You know what's really crazy is just nine months ago
This building used to be my old garage and since then we've accomplished so much including starting up so many new
Aquariums and it kind of inspired me to show you guys eight different ways
You can start up your aquarium now when I say start up your own
Aquarium what I really mean is how to get it cycled in
order to be able to support life like your plants as well as your fish and
Making it safe condition, so they clearly don't die anything organic
in your aquarium
would
Plants the fish everything in there is creating waste
ammonia
Ammonia is deadly and we know it too much of it or even just a little amount of it can potentially
Kill off your fish now we know one thing we all hear about this good bacteria, and that's true
But this good bacteria exists everywhere just not in numbers able to support life like in an aquarium
So what we need to do is
Harbor as much of that good bacteria in our filtration systems and amongst all of the surfaces in our aquariums in numbers
Able to support the amount of waste that our aquariums are creating to simplify the nitrogen cycle, though
All of this waste we're talking about is creating
Ammonia there's a bacteria called nitrous enormous. That's going to oxidize that ammonia into something. That's less deadly called nitrite nitrobacter
oxidizes that
nitrite into nitrate nitrate being entirely less deadly than the previous two and
Nitrate we know is used by plants for example. However we a lot of times
We measure nitrates in order to know when we're supposed to be doing our water changes, but a lot of the times
That's not a good indicator as to when you should do your water changes as opposed to
How many dissolved organics are in your water column?
But that's not really the topic of today's video all we want to do right now is
How can we get as much of this bacteria?
Into our aquariums in numbers that are going to be able to support the life within it so like I said
These bacteria exist every we're simply just not numbers able to support life
So why can't we just set up an aquarium and wait until there's enough bacteria in it in order to add fish?
And that's actually one of the methods of starting up a new aquarium is called the fish list cycle basically
we set up a new aquarium and cross our fingers for the next sex six weeks and
Hope that bacteria established within the aquarium and numbers able to support the fish
We're going to be adding now regardless of the method that I'm going to be teaching you today
You want to start off with adding your fish in slowly?
we're not taking a bunch of fish and adding them in all at once or you're going to have a
bacterial bloom and probably an ammonia spike however
I will also show you how you can take a ton of fish and add them in all at once
But that's probably going to be due to the fact that you already have some other established aquariums
More on this in a moment with all of these different types of cycles. We're monitoring the water closely we're testing for ammonia
We're testing for nitrite and we're testing for
Nitrate with the fish list cycle though this can be one of the most
Deceiving because all of these things don't appear in an aquarium that doesn't have any waste present of course
Sometimes you might
But this is one of the worst ways you could cycle off your aquarium is the fish list cycle only due to the fact that
You might have a completely sterile environment not enough bacteria is present you waited your six weeks
You add in your fish and everything starts dying so in my opinion you should stay away from that method
But what if you use the fishless cycling method and simply add in bacteria in a bottle and you guys know though?
There's so many companies out there that are advocating they have
instant
Aquariums where you could just take this bacteria in a bottle dump it into your
Aquarium and within a day or two you can fully stock your aquarium in my opinion. That's a bit iffy as well
There's so much reports out there that you know a lot of these bacterias in a bottles don't work in my opinion
They kind of do, but it's not something
I solely depend on ever and it actually takes a while for your fish to actually produce enough waste to get to that bacteria for
It to consume, so should you depend on that well you can add it bacteria in a bottle along with other methods?
But in opinion the fishless cycle, or just adding bacteria in the bottle is not something I do I always got had in these disclaimers
Some of these methods will work for others
I'm just explaining to you guys
What has worked for me discus are always out until I start shining the light tom is sitting in front of them of course
You know when it comes to this bacteria in a bottle you still want to monitor your parameters the same as any other
Aquarium or what we're looking for ammonia. We're looking for nitrite. We're looking for nitrate
We want to make sure there's no ammonia
We want to make sure there's no nitrite
And there's only a reading of nitrate and this can potentially take up to six weeks during this time
You don't want to fully stock your aquarium, or you're gonna end up with a bunch of dead floating fish most likely all right
So the fishless cycle isn't that great? What if we just add in fish right away? Well, that's a method as well
It's called the feeder fish cycle, or you know
Insignificant fish cycle and in my opinion. This is the cruelest method of cycling an aquarium
I highly suggest against it, but it works
I mean when you add in a few tiny little comets or goldfish into the aquarium these guys are
Producing ammonia in the aquarium and over the course of six weeks you're gonna cycle your tank the bacteria are going to have a food
source they're gonna populate your filtration your
Your substrate and so forth in numbers able to support that many fish that are in the aquarium all during this time though
