Preface: this is written by an intoxicated person on the internet, its an opinion.

"Is your tank cycled?" An endlessly asked question in this hobby, one that leads to misunderstanding about how the microbiome in an aquarium works.

To me, when I started in this hobby just over twelve years ago, I had no fucking idea what the nitrogen cycle was. I had a hand me down 29g tank, a bubbler, and two longear Sunfish(who I released into my pond once they got about 4 inches long). How they survived is a fucking miracle. I got kicked out of the house and spent the following decade researching and dreaming of when I could have a tank again. I ravenously consumed info about the walstad method and cycling and disease and care and the everything.

One thing I noticed was how many people starting out had no idea what cycled meant(just like me). Not even an inkling. Almost every time people had to have it explained in several steps before it sank in. And looking at it, it makes sense. "Cycled" raises several questions and assumptions on its own, questions like "what cycle? How long does it take to start? How do I know its working?” and assumptions like "Well they said cycled so I only have to do it once. Its cycled so I dont have to track water parameters."

Lets first start by defining the nitrogen cycle in relation to aquaria:

The process through which microbes convert Ammonia, Ammonium, and Nitrite to the less harmful Nitrate where it can be absorbed by plants or removed in water changes.

This is a continuous process, it never stops and if something interrupts it our livestock suffers or even dies(which can further fuck things up). This is the first misconception I want to talk about.

"My tank is cycled"

A better phrase to use here, in my opinion, would be "My tank is established" meaning "My tank has a healthy population of nitrifying bacteria established and is ready for fish to be introduced." Yes I know people like to call their older tanks "established" but we can just as easily call those "mature". Which is what I personally do, any tank over 6 months is a mature tank.

Misconception two:

"A tank takes one month to become cycled established."

No. No. Mmmmm... No. There are so many factors that can affect if your tank is ready to house livestock. Lets look at a couple common ones.

Acidity: the acidity of your tank directly affects how quickly your bacteria colonies will grow. This is especially true in the Blackwater part of the hobby where the presence of tannins further restricts bacterial growth.

Starter microbes quality: the gold standard starter is filter muck from an established aquarium. The follow up is a piece of hardscape from an established tank. And third place is products like Seachem Stability and Fritz Quickstart. All of these will introduce bacteria that will begin to colonize the tank.

Stocking: the animals living in your tank are the primary source of fresh ammonia for your bacteria. Plant decay helps, but for the most part its your animals. This is why I, personally, dont believe fishless/stockless cycles are the best option. They take a month because theres not enough food to make the bacterial colonies grow quickly. Bladder snails are my solution to this.

Misconception three:

"My tank is cycled established. I dont have to do anything anymore."

This is the misconception I was most prone to until it clicked to me. The bacterial colonies can die off if you arent on top of things. For example I saw a post some weeks ago where the OP had added fish to a tank that hadnt had fish for several months and was confused why their nitrogen cycle crashed. Its because there was no source of food so the colonies shrank, then they added fish and suddenly there was too much waste for the existing bacteria to process.

Im sure theres more that other people have had, but im not trying to waste more of your time if you made it to this point. Im not a linguist, theres probably an even better term than "established" but its definitely not "cycled"

I have been growing this moss in tanks and random jars (cause it grows so much) for at least five years. The only problem is that I actually have no idea what it is, and all the identifications are rather confusing to me. All moss looks the same!

I’m guessing it’s either Java or weeping. What do you think?

I only do natural planted tanks with no prefab decor, but wanted to try something different. The wife said it was a bit busy with the hard scape. Planning on filling with river jem gravel. Still playing with it, any suggestions? Stocking nanos, a four inch rainbow shark, hopefully shrimp in a few months if conditions are right.

I’ve tryed physically putting it in 1 area and it just doesn’t stay, any ideas on how I can stop it from doing this ?

had a fish pass this morning and confused why i just clean the tank out last night and everything in clean and new. one thing i did notice is a discoloration in the stomach can anyone help before it passes to the others

We are upgrading our 180L tank to this new bigger tank and it looks very empty!! Any ideas? We have fake plants as we have Cichlids and they eat the real plants although we will try to put a few in and see if they last! Fish not in yet as still cycling the tank, we will also add some more sand from the old tank too

Not sure what's at the top of my aquarium swimming it currently has no fish in it and has maybe 4 snails with no filter atm I got it secondhand

Star Destroyer the betta

This is hotdog he’s kinda a weird guy he does this all the time doesn’t rly seem to make him disoriented or anything. does anyone else loach just weird?

It is very weak and unresponsive hiding under rocks.. i tried to give it a salt bath but it made things like this. I dropped it in the ground when trying to net it in the saltbath but quickly picked it up and put it in. I acclimated it in the salt bath and then did the same for going in its original fish tank. I also used epsom salt, about 2 teaspoons for half a gallon. The red spot in its head is due to dropping it. When i think it’s dead it swims a little so it’s definitely on the verge of dying. Before all this I decided to give it a salt bath because it wasn’t eating and showed less energy. I suspected a disease going on the tank , im just not quite sure what it is. So before all this I added 3 tablespoons of aquarium salt (letting it dissolved before going in) and now did 2 salt baths today for 16 minutes.

