The Nitrogen Cycle
Your aquarium fish live in a closed area were they eat, breath and expel waste matter. It will not be too long before your fish starts dying, unless there is a nitrogen cycle in place.
The nitrogen cycle is a food chain cycle that occurs in your aquarium Lets start saying that in nature fish waist mater is called “AMMONIA(NH3)”. Ammonia is VERY TOXIC for fish. Fortunatelly there are bacteria called NITROSONOMAS that eat ammonia and eliminate a compound called “NITRITE(NO2)”. NitrIte is still TOXIC for fish, but, again, thankfully there are another bacteria called NITROBACTER that eat “NITRITE(NO2)” and they eliminate it transformed in “NITRATE(NO3)”. NitrAte is tolerable by fish in small quantities. That leftover NitrAte is picked up by a filter, or reduced by partial water changes during your aquarium’s scheduled maintenance. This cycle continues over and over. There need to be always new ammonia for the cycle to occur, so the bacteria is kept alive. If you were to take your fish out of the tank for a long period of time, without feeding ammonia to the tank, all your bacteria would die and you would need to start the process over again.
Jumpstarting the Nitrogen cycle
To start the nitrogen cycle in a tank there are two methods:
