Still learning

[jbigtoe]

I have been reading and looking into the care of my little friends and have seen the term "cycling" the tank. I thought I knew what this was about, but now I'm not so sure. I thought it had to do with the water changes which I have been doing. Is cycling something I do or the tank does? How can I tell if things are going the way they are supposed to. Is there frog behavior to watch for or waterchanges? Can someone school me a little about this?

Jenn

[limnologist]

The term "Cycling" means allowing the water to age and bacteria to grow in it. The bacteria help eat the waste and process the nitrite and ammonia that waste creates. Its important to cycle water that is to be used for your aquatic animals (id know, Ive had a lot of aquariums haha). If you have trouble cycling the water correctly, you can always ask a friend who owns an aquarium if you can have their old filter cartridges, if you get the cartridges just put them in the water for a few days and they will start a whole new colony of bacteria. Also, you should do this all in a seperate container from you pet and not put live animals in the water until it is at least 2 days old.

[elliotulysses]

Also if it's impossible for you to get any media, try Seachem Stability. I ended up cycling my first tank with that and now it's been a breeze ever since. However, while doing it make sure to have a liquid test kit(the strips are terrible imo) so you can make sure there are no spikes or drops in anything that will make your friends kick the bucket prematurely. When I cycled I also added Seachem Prime to make sure that during the cycle build-up nothing would harm them.