Hi soup - You will definitely need a test kit to do this. First measure
your pH. The higher the pH the more toxic the ammonia. This may influence
whether you use fish or not or which fish. Like the net I am sure you will
find here, just about as many diverse views on how to start. I prefer to
start fishless. Some believe even if the fish survive from cycling with
fish, it is uncomfortable for the fish and gill damage may result in early
death. In a five gallon tank you will really have to watch your levels very
closely and probably only start with one fish. I may be a bit over the top
but it may not be the best lesson for your son to accidentally kill your
fish during cycling. However accidents will always happen occasionally
particularly in a small tank. Even after cycled it will require some
vigilance to make sure you dont have significant ammonia and nitrite spike=a
few small fish, do regular water changes and dont overfeed. You might want
to google for fishless cycling. I also have heard many excellent reports on
using Bio Spira to cycle your tank. You will have to purchase a portion
that will actually treat about 30 gallons and cost $10 or 12, however. It
does allow you to start with minimal fish and since it usually helps with a
very quick cycle fish damage should be less. Most of the other 'starters',
I have heard are often maginal at best.
With only 13 months experience and 3 tanks and 2 ponds cycled I certainly
do not present myself as having near the knowledge most do on this board.
However, I would add that ONE of the experts on this board, some may agree,
is NetMax and I know he advocates fishless. Here is a link to his 'more
than you ever wanted to know' site.
http://www.2cah.com/netmax/basics/water/water.shtml - if you want the short
version you can scroll down to 'Avoiding New Tank Syndrome'.
I think you will find their are the basics and they will get you a long
way. Then there is a mountain of information to hone those basics. For me,
the more I learn the more I enjoy being a concientous pet keeper. I now
know quite a lot, but still very little. I'm sure we can assume you want to
know at least the highlites or you wouldn't be here. Be very, very careful
though. This fishkeeping business can become very addictive. Your 5 gallon
tank may have swelled to a 55 gallon within a year if you dont watch it
Enjoy!!
Bill Brister - Austin, Texas

"soup" wrote in message
.uk...

Have googled for aquarium cycling and there seems
to be 301,000 different opinions on how to do it.
A straw poll, how many believe in the chemical
approach and how many in hardy fish and does
anyone have a method involving black cats and
ouija boards ?.

As I understand it "cycling" is too get the level
of good bacteria up so they can "eat" fish waste
and convert it into nitrites then convert these
nitrites to nitrates.
--
yours S

Nihil curo de ista tua stulta superstitione