariums.
So alright, we now understand that our aquariums periodically cycle but what is this periodic sequence?
Well a brief explanation about the Nitrogen Cycle is in order. You see everywhere there is a breakdown of dead protein material, read plants, animals, waste here, there is a compound called ammonia (NH3) generated during the breakdown. There are bacteria that exist in nature that consume this ammonia. The byproduct of this is a compound called Nitrites (N02). Low and behold there is a bacterium that consumes these Nitrites and turns them into Nitrate (N03). And finally there are bacteria that consume the Nitrates and turn them into the element Nitrogen (N2). This is the cycle we will be concentrating on in the upcoming discussion. After all you can see why this happens in our aquariums, fish, coral, algae, all manner of critters die as well as excrete waste products. If there were no bacteria to convert these proteins as they rotted, ammonia would continue to accumulate to toxic levels and our aquarium would crash! The bacteria are what is called our bio filter and must be built up prior to the addition of other life in our tank.
So continuing on we can now discuss some of the different methods we can employ to kick start this initial build up of our bio filter (nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria).
Well now we have done some up front reading. Decided on what size tank we will get, the filters, a skimmer, lights, what salt water or mix we will use and have thought about what critters we wish to keep. Finally it is time to set up the aquarium. WAIT! You forgot the most important equipment, the tests. You see you need to monitor the cycle to know when the initial build up has completed. To do this you need ammonia, nitrite and nitrate test kits. There are many out there but for the most part people use API on the low end cost or Salifert for the high end. What is the difference you say besides the cost? Well the API will certainly do what you to do but the Salifert kits will do a more precise job of it. In my opinion for this part of the hobby I go with the API. Surely you will find all kinds of different opinions on this so go with what your research tells you. See what others are using and make your own decision.
Alright, now we are ready to start.
Got the tank in place on the stand, everything leveled to perfection, all equipment in place ready to go. Remember the most important part of this setup is to start the Nitrogen Cycle and to do this we need to introduce either a protein that will decay into ammonia, or ammonia itself. Live sand and live rock will supply what is termed die-off, dead and or decaying material to introduce the ammonia. Any real protein can be used at this point, a cocktail shrimp left to rot, a fish that will produce waste, fish food, pure ammonia and I have read of people using urine. YUCKO, please don’t pee in your tank!
Whatever is used you will need to start to monitor your tank with the test kits. The two that should be used are the ammonia and nitrite kits at this point. What we are looking for is a rise in ammonia first, then after some time nitrites will begin to rise. This process will continue until at some point the ammonia will begin to fall, then the nitrites will begin to fall. When you have seen both of these fall back to zero you can be assured that you have done the initial cycling of your tank. That is you have built a colony of bacteria that are capable of consuming your ammonia and nitrites as they are produced with the bio load that is available in your tank right now. . The size of the colony and how much ammonia it can process is for now insignificant, you have the ball rolling. Then using the nitrate kit you will or should show a reading of nitrates. This reading may or may not go down depending on whether your aquarium has the necessary denitrifying bacteria to convert the nitrates into nitrogen. We will discuss this more later on.
Okay so now you have an idea of how this magic works, let’s talk about some detailed way in which to accomplish it.
Cycling #1 Most accepted process currently.
