Novice Aquarist please ask!!!

[Macca]

If anyone does not understand the nitrogen cycle then please ask here. All members of the forum can help new reefers undertstand the basic principles. I was keeping marines for about 3-4 years before I understood the true meaning. During this time I lost a few fish and corals etc. It is a fact that 2 out of 3 reefers leave the hobby after the 1st year due to loss of confidence in keeping marine life. Also on a sad note 60% of fish will not last 30 days in the aquatic trade.

James

[JAMBON]

Be my guest.....explain away!! I'm about to fill my tank tonight and don't want to make any mistakes so any help would be great.

[Macca]

HE HE HE!

Ok I will try to explain the first part of the nitrogen cycle Ammonia, I will add other later or other members can join in and explain away. I am explaining this for a beginner to understand so not all words are scientifically correct as I am keeping this simple.

Ammonia is a very toxic substance to aquatic life. Unfortunately our Aquariums are ammonia producing factories; when we first start our adventure in to starting up our marine tank we have a sterile environment. One that contains no nasty compounds and no good bacteria. If we introduce a fish on day 1 then we introduce a fish to a sterile environment that although at this time has no bad compounds has no good bacteria also.

The new fish in your system breathes in oxygen via it gills and passes out carbon dioxide. It also does the toilet – excreting urine and faeces. The urine immediately enters the water turning the sterile water into a nasty bath of urine!!! YUK!!

The fish poop falls to the bottom and also decays away and also fills the already urine infested water with fish poop!!! Even Yuckier!!! The result of this poop and urine is ammonia. Ammonia is lethal to fish even in small doses. This is what we refer to as the new tank syndrome. I.e. - you put a fish into a sterile environment and it dies within a few days (Remember the goldfish you won at the fair, only for it to die after two days in the fish bowl??)

What happens next is any life in the aquarium dies due to the ammonia (plants, fish, bugs, bacteria) and you have guessed it producing more ammonia. The environment you now have cannot house any life what so ever. The Novice aquarist then returns to his pet store and picks another fish only for this process to start all over again.

So what can we do to stop Ammonia being present??

Will add a bit later.

James

[Kev]

a sad note 60% of fish will not last 30 days in the aquatic trade.James

I think you are right, there are some abismal losses. But when you get it right, the fish survive many happy years.

Kev

[Macca]

Ok I will try to explain the first part of the nitrogen cycle Ammonia, I will add other later or other members can join in and explain away. I am explaining this for a beginner to understand so not all words are scientifically correct as I am keeping this simple.

Ammonia is a very toxic substance to aquatic life. Unfortunately our Aquariums are ammonia producing factories; when we first start our adventure in to starting up our marine tank we have a sterile environment. One that contains no nasty compounds and no good bacteria. If we introduce a fish on day 1 then we introduce a fish to a sterile environment that although at this time has no bad compounds has no good bacteria also.

The new fish in your system breathes in oxygen via it gills and passes out carbon dioxide. It also does the toilet – excreting urine and faeces. The urine immediately enters the water turning the sterile water into a nasty bath of urine!!! YUK!!

The fish poop falls to the bottom and also decays away and also fills the already urine infested water with fish poop!!! Even Yuckier!!! The result of this poop and urine is ammonia. Ammonia is lethal to fish even in small doses. This is what we refer to as the new tank syndrome. I.e. - you put a fish into a sterile environment and it dies within a few days (Remember the goldfish you won at the fair, only for it to die after two days in the fish bowl??)

What happens next is any life in the aquarium dies due to the ammonia (plants, fish, bugs, bacteria) and you have guessed it producing more ammonia. The environment you now have cannot house any life what so ever. The Novice aquarist then returns to his pet store and picks another fish only for this process to start all over again.

So what can we do to stop Ammonia being present??

The Answer Patience!

A tank matures in approx 1 month. During this time the tank biological filter will be building up on its strains of good bacteria on the live rock and on all surfaces of the aquarium. This good bacteria feeds upon the ammonia. This good bacteria requires oxygen to help it feed upon the ammonia. This is sometimes called aerobic bacteria which simply means requires oxygen to function.

If you have a sterile tank sitting there doing nothing for 30 days then it will still be sterile in 30 days. It will not have matured! So to get the good bacteria thriving and functioning to remove ammonia, well this might sound silly but we need ammonia.

On day 1 of you tank install DO NOT ADD ANY FISH, but add something that will create ammonia, maybe a piece of mussel meat. This will soon decompose and create ammonia that will be present in your aquarium water. By having live rock or sand in your aquarium and oxygen within the water column you have all the ingredients necessary to start that good bacteria to grow.

The dangerous level of ammonia would kill a fish but will do nothing to the pieces of mussel it is already dead!! This ammonia spike will soon decrease as the good bacteria colony grows on all your tanks surfaces and with oxygen consumes the deadly ammonia.

Once established this good bacteria will be functioning and ready to tackle ammonia in the future and it will be ready to eat this ammonia before it gets to any dangerous levels, as long as we have ammonia producing elements then this good bacteria will stay alive and multiply in your tank as long as it is kept at the right temperature and has oxygen to help it thrive.

At this point the bacterium has consumed all ammonia and our reading on our test kits will show ammonia is no longer present. We are well on our way no to a mature setup. The bi-product of all this is a substance called Nitrite. So once ammonia is consumed by the good bacteria with the aid of oxygen a new substance is formed called nitrite.

Before I try and explain nitrite you can see what would happen If I introduced a fish at this point – A small fish = small bio-load and our system if matured now could handle the ammonia the new fish would produce. But If I added a large fish = heavy bio load. The good bacteria we have taken our time to grow might not be in an adequate supply to eat all the ammonia that has now been put upon it quick enough. This is what is called an ammonia spike and in turn could kill your new fish as it has too large a bio-load even for a system that was showing it had matured.

So we must be patient and introduce a small hermit crab or something of similar size after our tank matures and keep a close eye that our new colony of good bacteria is keeping ammonia in check. Through time our colony of good bacteria will flourish and at this point we could introduce a slightly larger animal. i.e small fish. (I have not explained Nitrite yet but Nitrite must be 0 before introducing any livestock).

More to follow

James

[Macca]

Would forum members let me know if what has been written makes sense for a novice and if there is anything I should change or is wrong thanks

James

PS Does anyone want to have a go about Nitrite or Nitrates? We could merge the post into a newbie help that reads very simple and is understandable.

[Kev]

James, I think this is a good novice guide.

Kev

[Rover]

Perhaps there should be a seperate novice aquarist area, where info like this can be easily located.

[Pinkfish]

Also on a sad note 60% of fish will not last 30 days in the aquatic trade.

James

Wahey !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Im gonna play Euromillions on friday night. I must be lucky because I have beaten that statistic.....

Sorry everyone im on the road to recovery from Newbie tank syndrome.

Thanks James for explaining the cycle was very well written. A thumbs up to you mate thanks.

Mike

[Blue]

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.algone.com/images/aquariums/thumb338.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.algone.com/cycle.htm&h=147&w=216&sz=6&hl=en&start=49&tbnid=cdHjIOLwBA13DM:&tbnh=73&tbnw=107&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dnitrogen%2Bcycle%2Bpics%26start%3D40% 26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3 DGGLF,GGLF:2006-16,GGLF:en%26sa%3DN
Try this link for a different approach.