BioLife 35/55 Internal Wet/Dry Power Filter Manual

Aquarium inhabitants produce a number of by-products as they live. One of the most important is ammonia, a deadly toxin that is produced by fish respiration and defecation. It is also produced by unseen decay processes continuously operating on any other organic material like excess fish food, plant material or fish waste. Ammonia enters the water solution and is not removable by mechanical means. Instead nature has evolved a reduction process commonly termed the Nitrogen Cycle. This detoxifies ammonia and its by-products. A common strain of beneficial bacteria, nitrosomonas, uses ammonia as a food source, converting it to nitrite.

Fortunately, another bacterial species, nitrobacter, uses nitrite as its energy source and converts nitrite to the final end product, nitrate. Nitrate is not particularly harmful, bit it does not break down further. It can build up in concentration over time and should be diluted by regular partial water change. The beneficial bacteria needed for the Nitrogen Cycle are universal. Even sterile aquariums that have just been started will be inoculated by these bacteria from the outside environment. The process is natural and universal, but it does take some time for a new aquarium to reproduce a strong enough population of both strains to remove ammonia and nitrite as fast as it is manufactured. Often it takes up to six weeks for healthy populations to develop.