This method utilizes live rock and either live or dry sand. You set the tank up and introduce the sand and live rock then start testing. The live rock will come to you in a couple of different ways. Cured or uncured. Cured rock simply is rock that has been set up in a tank at the local fish store for some time, has experienced the cycling process there, and will for the most part not cause any spikes in your aquarium because it already has a small colony of bacteria working. Your job is to build on this small colony to the point you can safely start to add critters. Transport from the fish store to your house is important here. If the rock is out of the water as it is transported things will begin to die off. If this happens, when you introduce it to your tank this die-off may be more than the colony of bacteria can handle and there may be a spike in the ammonia. Something could even die if the rock is transported in water for an extended period and say it is a hot or even a very cold day. Providing the transport time is quick – the die off is small – you may not even be able to detect the ammonia spike when testing the water after adding the rock. Oh Boy! Can I start to add fish now? Well it would be advisable to do some testing over the next week or so. This just to ensure that there is no detectable ammonia being produced. During this time you can actually add a little bit of fish food and test the water that day and the next two or so to see if there are any readings. This will tell you how well the colony of bacteria handle the addition of load put on it. If not, or even if there is a small spike that goes away quickly, you can start to begin to watch and wonder at what will be happening. There is life in them there live rocks. Little critters called pods, maybe a crab or snail, certainly some algae, if you are lucky maybe even a coral of some kind. After you are assured by testing that the bacteria colony is actually there and doing its thing you can take the nitrate reading, do a 10-20% water change with new saltwater and begin to add a small cleanup crew. (i.e. snails crabs etc) As you add things you again want to test for ammonia to see if there is a spike. If there is don’t worry at this point the bacteria should multiply enough to be able to handle it and bring the reading back to zero. Remember though, small additions is the key. The more you add the more of a bio load will be produced and it may cause the ammonia to go so high as to be detrimental or even deadly to what you are adding. So slow is the name of the game. Then week by week start to add something else like a fish here, a coral there, until you get the tank looking like what you had envisioned. The same method can be used for the uncured rock, rock that is in essence shipped directly from the ocean to the retailer to your tank. This rock has an abundance of life on it, hopefully little die-off and will provide you with some interesting and sometimes unwanted critters from the ocean. The same method is used for the initial cycle though as you want to ensure that along the way the rocks die-off is not so much as to cause a cesspool in your tank of deadly ammonia. Please read my other article called Cycling for Life to gain some insight about a method to preserve what comes in on this type of rock.
Cycling #2 I don’t have live rock and sand, I have dead rock and sand.
With this method we will discuss the option of adding another source of protein to the tank. Some people after doing some research may not want to use any type of live rock for fear of some unwanted pest(s) entering their system. Things like nasty crabs, pest anemones, invasive species of algae, etc. etc. In these cases people may just want to use dry sand and dry base rock that has no life on it at all. Here we have to introduce the ammonia source to kick start the cycle. This can be done in many ways if we remember that adding any protein will initiate the breakdown of it and the byproduct of ammonia to begin. Fish food can be used here. A few pinches of it for 2 or 3 days in a row and low and behold the ammonia starts to develop. Other things can also be used, dare I say just about anything that will breakdown into ammonia. Raw cocktail shrimpscallopfish are other sources often used. Put whatever it is into a nylon bag or something similar, put the bag in the tank and let it sit for 2-4 days. It will begin to rot. Pull the bag out, all the while holding your nose because it will be smelly, and discard card it. There will be ammonia in the tank. Well we are looking for something to breakdown into ammonia here but how about we just add some ammonia? Duh, right? Well this method can and does work. You need to ensure that the ammonia you use has not additives in it like things to make it smell nicer etc. (read pure ammonia here) Then for every 10 gallons of water you begin to add 5 drops per day. (20 gallons 10 drops, 30 gallons 15 drops etc.) Continue this until you get a reading of about 5 ppm of ammonia. At that point you will want to maintain a reading of 5ppm while testing for nitrites. When you see the nitrites begin to appear cut back on the addition of the ammonia to 2 drops per gallon per day and keep testing for ammonia. When the ammonia and nitrite readings then reach 0 you can stop adding ammonia and do a test for nitrates. At this point you should have a nitrate reading and you will do a large water change, in excess of about 90% and start running a filter with some activated carbon to remove any of the additives from the ammonia. This method to me is a lot more work than adding the fish food or shrimpscallopraw fish etc. but it does work.
Cycling #3 Using established bacteria.
