First Cycle - Plants Or Not?

[ITJ]

I'm a week and a half into the fishless cycle of my new aquarium details here My ammonia has been dropping very slowly, and I added some plants (35p a pop from my LFS), thinking that even if they don't survive the cycle, they may bring with them some beneficial bacteria.

Anyhow, the only plant I can name, the Vallis has now died a death, having gone all stringy and brown. My question is whether or not I should quickly remove it or leave it in. Will the plant itself breakdown in such a way to aid the cycle?

Addionally, does anyone know whether Vallis does well under turbulence. I'd have thought not, but having an Aquaone 620 96L tank, I have quite a disruptive outlet from the filter in the rear right corner and need some plant that will survive there to balance the look of the tank.

Any advice?

Cheers

Ian

 

[Neal]

I don't know anything about plant bacteria or anything, but do you have lights on your tank?

 

[ITJ]

I don't know anything about plant bacteria or anything, but do you have lights on your tank?

Yep, the lights are on for 12hrs+ a day.

 

[Neal]

I was just wondering if it could of been the cause of your plant dying, probably not...

 

[Markilious1]

bacteria don't need a lot of light so 12+ hours would be a bit of overkill not tomention you would be making an ideal environment for algae wouldn't you... i don't know a whole lot yet, but these are more questions than statements, and since you put it out there, i would really like to know also.

 

[ITJ]

bacteria don't need a lot of light so 12+ hours would be a bit of overkill not tomention you would be making an ideal environment for algae wouldn't you... i don't know a whole lot yet, but these are more questions than statements, and since you put it out there, i would really like to know also.

I agree about the algae, but I only put the lights on once the plants were in, as widely suggested, with the 12hrs suposedly mimicking the hours of sunshine in the tropics?

I've taken the dead Vallis out now anyhow, as it was starting to break up and I didn't fancy having to clean it out at a later stage. Still waiting on the ammonia to drop though 4ppm from 6, 11 days after first dose.