To Cycle Or Not to Cycle, Is That The Question?

Some say that happiness is what happens when keeping bettas is a cycled tank.  Life is easier for you. Life is better for the bettas.  Which I'd tend to agree with. 

Now if you thoroughly understand tank cycling raise your hand.   Okay a few hands went up.

Otherwise for the rest would it be safe to say you don't know what a cycled tank is?  Or that you don't know why you should know?  If that's true, then this quick heads up should be an eye opener to the possibilities.


If you didn't sleep walk through this video here's what you should have learned.

• The phrase "cycling a fish tank" is about your filter as much as anything else? It also involves the nitrogen cycle and it's referred to as a cycle for a reason. Here's why.
• Your fish are ammonia producers. The amount produced depends on the type and number of fish.
• When doing cycling with fish you start with a few so called hardy fish. These would be fish that can cope with spiking ammonia levels without dying basically. The idea is to build up the beneficial bacteria that break down the harmful ammonia compounds. First it is broken down into nitrites. And finally nitrates. The latter is for the most part benign in limited doses.
• Ammonia is most harmful. Nitrites less so. Nitrates again pretty much not so harmful.
• Doing the cycling with fish is a way to gradually introduce more fish over time to give the bacteria in the tank time to build up to handle the ammonia load. This is likely not a good thing to do with a prized bettta fish however.
• To monitor this cycle you'll need an ammonia test kit. It will pretty much last forever so get a good one like something from API. (Don't get the strips. They aren't nearly accurate enough.) You can see how simple it is. A vial of tank water. A few drops of reactant. Wait a bit. And BOOM you know your ammonia levels.
• Strips are said to be okay for measuring nitrites and nitrates. I tend to disagree. Again a single kit from API can do it all. But let's say that's up to you.
• The typical nitrogen cycle your tank will go through is pretty predictable.

Initially you are going to have an ammonia spike. This is stressful for the fish. Very stressful. In a way it's like living in a smoke filled room. It might not kill you, but breathing in that smoke 24/7 isn't doing you any good either.

The good news, if there is good news, is that the ammonia is food for the good bugs. So they too will multiply like crazy. This will eventually crash the ammonia spike but replace it with a nitrite spike because that's what the bacteria break ammonia down into. Better but still not good. 

Meanwhile your fish is trying to cope with these gyrating water parameters and still be styling while doing so. Also not so good.

More bacteria develop which will eventually take care of the nitrites. This leads to a jump in nitrates. But this is manageable by regular water changes. Which is why the routine is to change out say 80% of the water once the nitrates spike to get that level down. And from there you are good doing 25% changes every week to 10 days or so. 

• But you can also see how 100% water changes are hard on your betta. Because every time you're flushing any good bacteria that have developed down the drain. So that ammonia levels spike, the bacteria catch up, nitrite levels spike, bacteria catch up, nitrate levels spike, BOOM you come along and do a 100% water change somewhere along the way and start the process all over again. Leaving the fish to try to adjust, and adjust and adjust.
• With one betta it's unlikely you can bring in aged filter media. But might be doable if you have a number of these guys in different tanks.

Now I'm not going to tell you that you can't keep bettas in an uncycled set up .  You can. It just makes caring for your betta fish that much easier.   But if you have a tank and you do bother to cycle it, it can often expand the life span of your betta, sometimes dramatically. Because the fish isn't constantly trying to deal with unhealthy spikes in ammonia and nitrite levels that can result from doing 100% water changes. 

Okay so if this whole cycling business is as clear as mud sometimes it helps to get your brain around a concept if you see it explained a second time from a slightly different perspective.  So here's a second pretty decent video.



The nice thing about this one is you get to see a nifty image of the nitrogen cycle from fish to nitrates.  That to me helps make the whole process crystal clear.  Hopefully you'll feel that way too. 

Even better there's a second image, well a chart actually, that shows how the three compounds, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates spike and then crash over time.  Which is pretty darn helpful too. 

And pay attention to the approximate number of days it takes to make each part of the cycle happen.  Which only reinforces the point made that if you are doing a 100% water change once a month, your betta fish is likely under constant stress. 

Still I can't say for sure that if you have a cycled tank you are going to significantly expand the life span of your betta fish.  Sure having them in a tank rather than a bowl will help.  And not subjecting them constantly to ammonia spikes that accompany 100% water changes will help too.  But there are other pitfalls that can shorten their life expectancy. Some of which are beyond your control even.

So to cycle or not to cycle is that the question really isn't the question.  Because for the health of your fish you do want to cycle your tank.  Your betta will be happier.  And you'll be happier.  With that let's end this cycling story.