Cycling a freshwater aquarium. (Information everyone with an aquarium should know)

[MyBirdIsEvil]

Hey everyone. I'm posting this for people that are new to keeping a freshwater aquarium or aren't sure how the biological cycle in their aquarium works (I.E. what keeps your fish alive). If you are setting up an aquarium please read this (before you get fish preferrably ), or if you are having issues with your fishes health.
Even if you have a seemingly healthy aquarium this is good information to know if you don't know it already.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums...ad.php?t=84598

This is also a good article on the ethics of keeping your fish.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums...ad.php?t=42633

Anyone that is having problems, btw, feel free to PM me. I don't always read this section immediately so I don't necessarily get to posts that quickly. There are only a few of us on this board that know much about fish, and I noticed the others haven't been posting much lately either. I've been successfully keeping fish for several years, including some hard to keep species (and saltwater), so I should be able to answer most questions thrown at me assuming I have enough info.