1.  The tank.  Get all of the non-living elements of your tank, rinse them, and add them to your tank.  Some people do not add live plants at this stage, but I did and it was not a problem.  Bacteria live on surfaces, so having your decor and substrate ready to rock will help your cycle along.  Also make sure you have a water testing kit at this point!  The API Freshwater Master Test Kit is used and recommended by pretty much every aquarist I’ve ever run into.2.  Water.  Use dechlorinator.  Opinions are divided on whether or not to use ammonia-locking dechlorinator, like Prime, as the bottle claims that bacteria can still utilize it whether it’s ammonia or ammonium.  I bought a small bottle of regular dechlorinator to be on the safe side.

3.  (Optional)  Seed.  If you can jumpstart the bacterial colony by stocking your tank with it, go for it!  If you have a friend with an established and healthy tank, ask for a handful of gravel and put it in a permeable container (colander, old pantyhose, etc) and put it in your tank, or ask for a piece of their decor, or ask for some old filter media/an old cartridge and squeeze the mess out of it over your new filter stuff!  You can also try bottled bacteria - I’ve had success with Tetra SafeStart.  Most people say it’s a waste of money.  I just have more money than I do patience.4.  Turn it on.  Got your filter?  Got your heater?  Cool.  Turn your filter all the way up so you get lots of turbulence.  If your heater is adjustable, set it to 85F/30C.  If you have one, you should add an airstone, too.5.  Feed the bacteria.  Rotting organic matter, such as fish food, plants, and animals, provide ammonia.  The old-school method is a peeled shrimp in the toe of some old pantyhose.  The less smelly method is pure ammonia from the hardware store - just make sure it’s free of scents, surfactants, and color.  Add ammonia to 4 ppm.  I used very concentrated ammonia, so it required only 5 drops for my 5 gallon tank to get there.6.  Test, feed, and wait.  You won’t see much happening in the first few days - the ammonia will stay sky high and the nitrites will be zero.  Eventually ammonia will start to fall and nitrites will begin to climb.  Then, nitrites will begin to fall and nitrates will begin to climb.  Every time you test, record your numbers.  You may even want to chart them.  Through this process, when ammonia gets very low, add a few drops to bring it back up to 4 ppm.  When you can bring your tank up to 4 ppm ammonia and it’s down to 0 ppm 12 hours later, you’re almost ready to add fish.7.  Water change.  Make a big water change - you may even drain it all the way down to the gravel - and test your nitrates.  Once you’ve gotten your nitrates below 10 ppm through water changes, you’re safe to add fish.  Turn your heater down to an appropriate temperature (betta like it ~80F, or ~27C).8.  Add new best friend.  You’ve made it!  Decide on any last-minute changes to your decor, then go get your new buddy!9.  Keep testing.  The first week or so that you have your new fish, keep a close eye on water parameters.  If things start going wacky, up your water changes.  Hopefully all of your patience has paid off and all goes well!

Hi!  Thanks for the ask :)  Yes, I do cycle my tanks.

Tap water treatments are very important to use, and you will need to use them the entire time that you keep fish unless your tap water is dechlorinated.  I use and recommend Seachem Prime.  It’s extremely concentrated (2 drops per gallon of water!) and offers a little protection against ammonia in your tank as well.  That said, any dechlorinator will work fine.  Step away from betta-specific ones; they are often very diluted and you’ll go through them quickly!

Cycling is a totally different game.  Cycling is about establishing bacterial colonies in your tank.  When aquatic animals respire and plants or feces break down, they release ammonia.  Ammonia is toxic to animals (even 0.25 ppm*, is considered a dangerous level for sustained life).  Step 1 of cycling is establishing ammonia-eating bacteria which will convert ammonia into nitrites. Nitrites, however, are just as toxic as ammonia, so step 2 of cycling is establishing nitrite-eating bacteria to convert nitrite into nitrate.  Nitrate is slightly toxic to animals (anything When you cycle, you’ll notice water quality changes corresponding with this.  You’ll start with a high amount of ammonia (provided by rotting fish food or pure ammonia, hopefully), then watch it drop as nitrite rises.  Then you’ll watch nitrite drop as nitrate rises.  At the end of your cycle, you’ll notice even a large dose of ammonia gets zapped overnight.Some people must do a fish-in cycle.  For example, they get a fish in a small bowl as a gift, but they want to put it in a larger tank.  If you cycle with a fish in the aquarium, you’ll have to do lots of large water changes to make sure ammonia and nitrites don’t build up to dangerous levels before the bacteria get established.  If you can manage it, fishless cycling is much easier and faster; after the initial ammonia dose, it does everything itself.  A quick 5 minutes of testing every few days to monitor where your cycle is at is all you need.There are a few things you can do to speed up cycling.  The best way to speed it up is to seed your tank with a few colonies of bacteria by borrowing gravel, decor, or filter media from someone with an established tank.  You can also buy bacteria in a bottle (Tetra SafeStart is one I’ve used). These advertise an instant cycle, which is not exactly true, but I used some and my fishless cycle completed on my tank in two weeks.*ppm - parts per million

Hi!  Sorry for the delay.There are a lot of great betta care sheets out there on what you need, so I won’t rehash what they’ve said.  Here are a few good pointers from @iantojonesthebetta:http://iantojonesthebetta.tumblr.com/post/128632177315/betta-care-sheethttp://iantojonesthebetta.tumblr.com/post/88510489670/7-tips-for-building-a-simple-betta-tankIdeally, ammonia and nitrite should be 0 ppm (parts per million) and nitrate should be By the way, remember to cycle your aquarium before you put fish in there!  It will save a lot of headache for you and a lot of stress for your fish.http://scalestails.tumblr.com/post/48704182289/what-is-aquarium-cycling-how-to-cycle-your-tank

Sidenote:  Live plants are awesome.  They look nice, my boys love wiggling between the leaves and resting in them, and they help out water quality so much.  I test before water changes, and it’s consistently 0, 0, For cleaning and water changes, I HIGHLY recommend dropping a few bucks on a gravel vacuum.  Water change + waste removal in one easy step!  Look for one with a squeeze bulb to start the siphon, which is much nicer than getting a mouthful of dirty fish tank water.  I use a 1 gallon pitcher - for fish use only, naturally! - and when it’s full, that’s a 20% water change for my 5 gallon tank and a 27% water change for my 3.7 gallon tank.  I also do spot cleans with airline tubing.