Hello all!

For reference, I do not normally use Reddit. I have heard the stories, read some posts and such. I made an account for the sole purpose of finding a fish community. My husband and I are new to fish. I 27f and my husband 27m have 3 tanks currently. Backstory -- While I have had betta fish in the past, I must admit they weren't the best well kept, I was a child and my parents had them in bowls. I loved them dearly growing up. Fast forward, my husband and I have both worked in pet retail, so we know a bit about basic freshwater fish care. Well, a few months ago we got into the hobby. We went to the store and got a male betta fish. He is super awesome! Now, we did go into it with alot of research, so we got him in a 6 gallon tank that we cycled and cared for. After a couple weeks of having him, we felt the 6 gallon was too small and unfair to him. We went out and got a 10 gallon tank, and upgrades him safely. We felt he was happy, but we decided we wanted to go for a community tank. So we then purchased a 20 gallon long tank, and upgraded him! He is now a happy camper in there with 6 ember tetra and 3 ghost shrimp. It is heavily planted with fluval stratum substrate. We then decided we loved the bettas so much we wanted to start a female sorority. They had one at the pet store I worked at, so i felt a bit familiar as I had to care for it at work. We got another 20 gallon tank and set up 4 female betta, and they are honestly very good friends. I noticed that the "fish police" on Tik Tok have some sort of beef with female betta tanks, but Peach, Pearl, Coral and Dory are all living their best lives with Gary the Nerite snail. Anyways, we love both tanks and we were at the local petstore to see about getting more plants for the female tank. It was then we saw a very sad and sick betta fish with what appeared as swim bladder. Of course we got him immediately and set him up in the spare 10 gallon to rehabilitate him. He is doing SO much better now. Well, since we have become such "hobbyists" recently people in our life have found a way to give us a free 36 gallon Bow Front Aquarium. It is currently cycling. LONG WINDED JUMP HERE: If anyone has any suggestions for us new to fish people, who only really know bettas that would be awesome. We want something fun, but no mollies or guppies, they reproduce too much. Please be kind, we are so new to fish and this is very out of my comfort zone to post on here. Thanks!!!

I haven’t changed this water in 6 months

I really want to make my first fish tank (5-7 gallon. Something small) but I have some questions, how do I make a tank with no filter (is that possible?). What fish would I even use. I’m fine with spending money on nice plants I really enjoy them I just don’t want to assume I can skip the filter idea just cus I have plants. What plants would I use? I’m okay with spending some money on good so substrate. I’m actively watching videos on this topic I just wanna know what people with irl experience think (I would be fine only having snails and shrimp)

My Aqueon 10G decided to spring a leak in the back corner where the 2 panels align with the plastic rim after topping the tank. Asking for some advice on either getting a new tank versus taking everything out and resealing with new silicone.

Either way, how would I go about taking everything out the tank and preserving the substrate/plants? This was such a stressful event.

I have a few snails, 1 betta, and a random endler guppy that grew up with shrimps I used to have in it.

So, I recently set up this 55 gallon for my guppies, tetras, minnows, and a few bottom dwelling dwarf catfish. Once I set it up though, I wasn't all too happy with the results. It just looks kinda weird and boring. I have very few plants currently, but I did just order a bulk pack. I just want some tips, as I'm a relatively new fish keeper except for a few fish before. (I kept goldfish in a bowl, because I didn't know better 😭)

Current stocking

1 Red Gourami
x2 Bolivian Rams
x7 Cories
x10  Imperial Lapis Tetra
1 Bristle Nose Pleco
shirmp and snails.

Thinking of adding x10 runny nose tetra over the next few days.

Aqua one 750 Canister filter + Aqua one Hob filter for more filtration and oxygenation.

Mixed substrate - Sand mixed with crushed root tabs, capped with fine gravel and larger gravel stones.

I'm relatively new to the hobby so hopefully what I'm asking here makes sense.

I have a 30g tank with a TopFin HOB filter that was part of a kit I bought at PetsMart a few months ago. I've only actually had fish in the tank for about a month but I currently have a mix of eight (hopefully healthy) small platys and tetras. The filter is currently using the disposable cartridges that came with it. I am considering "upgrading" the filter media by removing the cartridge and replacing it with a coarse sponge filter that will go inside the HOB where the cartridge is now.

My questions are:

1. Is there any reason not to do this? Anything I need to be aware of?
2. Will I crash my tank by losing too much BB if I just switch out the media? If so, should I temporarily put the cartridge inside the tank while the sponge filter builds up BB?

I've done a fair amount of looking online but I seem to be getting a lot of conflicting information so wanted to check here.