Your goldfish or feeder fish have to survive this ammonia cycle which in my opinion is cruel and again
It's not something I have done, but if you want to use organic materials
The next method is definitely your choice in the previous method
We talked about adding fish to produce waste in the aquarium to feed the bacteria that we need to cultivate
What we're all we're really
Doing is kind of just adding in something that's going to produce waste into the tank so why not take a piece of raw shrimp
Drop that into the aquarium and let that produce the waste in the ammonia as it decomposes and rots in the bacteria attack it
it's going to produce lots of ammonia in the
Aquarium and the bacteria will have a food source and have the ability to populate your aquarium
So instead of using feeder fish which in my opinion is cruel
Just drop in some organic matter like that into the tank and let that do the exact same job at the same time
Maybe you take that but Bob
bacteria in a bottle dump that into the tank with its new food source of a shrimp or two and
Over the course of a week or so monitor ammonia levels and see if that bacteria two bottles actually working for you
This is a much faster much safer method and of course. It's not that cruel now
We're getting into the ways that I cycle aquariums so with adding that shrimp into your aquarium all we're kind of looking to do is
Create ammonia within the aquarium and the answer is kind of yes
So why can't we just add ammonia directly to the fish tank and the answer to that is also yes
But this is one of the most dangerous and deadly methods a cycling aquarium. Simply because most people overdose we could take some
household cleaner
Ammonia this is old country. It's widely rip two reputable
reputa Rep YouTube
Reputable in the hobby to be fish safe. I've used it a ton of times. I do not use this to cycle aquariums
I use this to actually keep filtration systems alive when I shut down tanks
I'll explain that in a minute
But when it comes to selecting ammonia not everybody's gonna have access to the same brand what we're looking to do is shake it up
Shake it up. Open it
We're looking to see if there's any
Foaming at the top a few bubbles is normal
But if there is foaming that means there's some other agents within the ammonia that we don't want we just want ammonia and water
That's it now a capful per 100 gallons is typically what's you've been useful for me?
but we're still going to have to monitor the
nitrogen cycle with our test kits looking for that ammonia nitrate and nitrate of
Course how much you're going to need to add and how often is going to vary depending on the size of your aquarium
But in my opinion a capful every two weeks
Should be sufficient you should only have to do this twice if you add a capful of this ammonia into one of my tanks
I'd kill my fish
That's too much ammonia all at once however. You can heavily
Cycle an aquarium depending on how much ammonia you use my my in my opinion
you should take a bucket you should add your filtration usually you'll have a
Canister filter or hang on the back filter or even a sponge filter handy
You can put that in a bucket, and you could cycle that right in there. We're cycling the filtration systems
We're not cycling the water again bacteria needs a surface to live on it's not a free swimming organism
No even though I would advise against using that method because simply put
Most people overdose or don't doze enough where you know it's just too touchy in my opinion what I use it for is this?
you guys know that I'm going to be risque peeing the two thousand gallon aquarium shortly and for at least two to three days I
Have to take the fish out in order to do so these fish are going to be moved into another hundred gallon aquarium
Temporarily which will be running another filtration system that I'm already cycling or that it's actually already cycled and ready to go
But in the meantime what about the filtration system that's plumbed into the 2000 well for the fluid ice filter
I'm gonna be able to add a cap full of this to feed the bacteria and keep it alive for the canister filtration below
I'll be able to run this in recirculation mode, which means that it's just circulating the water within it
I'll pop the cap off and I will add a capful and that should keep this alive as well in fact
I probably won't even have to do a capful for each. Maybe like a half a cap or something like that
I'll do some calculations, and I'll go from there
But this is why I have ammonia is to keep filtrations alive in times like this because if I shut these filtration systems down
Bacteria starts to die right away you have around 24 hours
To kind of recover from a power outage like that or your filtration systems being without a food source, but you know after that
the die-off is
Extreme and that last method is how I cycle an aquarium with a piece of raw shrimp
bacteria in a bottle if you if you want to grab it and
I cycle it naturally that way of course once again. We're monitoring levels the entire time. We're looking for the spikes in ammonia
That's going to happen, but that's eventually going to come down nitrate starts to build up
But the neck starts to come down, and then of course nitrate at the end of the cycle
And then you should only see nitrate moving forward and at that point that's when you can stalk safely your aquarium
However, I have a ton of fish tanks here
Which means I have a ton of cycled aquariums and a ton of cycled media now media is the material we put in our filtration?
System that allows the bacteria to grow on now
I've shown you guys this method many times before, but let's take another look
This is part of the filtration system to the 2000 gallon aquarium. It's a fluid ice filter and this media
Here is a fluidized media. We're not really going to get into the methods of filtration
I've done that so many times in the past however what I want to point out. Here is what's on the bottom?
