The Nitrogen Cycle
By David Farrands
Water quality is one of the most important factors in maintaining an aquarium system. Good water conditions help to ensure that your aquarium fish will live long, happy, healthy lives. Poor water conditions will lead to poor health and early deaths. On the plus side, monitoring and maintaining water proper conditions is relatively easy with just a few basic test kits.
If you make the effort to test your water conditions weekly for will be able to fix any problems without too much difficulty. Our fish spend every minute of their lives in their aquarium water. It is out responsibility to make sure the water conditions are as good as possible.
Removing Fish Waste
Your happy, healthy fish will look great swimming around in your nice, new fish tank. The water will be clear and your clean decorations will be very impressive. However, without proper biological filtration (to remove waste) and cycling (converting ammonia to nitrites, then to nitrates) things will not stay that way. Uneaten food will break down and the fish will relieve themselves. This can lead to a lot of waste accumulating in your aquarium. This waste breaks down into ammonia which can rise to levels that can be lethal to your fish. There is good news…some of the bacteria in the aquarium water will help you break down the ammonia.
This article will help you understand the processes that occur within your aquarium and teach you how to ensure that the water quality is as good as can be.
Conditioning Your Aquarium
In order to ensure your fish the best chance for good health you need to condition your aquarium. Conditioning sets up a colony of beneficial bacteria in your tank that gets rid of the ammonia that accumulates in the tank. It does take a little bit of time to complete the conditioning cycle so a little patience is necessary.
Remember, a new aquarium system is not as stable as an established tank. Rushing things will result in disappointment. Not conditioning the tank properly can lead to a problem known as “new tank syndrome.” This will be explained a little later.
The primary hazard when starting a new aquarium is the fast build up of ammonia in the water because of the fish excretion and break down of uneaten food. As the aquarium becomes established beneficial bacteria will breakdown the ammonia so that the levels will not become too high. Unfortunately the bacteria level in the aquarium is not high enough in the beginning to handle the job. The bacteria level must be built up over time.
Normally conditioning takes a month or so. The time needed will depend on the temperature of the water, the type of filtration and the number and type of fish in the tank.
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