This is also a good method in that you got to you local fish store or maybe a friend’s house and try to obtain some of their sand or gravel that is in an up and running tank. Here you are introducing bacteria on a small scale that is coming in with the sand or gravel and you will need to keep introducing an ammonia source to build up this established colony. The same could be done with a sponge or floss from and established tanks filter. This will also contain the desired bacteria. Just remember with this method you can also introduce an unwanted pathogen if it exists in the system you are taking the source from.
Cycling #4 Commercial products.
There are some products sold that contain some of the requisite bacteria to introduce to the tank for the initial cycling. Some also contain an enzyme to help the bacteria grow faster. As with any method you will need to continue to introduce an ammonia source to build up the colony, all the time testing.
Cycling #5 I don’t have live rock and sand and my fish store said to use a fish!
Well. Oh my. Hmm.
The method of starting the initial cycle with a hardy fish like a Damsel of some sort was the most accepted way to do it back in the day. In 1975 or so I started my first every 55 gallon fish only tank with an under gravel and hang on the back filter. And I did use 3 Damsel fish to cycle with. They all survived to the point that I had to remove them later because they were so nasty but that is another story. My point is this method does work and does work well to get the cycle started. Well, it works well for the hobbyist, not so much for the fish. Imagine if you will being a fish stuck in a box of water where all of a sudden you have ammonia burning your eyes, your skin, making it hard to breath, burning that little scratch you have on your belly. Not a nice thing to do. Anyway where does the decaying material come from in this scenario you ask as the fish is living? Well it’s gonna come from uneaten food you feed the fish and dare I say fish poop. The process is the same testing for ammonia and nitrates until they are gone etc. etc.
So there you have it. A group of ways to get the initial cycle started in your aquarium. Are there other ways? Yes but these listed are probably your best bet. And what have we learned?
• Cycling is a periodically repeated sequence of events. This means that even after the initial cycling of the tank your tank will continuously cycle depending of the bio load of the tank and the available food for the bacteria. If the bio load goes up the ammonia goes up and the bacteria colony increases to deal with it. If the bio load goes down then some of the bacteria will die off as there is not enough food to support it. This is always happening in our tanks. So when someone asks “is my cycle done” well the initial build up of bacteria may be but our tanks are never done cycling.
• The cycle we discuss in the hobby is the nitrogen cycle which consists of
o Protein decaying into ammonia
o Ammonia used as a food source by bacteria where the byproduct is nitrite.
o Nitrite used as a food source by bacteria where the byproduct is nitrate.
o Nitrate used as a food source by bacteria where the byproduct is nitrogen gas.
• There are many different ways to get an ammonia source introduced into the tank so it is up to the hobbyist to determine which suits their purpose the best.
• Testing is the way in which we determine if the initial cycling is complete, where ammonia and nitrite have fallen to zero.
• After the initial cycle we can begin to add critters slowly so we do not overwhelm the established colony and allow it to grow to meet the needs of the increased bio load.
• Damn, there is a lot more to this saltwater stuff than I thought there was!
Slow and steady is the name of the game here. Initial cycling can take from oh about 3 to 6 weeks. It is better in my opinion to wait the 6 weeks if you can contain yourself, even if you have seen ammonia and nitrites rise and fall to zero in less than that. There are many things that continue to happen in the aquarium over time and the extra wait to the 6 week mark will help to stabilize things a bit.
r />
I hope this helps in the understanding of the initial cycling of a tank and that you will enjoy this part as much as the rest of the hobby because it is a wondrous time where life actually begins in the aquarium.
cy•cle (s k l)
n.
1. An interval of time during which a characteristic, often regularly repeated event or sequence of events occurs: Sunspots increase and decrease in intensity in an 11-year cycle.
2.
a. A single complete execution of a periodically repeated phenomenon: A year constitutes a cycle of the seasons.
b. A periodically repeated sequence of events: the cycle of birth, growth, and death; a cycle of reprisal and retaliation.