This is a ton of
Ceramic media that is cycled at the bottom at any given point I can grab a bunch of this and toss it into a new
Filter of course we still had more filtration here, however. I just want to point out the fact that I always have
additional media running within my aquariums right of course everybody's got a
Hundred gallon fluidized filtration system of course you don't but what I'm talking about is perhaps
instead of just relying on the filtration that you have you take a
Pantyhose and you cut the leg off and you fill it with additional media
And you hide it in your aquarium somewhere so that at some point when you need a hospital tank or a quarantine tank or whatever
The case might be or you just want to set up a new tank rather quickly you have established
Media already that still doesn't mean you can go ahead and pile a ton of fish into your aquariums
But this is exactly what I do in order to be able to stop them right away is have all of that media already
Established it's not going to be enough bacteria in numbers and able to support whatever life
I throw at it, but it's putting me off to a great start
And I don't really have to worry about the nitrogen cycle and that six-week waiting period I can start stocking
Right away and have no fish deaths
I do a number of things in order to stock 50 60 fish at once and we're gonna get to that at the end
However, what if you don't have or even if you don't want to have a bag of media sitting in your aquarium
Or you know have the money to have additional media. Just cycling wherever when you never know if you might not use it or not
Well one thing most of you have is substrate you see the bacteria within our aquariums are not free-floating
They need to live on a surface
They live on your decorations, and they live on your substrate now your substrate has a ridiculous amount of surface area
so if you don't have cycled media go ahead and take a couple scoops of
substrate from a heavily established aquarium toss that into a pantyhose or you know some sort of a mesh bag and
Throw that into your filtration system
And it's essentially the same thing as having cycled media on hand that was seven ways of starting up your aquariums the last one is
actually one of the oldest methods
And I know a lot of you guys have heard about the word maulana m. UL m. This is basically detritus uneaten food
Bacteria all kinds of goat that collects in your filter
Let me show you what I mean you're gonna have to come over here to see this
Now what I'm about to show you guys I call liquid gold
The next time you're doing a water change or the next time you're doing maintenance on your filtration system
Or if you're starting up a new aquarium, and you have a friend that has an established aquarium
Tell them hey next time you're cleaning out your filters. Can I have?
the disgusting mess it creates
Step 1 get some aquarium water you don't want
to have water
from your tap or anything that has
Chlorine in or chloramines you also kind of want it to be the same temperature because at the end of the day
bacteria is also an
Organism that can die from conditions like that
Now we all have canister filters hang on the back filters all different types of filtration that has some sort of a pre-filter
you know the stuff that polishes the water whether it's a sponge or
Some forts or form of poly filter or whatever the case might be we all have something in my case
I've got some sponges here I
Could use a bit of a scrub so what I'm gonna. Do here is take this and
Kind of rinse it off
In this bucket here squeezing it you know I'm not going to run this under hot water
I never clean my sponges in fresh water
I always clean them in tank water because this is also covered in bacteria, but what I'm trying to do
Here is get off and this isn't all that bad actually, but what I'm looking to do is to rinse off some of the bacteria
some of the detritus uneaten foods
And so forth and what's happening in this little concoction now is there's a bunch of bacteria with lots of food source what we're gonna
Do with this is your guessed it. We're going to dump this into our Aquarians of course. I know what you're thinking
I don't want to dump this into my tank. It's gonna make it all cloudy and gross of course
It is give it a few days, and they'll be fine though personally
I prefer to dump it into my filtration system because that is my life support system
that's where I want the majority of my bacteria to
Establish and be present in the highest numbers even still we're still gonna need to water monitor water parameters
But at this point we can still slowly start to add fish so of course you could pick and choose
What works best for you and what you have access to with all of these materials that I've shown you
However the most important thing is to stock your aquariums extremely slowly
It's not a race aquariums a nice aquarium could take months to in order to establish
But if you're like me and you want your aquariums to be established almost immediately I start off with
Already cycled media and what I mean by already cycle media is I have enough biological
Media to fully stop my filtration system
So it's like I'm taking it off one aquarium and putting it on another, and I just did a hundred percent water change
I'll also take mum
What I have just shown you and add that to the aquarium system so the bacteria and all of that detritus can establish
throughout the aquarium itself
Then I can essentially fully stock the aquarium as long as I monitor the water parameters
Closely as well as the fishes activity and do my water changes so of course. This is only eight methods that you could use to
Start your new aquarium or establish one and add it to your collection
However, there's multiple other ways you could do so and I know many people what I actually want to hear is how did you start?
Your first aquarium how did you cycle it? Did you know anything?
I know the presence of the internet and YouTube and so many
Informational sources are available to how but back when I get in the hobby
It was kind of like you're on your own
So I had a lot of a big learning curve to say the least so I kind of wanted to bring this to focus
And do these types of videos here and there I do want to do some things that are some beginner type videos perhaps
we'll dive into the nitrogen cycle, and I'll talk about bacteria and
Because at the end of the day bacteria is your most important organism in your aquarium, I also want to talk about their preferred conditions
You know I just kind of want to dive back into
making more of you a
Successful hobbyist by potentially emulating or at least getting some ideas on how I'm successful with my hobby
Anyways, if you have any questions or comments or you want to share how you started your first aquarium?
Let me know in the comments section below. I'm not here to make fun
I don't think anybody else is here, but your story could potentially save somebody else's fish
Full disclosure. I'm still sick. That's why I stay on sale like this
I got a pounding headache not thinking clearly and I kind of just winged this video
But I've been wanting to do it for quite a while now, so I figured hey
How about Tuesday afternoon when this video needs to be out in an hour so?
If I missed any information or you want me to do something like this again with a clear head, please
Let me know in the comment section below