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Establishing / Cycling A New Aquarium

Many new jellyfish aquarists do not recognize the importance of the nitrogen cycle and its roll in the establishment of a healthy environment in a new aquarium. This is not a process that is exclusive to jellyfish aquariums. ALL types of aquariums will go through a cycling process when newly set-up and stocked.

Fully cycling a new aquarium normally takes a couple of weeks to a month (sometimes longer).
‘Cycling’ a new aquarium, is essentially the establishment of populations of different types of beneficial (denitrifying) bacteria in the filter media. The beneficial bacteria is responsible for processing decomposing organic matter (animal waste and uneaten food) into less & less toxic substances. Firstly, ammonia is created by the rotting organics. Ammonia is quite toxic to most forms of life including jellyfish and can cause significant harm quite quickly. Then another type of beneficial bacteria feed on the ammonia (yuck) and produce nitrites. Nitrites are a little less toxic than ammonia but, left unchecked, can also do damage to your jellyfish. Then, yet another group of bacteria utilize the nitrites and produce nitrate.

Nitrate is the final stage of the nitrogen cycle and is the least toxic substance in the chain. Although, not as bad as ammonia or nitrites; nitrates, in high enough concentrations will also harm your jellies. Nothing converts nitrate to anything (without getting into a discussion of anaerobic bacteria which it's usually within the scope of a simple jellyfish aquarium). Removing/diluting nitrate is part of the reason we do regular, partial water-changes.

During the initial cycling process, you are trying to establish a stable environment in your aquarium. Although you want to do partial water-changes to dilute/minimize the build-up of toxic substances in the aquarium, each time you do, you destabilize the environment some. So… do partial water-changes as dictated by the aquarium’s water chemistry, but don’t do them unnecessarily for the first few weeks.


Navigating The Nitrogen Cycle

Thankfully there are test kits available to test for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Testing for them regularly in the beginnings of your aquarium's life will give you a good idea where you are in the establishment of the aquarium’s ‘cycle’. You will see some ammonia first, then nitrite will rise as ammonia falls. then nitrate will start to build-up as nitrite falls. You ultimately want to have both ammonia and nitrate and pretty close to 0.0ppm. Nitrates will normally be a little bit higher. Up to about 2oppm is tolerable. Lower is better though.

Yes, we know you’re keen to get going with your new jellyfish aquarium! However, it is important to practice patience as a new aquarium's nitrogen cycle is getting established. It can be managed quite easily in the beginning by just starting out slow. Get a small amount of small jellyfish and feed them conservatively in the begining. In a small aquarium, such as CUBIC’s Orbit or Jellyfish Art’s Desktop Tank we’d recommend starting with a single, small jellyfish. Two or three is posible but we'd recommend small ones and feed them sparingly.

If you over feed or add too many jellies at the beginning, you will almost inevitably end up dealing with a toxic ammonia level spike and unhealthy jellyfish or worse.

Utilizing additives like SeaChem’s Pristine and Stability (or similar) will help getting the cycle going. But they can’t do it all, all at once (as much as a lot of people would like to think). They simply help and it takes time.

Tips:
Start a new aquarium slowly.
Keeping a jellyfish aquarium clean is important. However, it is especially important in the initial stages.
In a small aquarium, we would also recommend the bowl feeding method to minimize waste in the main aquarium.