East Ocean Aquatic Trading Centre

Nitrogen Cycle is one of the most important things to be understood by any aquarium owner. Yet it is usually being overlooked. That is why there are many cases like New Tank Syndrome or fishes dying immediately.

Nitrogen Cycle is a very big and complex topic. In this article, we will explain only the basic part about Nitrogen Cycle that must be understood by any aquarium owners.

What is Nitrogen Cycle?

Nitrogen Cycle is the process to break down highly toxic Ammonia (NH4+) to highly toxic Nitrite (NO2) and then break down again to least-toxic Nitrate (NO3) by a lot of different type of “good bacteria”.

Why do we need Nitrogen Cycle in our aquarium?

Highly toxic Ammonia is introduced into the tank as fish waste, decomposed matter and etc… It will stay in the aquarium with your fishes and caused harm to your fishes. Although you can take out this ammonia by doing water change but they can kill your fishes within a very short amount of time and you will not have enough time to react.

This is where Nitrogen Cycle comes in. This process will break down highly toxic Ammonia (NH4+) all the way to least-toxic Nitrate (NO3) by the “good bacteria”. This process is one of the most important things that will keep your fishes alive.

How do we introduce Nitrogen Cycle into our aquarium?

Nitrogen Cycle is a process where a lot of different bacteria come together to break down Ammonia all the way to Nitrate.

To introduce Nitrogen Cycle is to introduce these bacteria into the aquarium and make them multiply to a large number that will break down Ammonia fast enough to prevent any harm to the fishes

These bacteria will start to grow and multiply as soon as you add chlorine-free water into your aquarium. But it will need time for these bacteria to grow to an amount large enough to break down Ammonia fast.

Basically, it means you will not be able to introduce fishes immediately after you set up your aquarium and you will need to keep your aquarium fishless until you get these bacteria to multiply.

How long before we can introduce fishes into our aquarium

A standard guideline will be around 3 weeks before you add any fishes into the aquarium.

Of course there are methods to accelerate the process.

There are ready bacteria products that you can buy off the shelves and it greatly speed up the process. These products introduce bacteria into the aquarium and increase the amount bacteria in the aquarium in large quantity so bacteria will multiply much faster.

JBL Denitrol

We find this method the most convenient and fastest to be used by aquarium owner. Usually fishes can be introduced into the aquarium within 3 – 7 days.

Read article: how to introduce fish into aquarium? (coming soon)

Now we are done with Highly Toxic Ammonia, we got to deal with least- toxic nitrate now.

Things do not end with Ammonia being breakdown to Nitrate.

Nitrate is the least harmful and will not harm fishes in low concentration until its amount accumulates. In an aquarium, Nitrate is usually the final product of the Nitrogen Cycle and it will not break down any further.

The easiest way is to manually take out this nitrate by doing water change to keep the amount of nitrate in our aquarium at low concentration so it does not harm our fishes and this is usually the reason why we keep telling you to do water change.

Read article: When do we need to do water change? (coming soon)

"Keeping an aquarium is more than keeping fish. We are keeping a natural habitat environment for the fishes to live in and this natural habitat is what makes keeping an aquarium fun. In nature, these natural habitats are not created overnight, they are created over a period of time and it is the same to your aquarium."

Once again, this article does not explain everything of Nitrogen Cycle but only a small part of how it helps in your aquarium and why it is important. Please do research more if you want to understand more on this topic.

If you ask any of the aqua hobbyists, they will tell you one of the most important factor for a successful planted aquarium, is the injection of CO2.

In planted aquarium, CO2 is often the limiting factor. With higher CO2 level, aquarium plants flourish and grow. Without sufficient CO2 level, plants are unable to utilize the necessary nutrients, and instead allow algae to grow.

Pressurized CO2 System is the best and most effective way for introducing CO2 into your aquarium.

Equipment for pressurized CO2 system can often looks complicated to a beginner hobbyist. Today, we like to break down the installation to few simple steps

What is commonly found in pressurized CO2 system?

Items	Usage
CO2 cylinder	Storage of CO2
CO2 regulator	Regulate the speed of CO2 release
CO2 Bubble counter	Allow user to calculate the speed of CO2 release
CO2 check valve	Prevent aquarium water to flow into the CO2 cylinder
CO2 tubing	Connect the regulator to the diffuser
CO2 diffuser	Create CO2 micro bubbles in aquarium, allow more CO2 to dissolve in water

We will use our ANS Professional CO2 System to demonstrate the setup. In the later part, we will give more details and properties for each items used.

CO2 Cylinder

CO2 cylinders basically store your CO2! It usually comes in aluminum or alloy steel material. Aluminum cylinders are lighter and have better appearance and are more expensive. Alloy Steel cylinders are durable and cheaper!

