J
jdragunas
Guest
ok, everyone helped so much, but i saw one question our newbie here asked that no one addressed.
The CYCLE:
The whole point of the cycle is to establish a colony of bacteria in your tank. The point of this bacteria is to process the ammonia introduced into your tank. Ammonia (toxic) is introduced in several forms, common ones being fish waste (poo and pee), and food (if you feed too much food, it will sit on the bottom of the tank and break down into ammonia). The bacteria take your ammonia, and turn it into nitrites (also toxic). Another form of bacteria then grows and turns your nitrites into nitrates (much less toxic). This whole process is established by introducing ammonia to the system in the first place (in the form of a cocktail shrimp, as suggested above).
The whole point of this is to ensure that your system will be able to properly process the ammonia created by having fish in your tank. Ammonia is toxic in very small amounts - you should have no more than 0.25ppm in your tank. Same goes for nitrites. However, nitrates aren't as toxic, and fish can handle up to 40ppm or more (however it is strongly suggested that you keep yours at 20ppm or less.)
Hope this helps out!
Now, if you want to keep the damsels, you most likely can, as they are probably one of the hardiest species you can have (they can handle the high spikes of ammonia and nitrites produced in a cycle). HOwever, damsels are meanie heads, and become territorial and aggressive, so IMO, try to take them back to the LFS. IMO, the yellow tang died from stress from high ammonia and nitrites. Tangs are NOT hardy, and need at least a 75+ gallon tank (depending on the species). So in the future, don't put a tang (of any kind) in your tank.
I suggest you follow oceanists' advice in starting from the beginning of the cycle.
Hope i didn't confuse you! (let me know if i did)
The CYCLE:
The whole point of the cycle is to establish a colony of bacteria in your tank. The point of this bacteria is to process the ammonia introduced into your tank. Ammonia (toxic) is introduced in several forms, common ones being fish waste (poo and pee), and food (if you feed too much food, it will sit on the bottom of the tank and break down into ammonia). The bacteria take your ammonia, and turn it into nitrites (also toxic). Another form of bacteria then grows and turns your nitrites into nitrates (much less toxic). This whole process is established by introducing ammonia to the system in the first place (in the form of a cocktail shrimp, as suggested above).
The whole point of this is to ensure that your system will be able to properly process the ammonia created by having fish in your tank. Ammonia is toxic in very small amounts - you should have no more than 0.25ppm in your tank. Same goes for nitrites. However, nitrates aren't as toxic, and fish can handle up to 40ppm or more (however it is strongly suggested that you keep yours at 20ppm or less.)
Hope this helps out!
Now, if you want to keep the damsels, you most likely can, as they are probably one of the hardiest species you can have (they can handle the high spikes of ammonia and nitrites produced in a cycle). HOwever, damsels are meanie heads, and become territorial and aggressive, so IMO, try to take them back to the LFS. IMO, the yellow tang died from stress from high ammonia and nitrites. Tangs are NOT hardy, and need at least a 75+ gallon tank (depending on the species). So in the future, don't put a tang (of any kind) in your tank.
I suggest you follow oceanists' advice in starting from the beginning of the cycle.
Hope i didn't confuse you! (let me know if i did)
