Fishless Cycle

[MRshouty]

Should I have put plants in when i'm fishless cycling my 15 gallon?

Half my plants are dead the other half are dying. Could something else other than the ammonia be killing them, because I though that plants use ammonia.

Also what counts as a nitriite spike? My mom thinks it means that one day its low the next it's high so far it went from 0 to .25 to 1.

Any assitance will be appreciated.

 

[luxum]

I've fishless cycled with plants several times with no problems. More likely you have insufficient lighting for the varieties you chose. Can you give us some info on how many watts per gallon of lighting you have and what plants you have?

 

[tstenback]

I agree with luxum, ihave cycled a coupl of my tanks and some friends tanks with plants in and an ammonia reading on one tank of 8ppm and no damage to the plants at all in fact they thrived. So must be another issue and lighting is usually the culprit.

 

[MRshouty]

I have NO idea what the plants are called, Although I do have a picture of them healthy.

With flash for good look at plants

Nor do I know what the wattage is, I got it from a garage sale and ther is nothing on the hood that says what the watts are, it's an eclipse hood, and the tank is 15 gallon tall, the taller ones are still alive and the shorter ones are dead so mabey not enough surface area of short plants.

Without flash so you can see the light.

 

[!guppy!]

do my plan...dont do fishless cycle

 

[tstenback]

I think it is a light problem the tank looks to be fairly tall and has probably got only one bulb. What are the measurements of the tank? TO answer your nitrite spike question. Keep measuring and once you get the same reading 3 days in a row that is most likely your spike. Then cut the ammonia dose in half. HTH

 

[MRshouty]

Thanks tstenback

20 wide 10 long 18 high

oh yeah and it has 1 long flouresent bulb across the hood.