Fishless Cycle To Planted During Cycle

[neo83]

Hi

I'm new to fish keeping and bought a fluval roma 125 which is a 125 litre (33 US gallons) tank. I have read lots about fishkeeping, fishless cycling and what not and also started fishless cycling using pure ammonia. My tank is currently processing 4ppm NH3 in less than 24 hours and waiting for nitrifying bacteria to develop.

The reason I started fishless cycle was, i did not want to go the planted route, me being a newbie, did not want to take on ferts, co2 and additional maintenance of plants. Now that i'm frustrated with the fishless cycle, in the mean time when i'm completely exhausted reading about various fish, i stumbled upon the planted section on this forum (which is briliiant btw) and various other forums. I learned that i can have a low tech planted arrangement without CO2, without special substrate. All i would need is some easy, fast growing plants, decent enough light and a simple liquid fertiliser. And honestly i'm very jealous of hearing all the planted aquarists who have been advising me that they never do any fishless cycle and all they do is plant the tank heavily, starting off with few hardy fish and then increase the stock as long as the plants are taken care of.

Well, even though i started the fishless cycle, i would want to switch to planted. I already have one Java Fern and one Java Moss in the tank and everything else is plastic plants. After researching and getting advice, I have decided on the following plants:

Hygrophila Polysperma
Amazon Swords
Pygmy chain swords
Crypt Wendtii

I'm thinking to get those plants, do a full water change, put those plants in, leave it for a couple of days and put 6 platys in. Hoping i'm not crazy, will this work? Could you advice me on how many of the above species i need to get so that i can put 6 platys in the tank in a couple of days after planting.

I have also ordered Seachem Flourish Comprehensive plant fertiliser. I have been reading on TPN+ and understood that TPN+ has both micro and macro nutrients where as seachem flourish has only micro nutrients and only traces of macro. However, my nitrate level in my tap water is high (40-80ppm), so figured, nitrates can come from the water itself and if i used TPN+, that might cause a spike in nitrate level. Am i correct in this thinking?

would really appreciate some help as i'm one frustrated fishless cycler

Thanks

 

[neo83]

shameless bump . help anyone

 

[SuperColey1]

I'll be quick cos have some other matters to deal with but.............

........... I learned that i can have a low tech planted arrangement without CO2, without special substrate. All i would need is some easy, fast growing plants, decent enough light and a simple liquid fertiliser.

Youl'd never read anything by me suggesting that.

low tech planted aquarium without CO2? Yes I would say that.

without special substrate? - Nooooooooo - Substrate is about the most important key aspect in the non CO2 setup. It does loads of work in terms of bacteria colonies, decomposition creating CO2 and of course feeding the plants.

I am also about the only one that keeps saying all these ferts are not needed in the non CO2 setup. Just a little macro fortnightly, monthly not often at all.

If you struggle to get points from these 2 methods then we can help with the technicalities but it really is pretty simple stuff when you get into it.

This is the method I suggest:
http/www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/2817-Non-CO2-methods

And this is what it is adapted from (in theory)
http/theaquariumwiki.com/Walstad_method

Sorry to say neither will be an 'add-on'. they require good substrates.

AC

 

[neo83]

........... I learned that i can have a low tech planted arrangement without CO2, without special substrate. All i would need is some easy, fast growing plants, decent enough light and a simple liquid fertiliser.

Youl'd never read anything by me suggesting that.

Apologies if i made it sound like that, but yeah, i got that advice from somewhere else.

without special substrate? - Nooooooooo - Substrate is about the most important key aspect in the non CO2 setup. It does loads of work in terms of bacteria colonies, decomposition creating CO2 and of course feeding the plants.

#28### . well it's my fault for not looking at the planted section before. But still since i dont have fish in, it's less hassle for me to include the soil substrate under the gravel.

Thank you very much for the links and yes they seem straightforward to follow.

Apologies once again to PM you for help, as I was not getting any replies and really appreciate your time.

 

[SuperColey1]

No probs. There are tanks without special substrate but they are either non CO2 mainly fish setups with just a few plants and very low lighting or they are heavily planted with water column dosing with CO2 addition.

There will be some that are not in either of the above brackets as there are always exceptions to the rule.

AC