There have been members recently buying fish and putting them into their fishtanks not knowing anything about the nitrogen cycle or how to cycle a tank and then they end up having problems with their fish dying, so I thought I would post this Link for you all to read hopefully before you buy the fish to help explain what the cycle is all about and to save fish dying unnecessarily.

Cycling Without Fish
http://www.tomgriffin.com/aquamag/cycling.html
Fishless Cycling Revisited
http://www.tomgriffin.com/aquamag/cycle2.html

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk ... rticle.php?article_id=113

Goldy's advice has been invaluable to me as a new fish owner, and I would say to anyone out there who has bought a tank and not yet got their fish - CYCLE THE TANK FIRST BEEFORE PUTTING YOUR FISH IN!! Unfortunately I didn't do - I put my fish in the tank a week after starting the cycling process off and misguidedly thought that this would be ok, and I didn't check the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate levels first. Hopefully my 2 goldfish have weathered the storm, but it has been a bit of a fraught time and it defintely wasn't fair on the fish.

I couldn't have put it any better - Pretty much the same story for me

Goldy is a vital asset to the site

Thanks for all you help Goldy!!!

Why thank you ladies You made me blush but its good to hear that I could help which makes it all worth while

Lovely fish, Iseaton!
I'm also cycling before adding any fish, thanks to Goldy's advice.

Thank you meerkat but I can not take all the credit as you did get very good advice from your Lfs (which is very rare) and they started you off on the right track

Great advice, thankyou.

A better read is the link you posted elsewhere on this forum....

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk ... article.php?article_id=74

I agree but I have only just come across that one now they can read both thanks Numpty

Hi everyone,

Sorry to be really dim - but I'm a beginner!

My filter has a completely replacable activated carbon filter unit (which the instructions tell me to do about once a month). I'm assuming that all my friendly bacteria will disappear when I do that. So, how do I control ammonia levels with this type of filter?

Thanks,
Ade

Sorry - me again - just did some more digging on the 'net.

Apparently my Penn-Plax Smallworld filter has activated carbon and zeolite for chemical filtration and a sponge for biological filtration. US reviews of it reckon that the zeolite sorts out the ammonia problem. But of course, the biological element of the filter will be lost when I change the cartridge.

Has anyone got any experience of whether this filter does what it says it does?

Thanks,
Ade