What does tank cycle mean?

Answer 1

If you refer to the cycle of an aquarium, it means a nitrogen cycle. Fish produce ammonia as natural waste, and it is toxic which will harm and kill themselves.

In those well established tanks, good bacteria are in sufficient number to break down ammonia into nitrite, then convert nitrite into nitrate which is much less harmful.

New fish tanks do not have enough of these beneficial bacteria. Thus, experienced fish keepers will do a nitrogen cycle before they add any fish at all. The safest and the most popular way to cycle a fish tank these days is to cycle the tank without any fish. It is called Fishless Nitrogen Cycle.

In a Fishless Nitrogen Cycle, the best and fastest way to do it is to use pure ammonia.

You just need to keep a constant source of ammonia on daily basis and wait for the bacteria to grow into sufficient number. The whole process can take over a month.

You will need a water test kit for the fishless cycle. Once your test kit reads 0ppm for both ammonia and nitrite after you have added ammonia on the same day, your fishless nitrogen cycling has completed.