ANS Alloy Cylinder

ANS Alloy Steel CO2 Cylinder is durable and able to withstand high pressurizes CO2. Built in with safety mechanism that prevent any sudden leakage of CO2.

Come in 2L, 3L and 5 Liter cylinder. Choose your cylinder capacity well. Usually, a 2L will last about 4-5 months for a 60 Liter aquarium. You will not like to travel more often than necessary just to get your CO2 Cylinder refill!

CO2 Regulator

CO2 regulator regulates the speed of CO2 release. There are 2 types of regulator (manual/automatic). We usually recommend user to use automatic regulator.

Manual regulator (picture below) has 1 pressure gauges.

ANS Easy CO2 Meter (Precision)

Manual regulator is cheaper, no frills regulator. It allows CO2 to be controlled and release from the cylinder. However, the CO2 release can be unstable and it will be hard to adjust the amount of CO2 release. It is because manual regulator relies on CO2 cylinder pressure. As CO2 in cylinder gets lesser, CO2 pressure in cylinder decreases, hence affecting the amount of CO2 release. So if you leave your manual regulator on running, you will find the speed of CO2 injection getting slower over time, even if there is CO2 in the cylinder.

Automatic regulator (picture below) has 2 pressure gauges.

ANS CO2 Regulator w/ Solenoid

One measures the capacity of CO2 stored in the CO2 cylinder. The other measures the output pressure, output pressure gauge provide constant amount of CO2 release regardless of the capacity of CO2 in the cylinder.

ANS CO2 Regulator with solenoid is a 3 in 1 regulator
1. Creates a constant output pressure of 50-60PSI.
2. A fine tune adjuster that allow user to adjust amount of CO2 release accurately and precisely.
3. Integrated solenoid control!

What is the use of solenoid?

Plants need CO2 when light is on and CO2 injection is unnecessary when light is off. Solenoid is use to turn on and off CO2 by simply switching on and off the electrical supply.

Electricity ON = CO2 injection

Electricity OFF = CO2 supply cut off!

Some will ask if they use regulator without the solenoid as they can manually turn the fine tune adjuster off at night and turn it on daily! However, from a season hobbyist, most will tell you this daily ritual can be very tiring. It will be easier to control the CO2 by just a flip of a switch. Furthermore, you can also connect ANS CO2 Regulator with solenoid to common electronic 24hr timer. With this you can leave the system running for months without you touching it.

Solenoid on a timer

Bubble Counter

Bubble counter is use to measure the amount of CO2 injected into your aquarium. It is important to know how much CO2 is injected to your aquarium as too much CO2 may suffocate your fishes and shrimp, while too little will stunned the growth of plants. As a guide, a fully planted aquarium should inject 1 bubble/second for every 30 – 45 liter of water. You can also get a CO2 Checker to check the amount of CO2 in your aquarium.

ANS Brass Bubble Counter

ANS Brass Bubble Counter is fabricated out of brass metal and thick glasses that can withstand high pressurize CO2 output without losing shape. It clear glass column allows easy counting of CO2 bubbles. It is also integrate with a brass check valve to prevent back-flow of water.

Check Valve (One Way Valve)

Check Valve prevents water from aquarium to flow back to your CO2 cylinder. It is important to have a check valve because if water enters the cylinder, it can cause rust in the interior of the cylinder and prevent proper CO2 refilling.

ANS CO2 Brass Check Valve

ANS Brass Check Valve is an excellent check valve that prevents no water flows back to your CO2 Cylinder even under high pressurize CO2 output.

CO2 Tube

There are many types of tube available. We do not use the same that we use with air pump. The common air pipe will not be withstand the pressure needed for CO2 system and may leak CO2 after sometime.

ANS CO2 Resistant Tube

ANS CO2 Resistant Tube is design to support high pressurize CO2 output and do not degrade over time.

CO2 Diffuser

CO2 Diffuser are use to diffuse CO2 efficiently into your aquarium. There are various types of diffuser available.

ANS Opti Glass Diffuser Nano

ANS Opti Glass Diffuser Nano creates micro bubbles through a ceramic disc that effectively diffuse CO2 into the water. The more CO2 dissolved in water the more CO2 available for plants. So it is important to have a diffuser rather than just a normal air stone. Opti glass material use in the diffuser gives elegant visual effect to your planted aquarium.

CO2 monitor device (Optional)

As all planted aquarium are different, the amount of CO2 intake by plants are different. To measure accurately if the amount of CO2 is enough, we use CO2 monitor device. CO2 monitor device accurately measure the amount of CO2 dissolved in the water.