Myself, I like definition #2, b. as an explanation for what we will discuss here.
One of the cycles that occur in our aquariums is called the Nitrogen Cycle.
Many times you will read or hear a new aquarist ask “is my cycle done yet”? While we know that they are talking about the initial set up of the aquarium and its ability to now have life added to it, we need to understand that truly our aquarium never stops cycling. Remember, “A periodically repeated sequence of events”? Well that’s what happens in our aquariums.
So alright, we now understand that our aquariums periodically cycle but what is this periodic sequence?
Well a brief explanation about the Nitrogen Cycle is in order. You see everywhere there is a breakdown of dead protein material, read plants, animals, waste here, there is a compound called ammonia (NH3) generated during the breakdown. There are bacteria that exist in nature that consume this ammonia. The byproduct of this is a compound called Nitrites (N02). Low and behold there is a bacterium that consumes these Nitrites and turns them into Nitrate (N03). And finally there are bacteria that consume the Nitrates and turn them into the element Nitrogen (N2). This is the cycle we will be concentrating on in the upcoming discussion. After all you can see why this happens in our aquariums, fish, coral, algae, all manner of critters die as well as excrete waste products. If there were no bacteria to convert these proteins as they rotted, ammonia would continue to accumulate to toxic levels and our aquarium would crash! The bacteria are what is called our bio filter and must be built up prior to the addition of other life in our tank.
So continuing on we can now discuss some of the different methods we can employ to kick start this initial build up of our bio filter (nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria).
Well now we have done some up front reading. Decided on what size tank we will get, the filters, a skimmer, lights, what salt water or mix we will use and have thought about what critters we wish to keep. Finally it is time to set up the aquarium. WAIT! You forgot the most important equipment, the tests. You see you need to monitor the cycle to know when the initial build up has completed. To do this you need ammonia, nitrite and nitrate test kits. There are many out there but for the most part people use API on the low end cost or Salifert for the high end. What is the difference you say besides the cost? Well the API will certainly do what you to do but the Salifert kits will do a more precise job of it. In my opinion for this part of the hobby I go with the API. Surely you will find all kinds of different opinions on this so go with what your research tells you. See what others are using and make your own decision.
Alright, now we are ready to start.
Got the tank in place on the stand, everything leveled to perfection, all equipment in place ready to go. Remember the most important part of this setup is to start the Nitrogen Cycle and to do this we need to introduce either a protein that will decay into ammonia, or ammonia itself. Live sand and live rock will supply what is termed die-off, dead and or decaying material to introduce the ammonia. Any real protein can be used at this point, a cocktail shrimp left to rot, a fish that will produce waste, fish food, pure ammonia and I have read of people using urine. YUCKO, please don’t pee in your tank!
Whatever is used you will need to start to monitor your tank with the test kits. The two that should be used are the ammonia and nitrite kits at this point. What we are looking for is a rise in ammonia first, then after some time nitrites will begin to rise. This process will continue until at some point the ammonia will begin to fall, then the nitrites will begin to fall. When you have seen both of these fall back to zero you can be assured that you have done the initial cycling of your tank. That is you have built a colony of bacteria that are capable of consuming your ammonia and nitrites as they are produced with the bio load that is available in your tank right now. . The size of the colony and how much ammonia it can process is for now insignificant, you have the ball rolling. Then using the nitrate kit you will or should show a reading of nitrates. This reading may or may not go down depending on whether your aquarium has the necessary denitrifying bacteria to convert the nitrates into nitrogen. We will discuss this more later on.
Okay so now you have an idea of how this magic works, let’s talk about some detailed way in which to accomplish it.
Cycling #1 Most accepted process currently.
