Cycling a tank

Today was the first day that ammonia has been added to the tank to start the fish-less cycling process.

What is cycling?
Cycling is preparing the fish tank so that fish are able to live happily in it. People new to the hobby often never get told about this, which results in 1000s of fish being killed every day. Before you add the fish to any tank it is vital to cycle it. Cycling produces the right environment for the fish to live in.

How to cycle?
Cycling is really easy. I look at it in 3 steps… Add ammonia, Test and keep adding till results are right (I will explain this in more detail later), then add fish! To cycle the tank without fish, you need to somehow add something similar to fish waste into the water. You do this by adding household ammonia to the tank. This will get the cycle going. The filter will covert the ammonia (which is very harmful to fish) into nitrite (which is also very harmful to fish). Nitrite is then converted to nitrate (which is less harmful to fish. This all happens in the filter.

To get started use an online calculator and calculate the amount of ammonia solution you will need to use to get the right PPM. You can get ammonia solution from Boots or most chemists. Once you know how many ml you need, add it to the water. Test the water 5 minutest later using your test kit and make sure the ammonia is around 2-4 ppm. Write down the results of this test in a diary so that you can track the progress of the tank and tell when it is cycled. The tank is cycled when the filter can get ammonia and nitrite from 2-4 ppm down to 0 ppm in less than 12 hours.

As I do the fish-less cycle, it will become clearer how it all works and how one should carry out a fish-less cycle!