A favour, please

[black ghost]

I wrote a Cycling Guide and sent it to fr499y, but I didn’t proofread it properly, so I sent corrections. Trouble is, the corrections aren’t showing on my phone (fr499y doesn’t know why, yet). It’s still the original. The guide is called “How to cycle your aquarium”.

It’s bugging me that it’s still showing it’s errors to me. I believe fr499y, of course, but can someone please post a screenshot of this section of the guide, for my own needs, so my mind can rest, assured…

Thanks.

[Stephen]

[black ghost]

Thanks @Stephen, but I can’t tell from that, it’s too blurred.

[fr499y]

Ive just twigged on what’s happened…… I think I might have done a restore and not a backup on the database which is why there’s confusion…. can you send over the alterations again? I’ll put my hand up on this one… I !?@& up

[Stephen]

Thanks @Stephen, but I can’t tell from that, it’s too blurred.

Did you click twice ?

[black ghost]

This is the original that I sent you. There are 8 (eight) alterations, all in Bold, (I don’t know how to do colours), starting with two gaps half way down.

How to cycle your aquarium.

Cycling a fish tank can be confusing to beginners and experienced fishkeepers alike. If you’ve already read about it you’ll probably still be confused, because most cycling guides don’t really explain cycling in a manner that’s easy to understand. Here I’ll try to explain in simple terms what is essentially a very simple uncomplicated process.

What is the nitrogen cycle?



This picture shows the nitrogen cycle in an aquatic environment. Basically, living tissues contain a lot of nitrogen. The excess nitrogen in fish food is broken down into ammonia and excreted from the blood directly into the water as it passes the gills. Solid waste (fish poo, uneaten food, decaying plant leaves, dead fish etc) get broken down into ammonia by bacteria living on the surfaces in the tank.

Ammonia is extremely toxic to fish, so must be removed from the water. In a natural environment, such as a river or lake, bacteria grow on the underwater surfaces and consume this ammonia, producing nitrites as their waste product. Nitrites are also toxic to fish, and there are other bacteria on the surfaces that consume these nitrites, producing nitrates as their waste product. Nitrates are still toxic but less so, and we remove them from a tank, to keep their level relatively low and safe, by doing regular water changes.

Why do we need a filter?

Compared to a river or lake the stocking density in a fish tank is huge, which means there’s not enough surface area in the tank to house enough bacteria to remove the amount of ammonia produced. Therefore we need to add more surface area. In this respect a filter is simply a container housing a large surface area (foams, sponges, ceramics, porous media etc), with a pump that passes the tank’s water over the surface area so the ammonia and nitrite can be removed by the bacteria.

Why do we need to cycle?

We need to grow a very large bacterial colony in the filter before we add fish, to get rid of the ammonia and the resulting nitrite, and this takes a few weeks.

The cycle.

Don’t ask me why, but if you add ammonia to water, bacteria will arrive and consume the ammonia and produce nitrites, then different bacteria will arrive and consume the nitrites and produce nitrates. So just add a source of ammonia, and wait. That’s it. That’s cycling. That’s pretty much all you need to do. Get your test kits out, replace the ammonia when it’s gone, and wait.

You can cycle in any water with a pH between 6.5 and 8.5 (approx) and any reasonable temperature. At 64F (18C) the growth rate of the bacteria is halved, so if you’re cycling a cold water tank you’ll get a much quicker cycle if you temporarily heat the tank during the cycle.

Ideal parameters for the bacteria involved are a pH between 7 and 8, and a temperature of 25-30C (77-86F).

Bacteria use up carbonates (KH) in their metabolism, so if the water is very low in KH check that it doesn’t fall to zero, because if it does the pH will then start to drop. There are various ways to increase / maintain KH… water changes, commercially available buffers, sodium bicarb, potassium bicarb…


Sources of ammonia.

1. Liquid ammonia. The easiest way is to buy a bottle of household ammonia (check it doesn’t contain surfactants (anti-foaming agents)). It needs to be pure ammonia solution. This is the quickest way.
[GAP HERE]
2. Solid ammonia sources (fish food, prawns, pieces of fish etc). This will work because the solid matter will get broken down into ammonia. But this method takes a lot longer because we first need to grow a colony of different bacteria (heterotrophic bacteria) to break the food down into ammonia. Harmless fungi also break solid matter down into ammonia so if you’re cycling this way and everything turns into balls of fungus, leave them alone, they’re helping.

Adding bacteria.