This method utilizes live rock and either live or dry sand. You set the tank up and introduce the sand and live rock then start testing. The live rock will come to you in a couple of different ways. Cured or uncured. Cured rock simply is rock that has been set up in a tank at the local fish store for some time, has experienced the cycling process there, and will for the most part not cause any spikes in your aquarium because it already has a small colony of bacteria working. Your job is to build on this small colony to the point you can safely start to add critters. Transport from the fish store to your house is important here. If the rock is out of the water as it is transported things will begin to die off. If this happens, when you introduce it to your tank this die-off may be more than the colony of bacteria can handle and there may be a spike in the ammonia. Something could even die if the rock is transported in water for an extended period and say it is a hot or even a very cold day. Providing the transport time is quick – the die off is small – you may not even be able to detect the ammonia spike when testing the water after adding the rock. Oh Boy! Can I start to add fish now? Well it would be advisable to do some testing over the next week or so. This just to ensure that there is no detectable ammonia being produced. During this time you can actually add a little bit of fish food and test the water that day and the next two or so to see if there are any readings. This will tell you how well the colony of bacteria handle the addition of load put on it. If not, or even if there is a small spike that goes away quickly, you can start to begin to watch and wonder at what will be happening. There is life in them there live rocks. Little critters called pods, maybe a crab or snail, certainly some algae, if you are lucky maybe even a coral of some kind. After you are assured by testing that the bacteria colony is actually there and doing its thing you can take the nitrate reading, do a 10-20% water change with new saltwater and begin to add a small cleanup crew. (i.e. snails crabs etc) As you add things you again want to test for ammonia to see if there is a spike. If there is don’t worry at this point the bacteria should multiply enough to be able to handle it and bring the reading back to zero. Remember though, small additions is the key. The more you add the more of a bio load will be produced and it may cause the ammonia to go so high as to be detrimental or even deadly to what you are adding. So slow is the name of the game. Then week by week start to add something else like a fish here, a coral there, until you get the tank looking like what you had envisioned. The same method can be used for the uncured rock, rock that is in essence shipped directly from the ocean to the retailer to your tank. This rock has an abundance of life on it, hopefully little die-off and will provide you with some interesting and sometimes unwanted critters from the ocean. The same method is used for the initial cycle though as you want to ensure that along the way the rocks die-off is not so much as to cause a cesspool in your tank of deadly ammonia. Please read my other article called Cycling for Life to gain some insight about a method to preserve what comes in on this type of rock.
Cycling #2 I don’t have live rock and sand, I have dead rock and sand.
With this method we will discuss the option of adding another source of protein to the tank. Some people after doing some research may not want to use any type of live rock for fear of some unwanted pest(s) entering their system. Things like nasty crabs, pest anemones, invasive species of algae, etc. etc. In these cases people may just want to use dry sand and dry base rock that has no life on it at all. Here we have to introduce the ammonia source to kick start the cycle. This can be done in many ways if we remember that adding any protein will initiate the breakdown of it and the byproduct of ammonia to begin. Fish food can be used here. A few pinches of it for 2 or 3 days in a row and low and behold the ammonia starts to develop. Other things can also be used, dare I say just about anything that will breakdown into ammonia. Raw cocktail shrimpscallopfish are other sources often used. Put whatever it is into a nylon bag or something similar, put the bag in the tank and let it sit for 2-4 days. It will begin to rot. Pull the bag out, all the while holding your nose because it will be smelly, and discard card it. There will be ammonia in the tank. Well we are looking for something to breakdown into ammonia here but how about we just add some ammonia? Duh, right? Well this method can and does work. You need to ensure that the ammonia you use has not additives in it like things to make it smell nicer etc. (read pure ammonia here) Then for every 10 gallons of water you begin to add 5 drops per day. (20 gallons 10 drops, 30 gallons 15 drops etc.) Continue this until you get a reading of about 5 ppm of ammonia. At that point you will want to maintain a reading of 5ppm while testing for nitrites. When you see the nitrites begin to appear cut back on the addition of the ammonia to 2 drops per gallon per day and keep testing for ammonia. When the ammonia and nitrite readings then reach 0 you can stop adding ammonia and do a test for nitrates. At this point you should have a nitrate reading and you will do a large water change, in excess of about 90% and start running a filter with some activated carbon to remove any of the additives from the ammonia. This method to me is a lot more work than adding the fish food or shrimpscallopraw fish etc. but it does work.
