what exactly is "cycling"?

[nicole]

Ok excuse my ignorance, I am new to whole salt water thing. I keep hearing and reading about the "cycling" of a tank. What exactly does this mean and how do you know what stage of the cycle your tank is at? I have a one month old 20 gallon tank with lots of live rock and I just recently added a damsel and a clown. And what's with all the ugly brown algae on the glass and substrate? Does this have anything to do with the cycling and will it ever stop?

 

[pufferlover]

Nicole; Rather then go thru a length answer I might suggest if you look up at the top right just under New Topic there is a item in red marked search click on that and type in cycle or tank cycle and you will find more then you probably want to know. Being new here you may not have found that section but it is a god send to covering a somewhat complex topic that has been discussed quite often. If you don't find what you want there come on back and we will go from there. Note' the brown stuff just means you are on your way to the cycle's end.

 

[nicole]

Thanks. I hadn't explored the "search" feature yet. You're right, there was more than I wanted to know!

 

[pufferlover]

Great I'm glad it helped you. I might just mention here that some of the sharks (I am not trying to speak for all of them) have discussed back and forth the many over lapping questions that appear over and over. It has been realized I think that many of our new members like nicole have been a bit overwhelmed by all the graphics and things here. In my case I am trying to refer the new people to the search feature so that they will get a broad view of their question as opposed to a few answers from the older members who have grown weary of the question being asked. I to use the search when I need details on a problem and usually find a lot of help there.

 

[beth]

Cycling is what we need to do with our tank environment before we begin to seriously stock it with fish and inverts. Essential to knowing what is going on in the cycle, you will need a water test kit, that will test for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate [at the very least].
The "cycle" is actually short for the nitrogen cycle. The cycle begins the moment you introduce organic material, be it living, dead or a waste by-product, into your aquarium. In your case, your fish will excrete ammonia [the most toxic of the cycle chemicials] into the aquarium water. Natural "aerobic" [living in the prsence of oxygen] bacteria form and convert ammonia to nitrite, slightly less toxic than ammoinia. A 2nd group of bacteria form and then convert the nitrite to nitrate--the end stage by-prodcut of the cycle.
Ammonia is very toxic to fish and nitrite is less toxic but can still be deadly to fish. This is why fish die when a tank is new. They are exposed to ammonia and nitrite. When cycling or when adding any new organic material to your aquarium [fish, live rock, inverts] you need to have these kits at hand so that you can keep track of where your water quality is. To begin your cycle, your tank water will read high in ammonia. One day the ammonia will drop drammatically and the nitrites will rise significantly. When the nitrites fall, you will start to get nitrates. With regular tank maintence and water changes you will be able to keep the nitrates in check well enough to maintain a quality aquarium.
Now, the ugly brown stuff is an indication that your tank is cycling. This is diatoms or what hobbyst call “brown algae”. This is harmless and will cut back once your tank becomes established. In the meantime, you can clean as much of this up as you want by scrubbing it off the glass of your aquarium or lightly stirring your substrate.
Now, if you learned anything here, you should know by now that ammonia and nitrite kill animals. Thus, you do not want to keep adding more fish, or any organics to your tank while it is cycling. If you want to spare your existing fish, you can perform water changes when you see spikes of ammonia or nitrite. This will prolong the cycle but may save your fish.
Good luck and welcome to the board!

 

[beth]

Sammy, as I tend to be verbose, I figured that Nicole had all the yak she needed [at least from me]. But, you completed the cycle in a perfect "nutshell".
And, we are on the same page in thinking about archiving or doing something to get repetitious info out to members.
This weekend, I started creating some docs so that I can just use some of these for standard answers....including this one.

 

[nicole]

Thanks guys. All your info helped. The search button should be bigger and more obvious. I use it whenever I have a question now and I almost always find an answer. Sorry for being the dumb new kid on the block and asking questions that have been asked a million times already!