Are Plants Hurt During Cycling?

[Vegan Peaches]

I recently purchased a 29 gal tank, and I am not going to put fish in it until it cycles, but I'm curious as to whether plants will survive all the ammonia and nitrite spikes. I don't want a heavily planted tank, just som java moss and swords and ferns and that's probably all. I want the tank to look nice before adding the fish

 

[Rodders]

I put plants in when I was cycling. Ammonia and nitrite was off the scale.
Mine all lived.

 

[soritan]

I cycled mine with plants in. They suffered through the first part of my cycle -- the part where I wait for my nitrite spike -- but went crazy during the nitrate wait. If I had to do it all over again, I'd wait until I had my nitrite spike, before adding them.

Either way, they were fine.

*Edit: Just be sure and sanitize them before adding them! I didn't, because I had read that the rockwool they come in is a good seeding agent for a cycling tank, and wound up with all sorts of nasty things in my tank, including nematodes, water fleas, hydra, pond snails, and damselfly nymphs.

 

[Vegan Peaches]

hm... eww, lol. How do you "sanitize" a plant? Is there a pinned topic for that that I missed? I don't know anything about aquarium plants ^^

 

[soritan]

I know there's a thread here somewhere, but it's faster to type it than link it.

Bleach solution.

1 part bleach, 20 parts water (not fancy bleach, standard bleach. not scented or anything like that). Soak for about 2-3 minutes. Plunge and swish in declorinated water repeatedly. Repeat about two or three times, depending on how paranoid you are.

After my damselfly episode, I bleach and plunge a good 4 times before I'm satisfied. I even isolate plants, now, so that things have a chance to crawl out. :shudder:


Some plants don't like the bleach water treatment -- Anacharis is one of them -- but most healthy plants can take a weak dilution like that.

 

[Vegan Peaches]

Wow 0.o I guess I didn't realize you do that with live plants; I've got bleach somewhere. Are the three plants I listed fine with the 1:20 solution, or should I dilute it more for any of them?