What is cycling?

What does it mean to have cycled the tank? My tank went from high
nitrites to now high amonia. When I saw the amonia level I paniced
and did a water change, but I am wondering how long of a turn around I
am looking at and exactly what a cycle entails and what kind of time
frame am I looking at? thanks again all

"Christy84065" wrote in message
m...
What does it mean to have cycled the tank? My tank went from high
nitrites to now high amonia. When I saw the amonia level I paniced
and did a water change, but I am wondering how long of a turn around I
am looking at and exactly what a cycle entails and what kind of time
frame am I looking at? thanks again all

Please read all of this at least twice before you buy any fish.

http://www.thekrib.com/

"Christy84065" wrote in message
m...
What does it mean to have cycled the tank? My tank went from high
nitrites to now high amonia. When I saw the amonia level I paniced
and did a water change, but I am wondering how long of a turn around I
am looking at and exactly what a cycle entails and what kind of time
frame am I looking at? thanks again all

In a sentence: it's providing the accommodations for, and then waiting
for the correct quantity & types of bacteria to correspond to the waste
generated by your fish, (which corresponds to the amount of food they
consume).

If you had high nitrites, and then later high ammonia, then you're not
observing a normal sequence and your testing was incorrect, your
understanding was incorrect or something has happened to cause the
cycling to revert to an earlier stage.

IMO, the krib is THE reference. For the same thing, in different words
(which can sometimes be helpful):
http://www.2cah.com/netmax/basics/water/water.shtml#nts

--
www.NetMax.tk