How to cycle your tank

   The nitrogen cycle is a natural reaction that provides nitrifying bacteria to your tank. This is what makes a tank healthy and starts the biological filter.  To start the reaction you must introduce fish.  Fish produce the three compounds to start the cycle: ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite.  High levels of these compounds can be lethal to your fish, therefore you must start with one or two fish (I recommend small fish like chromis) and let the growth of the nitrifying bacteria catch up with the waste levels. Then you can add more fish.  It usually takes around 30 days for a tank to cycle, but there are ways to have a cycled tank in one day, which I will go over later.  You must always add fish slowly, it may be hard to restrain yourself after waiting so long, but try to add only a few fish a month, depending on your size of tank for how much a few equals. For a 50 gallon tank I would do around 3 small fish or one medium fish.

Picture of brown algae

   During the 30 period of cycling your tank you will notice algae outbreaks the first is brown, then green, then maybe red. You will want to panic and try to clean everything but remain calm this is natural and will eventually go away.  If the growth is excessive you can scrape out the algae and by doing so you are physically removing nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia that the algae uses for food.
   Remember to check back for more on the 1 day cycle and algae. Thanks for reading!