What They Forget To Mention About the Nitrogen Cycle In Aquariums

your channel is awesome. the way you explained the cycle in this video really made it finally click for me. ive watched hundreds of hours of fishtube and this channel is easily my new favorite. i could not be more excited to have found this channel. keep cranking those videos out. great content!

Thanks for this video. Good info others don't tell you. As a relatively newbie you stopped me with a fishless semi-cycled tank from buying 18-20 neons all at once (which the fish store would have gladly sold me) from fish tank disaster. Two thumbs up! I subscribed

Thank you so much for making this video. Like you said all the videos out there about the nitrogen cycle only give you the basics. They don't tell you what can happen during it and the problems that arise!! We need more videos like this !! And you seem very informative about the hobby. I have just subscribed!!

Thank you for sharing this video 🙂👍

This is great insight. I actually just got into the hobby because I tried to keep a couple bettas(separately)in a 1.6gal tank with a filter and heater preset to 78°. For some reason, they both died before one year. When I got my third, I did a bunch of research on how to keep bettas, and fish in general, and discovered the nitrogen cycle… Which I never even heard of before! Basically, I would set up a new aquarium and plop the fish in… Not clean it until about four weeks later when the water looked like it needed to be cleaned... but the fatal mistake was that I didn't just clean the water, I would put the fish in a separate container and completely clean the tank, filter, everything which had water going through it with antibacterial soap... then put it all back together with fresh, clean water. Now I realize I was resetting my nitrogen cycle and wiping out the good bacteria every time I did this and it probably stressed the fish out and over a few months they would get sick and die. This time around, I bought myself an API freshwater test kit, and every day, I would test for ammonia and nitrites. For the first week or two, the ammonia would rise to between 0.25-0.5 ppm every day, so I would do a 25% water change daily in order to keep ammonia at bay. The third week it was reaching between 0.5–1.0 ppm daily, along with the nitrites, so I would do a 50% water change every day to keep the levels safe. at around the 3.5 week mark, a magical thing happened! My ammonia and nitrites stayed at zero for a few days in a row with no water changes… That's how I knew the cycle was completed! The fish has been very happy and active the entire time and is now awaiting his new 9 gallon tank to cycle before I add him. I planted some plants and added some driftwood for tannins(with a couple small anubias plants attached) yesterday, and today picked up six small tetras to cycle the tank with. The betta will wait in the smaller tank until the bigger tank is established with the tetras. This video made me feel like my plan might actually work well! Luckily I have a very good local small fish shop and they definitely know how to keep fish… They are the ones that guided me for this plan, but it's good to see someone like you confirming the information! Edit: new subscriber here!

Great insight, friend. I overdid fish add in one of my new tanks and paid the price.

You're making sense. I knew it all along. Just needed someone else to say it lol

Great video sawyer , very true it is definitely a balancing act🙂👍🏻 Another big misconception newer hobbies do is they set up a new tank…add bottled bb and let it run empty for a month… they add fish a month later, 3 weeks later they all die.. why? The bottled bb died from no food to feed the bacteria, just like fish shrimp and snails, the beneficial bacteria has to eat to survive🙂 great video my friend💯⭐️

Great video gracias

Good info! I start all my tanks with snails and slowly build up the fish stock.

Great video

Great video. Keep it up 😜.

Thank you I love the Video 📹 do more

My variation on this is; 1; Set up aquarium, substrate, filter, lighting, use media from an established tank to jump start the cycle 2; add a bunch of live plants, wait 24-48 hours 3; add snails (ramshorn in my case) and wait 24 hours 4; slowly add fish or snails, no more than 2-3 depending on tank size per week, wait a week between adding more animals. The real secret is cramming as many live plants in as possible, plants can directly use ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate, fast growing floaters are the best starters, water lettuce, frogbit, red root floaters, guppy grass and hornwort… Let the plants be your safety layer, they give you a major buffer capability

I think this is very helpful to newer fish keepers. I firmly believe in sump filters and their ability to harbor huge quantities of beneficial bacteria. Good point you made. Constant water changes during initial cycle. The bacteria will grow with a stocked tank. I set up with ample amount of quickstart and lots of dirty media from my already established 660g setup. When a tank is established and an overstock of new fish happens, people forget that its cycling again to catch up. I sub'd and Im gonna keep up with you.. Happy New Year

Great video! Very good info! I always test ammonia and nitrite with new setups. Maybe I'm an A-type personality? But, W/C's keep the fish safe and in short order the tank/ bacteria works it magic!

Thank you. Like you said, no one mentions about adding fish and I added 5 fish one week then another 7 fish and my tank was cloudy for 1 and a half month because of the bacteria bloom. I had to do weekly water changes and nothing changed. By time the second month hit, all my fish were dead. Made me almost quit. But now I'm in the process of cycling my tank again and Its been 4 weeks. I might buy 3 fishes to start the bio load and slowly add the rest every other 2 to 3 weeks

I like the idea of balancing. I only do one thing per day, at a time. I don’t clean my filters the same day as I change water, for example. Seems to be working for me. I never scrub my decor and add fish gradually.

Only just finding your channel. Gonna dig through your library here, but if you havent maybe do something like this on the confusing subject of KH, GH, PH, and how they aggect each other and possibly the plants+animals? (Shrimp, snails, fish, etc)

I prepare because I know I'll be over stocking slightly. 1. Build tank; Substrate, filter (undergravel just my preference), lighting, and lots of plants (a few fast growers for best effect i.e. water wisteria or hornwort) 2. Add ammonium chloride, enough to bring the tank to 4-8ppm ammonia (NH3) 3. Add starting bacteria (Seed, Stability, Fritze your favorite whatever that is) 4. No water changes and 12 hour light cycle 5. Wait for Ammonia (NH3) and Nitrite (NO2) to hit zero at which point your Nitrates (NO3) will be high do I large water change. 6. Stock to your hearts content (remember fish like space too😊) The high starting ammonia causes a lot of beneficial bacteria to spawn and sustain them ensuring that you never come across new tank syndrome and as long as you follow the start bacteria regimen your tank should be cycled in about 8 days.