Eli5: What does it mean to ‘cycle an aquarium’?
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It means – fish eat, then they poop.
Fish poop is toxic to fish if it builds up and isn’t processed, so it needs to be dealt with. Some bacteria are good at dealing with poop and converting it to substances that are harmless to the fish.
It takes time for this kind of bacteria to grow so that there are enough of them to deal with the poop of a whole tank of fish.
Cycling a tank means you’re taking a new clean system with no bacteria in it, and introducing some kind of food that good bacteria wants (uneaten fish food, fish poop etc). This waste is eaten by the good bacteria (that exist everywhere in tiny amounts) the tank needs. As the good bacteria process the food and multiply, they can handle more waste. This increase in good bacteria is “colonising” the tank. When you’ve cycled your tank, it means you’ve given the good bacteria enough time to grow and multiply to a point where they can reliably process the waste in the tank to keep the environment stable and healthy for fish.
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