Cycling #3 Using established bacteria.
This is also a good method in that you got to you local fish store or maybe a friend’s house and try to obtain some of their sand or gravel that is in an up and running tank. Here you are introducing bacteria on a small scale that is coming in with the sand or gravel and you will need to keep introducing an ammonia source to build up this established colony. The same could be done with a sponge or floss from and established tanks filter. This will also contain the desired bacteria. Just remember with this method you can also introduce an unwanted pathogen if it exists in the system you are taking the source from.
Cycling #4 Commercial products.
There are some products sold that contain some of the requisite bacteria to introduce to the tank for the initial cycling. Some also contain an enzyme to help the bacteria grow faster. As with any method you will need to continue to introduce an ammonia source to build up the colony, all the time testing.
Cycling #5 I don’t have live rock and sand and my fish store said to use a fish!
Well. Oh my. Hmm.
The method of starting the initial cycle with a hardy fish like a Damsel of some sort was the most accepted way to do it back in the day. In 1975 or so I started my first every 55 gallon fish only tank with an under gravel and hang on the back filter. And I did use 3 Damsel fish to cycle with. They all survived to the point that I had to remove them later because they were so nasty but that is another story. My point is this method does work and does work well to get the cycle started. Well, it works well for the hobbyist, not so much for the fish. Imagine if you will being a fish stuck in a box of water where all of a sudden you have ammonia burning your eyes, your skin, making it hard to breath, burning that little scratch you have on your belly. Not a nice thing to do. Anyway where does the decaying material come from in this scenario you ask as the fish is living? Well it’s gonna come from uneaten food you feed the fish and dare I say fish poop. The process is the same testing for ammonia and nitrates until they are gone etc. etc.
So there you have it. A group of ways to get the initial cycle started in your aquarium. Are there other ways? Yes but these listed are probably your best bet. And what have we learned?
• Cycling is a periodically repeated sequence of events. This means that even after the initial cycling of the tank your tank will continuously cycle depending of the bio load of the tank and the available food for the bacteria. If the bio load goes up the ammonia goes up and the bacteria colony increases to deal with it. If the bio load goes down then some of the bacteria will die off as there is not enough food to support it. This is always happening in our tanks. So when someone asks “is my cycle done” well the initial build up of bacteria may be but our tanks are never done cycling.
• The cycle we discuss in the hobby is the nitrogen cycle which consists of
o Protein decaying into ammonia
o Ammonia used as a food source by bacteria where the byproduct is nitrite.
o Nitrite used as a food source by bacteria where the byproduct is nitrate.
o Nitrate used as a food source by bacteria where the byproduct is nitrogen gas.
• There are many different ways to get an ammonia source introduced into the tank so it is up to the hobbyist to determine which suits their purpose the best.
• Testing is the way in which we determine if the initial cycling is complete, where ammonia and nitrite have fallen to zero.
• After the initial cycle we can begin to add critters slowly so we do not overwhelm the established colony and allow it to grow to meet the needs of the increased bio load.
• Damn, there is a lot more to this saltwater stuff than I thought there was!
Slow and steady is the name of the game here. Initial cycling can take from oh about 3 to 6 weeks. It is better in my opinion to wait the 6 weeks if you can contain yourself, even if you have seen ammonia and nitrites rise and fall to zero in less than that. There are many things that continue to happen in the aquarium over time and the extra wait to the 6 week mark will help to stabilize things a bit.
r />
I hope this helps in the understanding of the initial cycling of a tank and that you will enjoy this part as much as the rest of the hobby because it is a wondrous time where life actually begins in the aquarium.
