How to Start a Saltwater Fish Tank

Cycling Cycling your saltwater reef aquarium is one of the first tests of your aquarium keeping skills. In fact, it is the first big test of the number one area you must develop for a successful reef aquarium, patience. In addition, cycling your aquarium properly will require a degree of knowledge about some basic chemistry and biological processes. What do I mean by "cycling" a tank? This is the procedure you must go through to …

…week. If ammonia and nitrite are still zero you can safely begin introducing some hardy animals to the aquarium. As you are introducing livestock, keep the cycling process in mind. It should be evident that introducing a large number, or even one large fish, can overload your biological filter by producing more waste than the bacteria can convert. This is the number one reason that you must GO SLOW when adding livestock to the tank.