Cycleing My Tank With Plant In It?

[snowflake311]

Can you cycle a tank with plants? I was getting mix info on this. Some sites say plants will use up some ammonia others say ammonia is bad for plants. How much ammonia can plants stand. If I use fert and supplements will they be ok?

 

[Smoothy]

I cycled my tank just fine with plants and quite a few too

Didn't seem to take any longer than others I've read about and is now running with fishies in it for a few weeks now all fine

 

[snowflake311]

Ok I just put some java fern onion plant and wisteria. I am going to get more on Friday. Another onion plant and I will see what looks good.

 

[hollanda88]

Ok I just put some java fern onion plant and wisteria. I am going to get more on Friday. Another onion plant and I will see what looks good.

Yeah should be fine with some plants in, they will preferentiall absorb ammonia over nitrates anyway, so don't take it that your cycle is goign really fast if you have ammonia dropping fast, could just be your plants stealing it all lol.

 

[snowflake311]

Ok very good. My ammonia is at 2.5 right now and it's only been a day since I added a few plants so I see no change. I'm doing a fishless cycle and I'm used pure ammonia. I was thinking of doing a silent cycle. Buy a bunch of fast growing stem plants and add only 2 fish for a 2 weeks. then add 2 more fish and so on. Has anyone done this and how many plants do you need for this to work in a 55 gal tank?

 

[aaronnorth]

preferbaly in a silent cycle you cover a minimum of 75% substrate. And if necassary, leave some stem plants floating.
Also cut the light to 6hrs per day, and do 2 x 50% water changes per week (cut this down to 1 water change per week after 4 weeks)
Silent cycle's work very well, and not to hard to do.

 

[snowflake311]

One other question... Will adding plant fertilizer or Flourish Excel effect the cycle at all? I plan on using Flourish Excel regularly for my plants. I want to add some fertilizer today.

 

[aaronnorth]

no.

 

[Dave Spencer]

If you are going to rely on your plants to process the water, then a good fert regime is an absolute must. The better plant growth you promote, the easier and safer it is to add fish. Consider adding Zeolite to your filter, too.

Dave.

 

[snowflake311]

I added some fert today. I really want my plants to grow well. I have questions on lights I'm going to post.