cycling

what is it?

• Cycling is probably the most important part of this whole process, and largely ignored by people. It's the establishment of "good bacteria" in your tank so you can have an efficient nitrogen cycle.

• Your fish can become extreme stressed if there is too much nitrate, nitrite, or ammonia in the tank!

how do cycle a tank?

• There are tons of different ways to cycle a tank but here's the way I recommend to do it:
  
  
  1. Set up your tank with your substrate, filter, heater, etc. Do not add in fish.
  
  
  2. Add in water that has been dechlorinated and decontaminated with water conditioner.
  
  
  3. Sprinkle in some fish food (this will decompose into ammonia to feed the bacteria)
  
  
  4. Wait three days, then use a test strip to test for ammonia. You want about 3ppm so there's enough to feed the bacteria.
  
  
  5. Keep your ammonia levels up by continuously feeding your tank fish food but don't overdo it. Keep that 3ppm.
  
  
  6. After a week, test every 2-3 days for nitrite.
  
  
  7. Keep feeding, and in a couple more weeks you should start to see nitrate pop up in your test strips.
  
  
• Detecting nitrobacter final step in the cycle. Your tank is now cycled and ready to add fish into safely. There might be some brown gunk in your substrate or filter but that's okay! That's the good bacteria colonies.

but i've seen people add fish!

• It is possible to cycle a tank with fish in it, but its riskier especially for beginners. There's all sorts of methods to cycle tanks, do what you want! The above method is just the easiest and safest, in my opinion.