Adding bacteria can of course greatly speed up a cycle. There are several ways to do this.

1. There are various bacteria-in-a-bottle products available. Most of them don’t work because they contain only the heterotrophic bacteria, or bacteria that are not viable. It takes 1 million heterotrophic bacteria to consume as much ammonia as one single nitrosomonas bacterium (the ones were wanting to grow). A few of these products do work, at least most of the time. Waterlife Bacterlife, Tetra Safe Start, and Dr. Tim’s One and Only, being the best at the time of writing.
[GAP HERE]
2. Add some media or gunk from an already mature filter.


Water changes.

You can do a water change whenever you like during the cycle. Some sources say leave it until the end and do a big one before adding fish, but this can be counter-productive because high nitrates will slow the cycle down.
Water changes might be necessary in very soft water during the cycle to replenish the carbonates.


How much ammonia?

You’ll no doubt see plenty of cycling guides telling you to add 2ppm of ammonia, or 4ppm or whatever. The truth is the amount of ammonia you add is totally irrelevant. A tank full of fish will produce less than 1ppm of ammonia in a day, so you only need to grow enough bacteria to remove 1ppm of ammonia in a day.

Use this ammonia calculator to work out how much to add to reach your desired amount. (I normally recommend about 2 ppm).

https://www.aquariumforums.co.uk/viewto ... =80&t=7992

You can add any amount between 1 and 5 ppm, and the excess bacteria will die off once the cycle is over and they’re now only getting the small amount of ammonia produced by the fish. In a mature, cycled tank, the size of the bacterial colonies will always match the amount of ammonia available to them.


Cycling and Testing.

So, here’s what to do. Fill your tank with dechlorinated water, switch on the filter and heater, and add your ammonia (anywhere between 1 and 5ppm). Test for ammonia daily so you can see when it starts to drop. When it gets to zero or near zero (your choice), top it up again to the level you’ve chosen between 1 and 5 ppm.

When the ammonia starts to drop, test for nitrites daily, and when they begin to drop test for nitrates.

1 ppm of ammonia will become 2.7 ppm of nitrite which will become 3.64 ppm of nitrate.

The bacterial populations will double in size every day, but you wont see the ammonia or nitrite dropping until each population is big enough to make a noticeable difference.

In some cycles, especially if you’ve added bacteria, you may not see much nitrite, if any at all, because if you’ve added nitrite-eating bacteria at the start of the cycle they’ll be waiting for the nitrite, and they’ll convert it to nitrate as soon as it’s produced, so it won’t have a chance to reach measurable levels.

When is the cycle finished?

For practical purposes, when you add your ammonia and then your tests show zero ammonia and zero nitrite within a day, you’re cycled. Test this a couple of times before you add fish, by adding ammonia and getting zero results (ammonia and nitrite within a day.

After the cycle.

Do a large water change if needed to get the nitrates as low as possible, then add some fish.
Remember that the size of the bacterial colonies will reduce down to be “just enough” for the initial stocking, and whenever you add more fish they’ll need a few days to increase. So whenever you add more fish increase the feeding gradually, over a few days, and monitor ammonia and nitrite.

Stalled cycles.

More than 5 ppm of ammonia will stall the cycle.
More than 15 ppm of nitrite will stall the cycle.
Very low to zero KH will stall the cycle, as will the resulting pH crash.
Very high nitrates (about 100+?) will slow the cycle down.

[black ghost]

Thanks @Stephen, but I can’t tell from that, it’s too blurred.

Did you click twice ?

Yes.

[fr499y]

check again @black ghost

[black ghost]

check again @black ghost

My mind is at rest now and says Thank you.

We’re all human, and humans make mistakes. I promise I won’t tell anyone what a….. human you are.

[black ghost]

@fr499y

Can I trouble you for a couple more edits? (Last time, promise). They’re in bold again.


Edit #1…

Adding bacteria.

Adding bacteria can of course greatly speed up a cycle. There are several ways to do this.

1. There are various bacteria-in-a-bottle products available. Most of them don’t work very well because they contain only the heterotrophic bacteria…


Edit #2…

How much ammonia?

Can you stick a question mark on that. I put it in bold last time thinking you’d see it, lol.


Edit #3… you missed this one…

When is the cycle finished?

For practical purposes, when you add your ammonia and then your tests show zero ammonia and zero nitrite within a day, you're cycled. Test this a couple of times before you add fish, by adding ammonia and getting zero results (ammonia and nitrite) within a day.