Well first of all congratulations on your first aquarium setup, you can now reached the final setup, rather final step of patience. Before you can add the fishes to our aquarium you aquariums needs to cycle and establish itself for your fished to be happy and safe.
Freshwater Hardscape: The Lazy Way
If you are starting a Freshwater Hardscape aquarium, and you do not like to get into any of the technical stuff and have patience, then after you add water (with water conditioner), add a good bacterial product and wait for about 3 weeks before you introduce your fish (follow the dosage instruction of the bacterial product bottle). You can also add old aquarium filter water or some old media however this can also introduce unwanted pathogens and virus from your old tank. And you are done !
Step 1 - Add Water with water conditioner
Step 2 - Add Bacterial Product
Step 3 - Wait for 21 days
Understanding the Process:
The Fish produce the waste which makes ammonia, the ammonia is converted to nitrite by a bacteria in your (biological) filter, the nitrite gets converted to nitrate by another type of bacteria in our (biological) filter which is a nutrient which plants need to grow. They consume some nitrate , or the nitrate or remaining nitrate is removed by water change. Hence the importance of water change.
- Kshitij Gupta