New Member Starting A New Tank, Plant Question.

[426HEMI]

Hello all. I am in the process of setting up a 55gal freshwater tank. Thus far I have the tank in position, rock substrate in place, and filled with water. I just got back from the store with a Penguin 350 Bio-Wheel, heater, thermometer, testing kit, water treatment solution and bacterial starter solution. My question is how long should I wait, if at all, until I introduce plants into my aquarium? I've read most of the newb guides you have here, and they are great, very informative. It's been MANY years since I had a tank of any kind and I'm trying to do it right. I appreciate all your help.

Kyle.

 

[skrapsc33]

Hello all. I am in the process of setting up a 55gal freshwater tank. Thus far I have the tank in position, rock substrate in place, and filled with water. I just got back from the store with a Penguin 350 Bio-Wheel, heater, thermometer, testing kit, water treatment solution and bacterial starter solution. My question is how long should I wait, if at all, until I introduce plants into my aquarium? I've read most of the newb guides you have here, and they are great, very informative. It's been MANY years since I had a tank of any kind and I'm trying to do it right. I appreciate all your help.

Kyle.

hey man, if your going planted, then you can start it before you cycle your aquarium, i intorduced mine at a later time, but i have heard that you can do it ether way and it will work out fine.

 

[Musho3210]

heavily plant from the beginning means:

Virtually no cycle
Wont have as much algae problems

 

[426HEMI]

Outstanding, I was hoping to hear that. Now, should I at least wait until after I treat the water, or will they be ok in the tank while I am treating the water? Will the addition of the plants in the beginning negate the need to add ammonia, or will I still need to do this part of the cycling?

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

You can add the plants in at any time...water conditioner works fairly quickly so you shouldn't have to worry about the chlorine/chloramines from tap water hurting your plants.

Plants can cause a "silent cycle" IF there is enough of them to soak up the waste products that your fish are producing. Ammonia is a plants preferred nitrogen source. That being said however...if you are new to planted tanks I wouldn't rely on plants to make the cycle safe for fish. This kind of method requires a lot of plants, and that they are healthy and growing well...i.e. something that is great if you have aquatic plant experience. I would suggest at least trying a fishless cycle first, and if it looks like the plants are doing a great job at soaking up the Ammonia then you can consider the "silent cycle" idea with fish.

 

[426HEMI]

You can add the plants in at any time...water conditioner works fairly quickly so you shouldn't have to worry about the chlorine/chloramines from tap water hurting your plants.

Plants can cause a "silent cycle" IF there is enough of them to soak up the waste products that your fish are producing. Ammonia is a plants preferred nitrogen source. That being said however...if you are new to planted tanks I wouldn't rely on plants to make the cycle safe for fish. This kind of method requires a lot of plants, and that they are healthy and growing well...i.e. something that is great if you have aquatic plant experience. I would suggest at least trying a fishless cycle first, and if it looks like the plants are doing a great job at soaking up the Ammonia then you can consider the "silent cycle" idea with fish.

Thus far the plan is fishless cycle with plants. I have 8 plants in my tank right now. I have 4 Cabomba and 4Salvinia. I managed to get a filter from my LFS, but they said they change them everyday :boggled: so I'm not sure how much I was able to get. I also added a dose of Cycle to the tank after treating the water. My water, untreated had a ph of 8. I added ammonia last night, and this morning I saw 0 noticeable change and 0 nitrates. I hope to see some change this evening, however small, but I have patience and will not rush it.

 

[Underwurlde]

I assume you've spotted the pinned topic on how to fishless cycle, so I won't bore you with all that.

Aphotic Phoenix is spot on in what he states IMO. To add to this, your cycling may take a little longer to complete or you may be confused by the results...

Bear this in mind:

1) Plants eat 'ammonia', nitrite and nitrates.
2) Your filter bacteria also eat a.) ammonia to produce nitrite and b.) eat nitrite to produce nitrate.
3) Have you spotted the obvious? If the plants are eating the ammonia, how are you going to cycle, i.e. start a bacterial colony in your filters if there is nothing (or as much) ammonia for them to eat - hence it may take longer.
4) Bargain on a plantless, fishless cycle to take 6 to 8 weeks. Longer (since you have plants) in your case.
5) The level of filter bacteria will match the amount of food (ammonia initially) available and will therefore relate to the balance of fish & plants.

The easiest or should I say quickest route to cycle is fishless and plantless (I don't think the 4+4 plants you have in there now will have much of an impact).

6) If you're going to go planted consider adding a good substrate (now) - it makes things SO much easier. Something like EcoComplete or Tetra Plant. You don't have to have this but it does help and adding it later on will be nigh on impossible.
7) If you have loads of plants (something like 75% coverage) then the filter won't be doing much (reference above to 'what Aphotic Phoenix speaks of).

Good luck with plants,

Andy

 

[426HEMI]

I assume you've spotted the pinned topic on how to fishless cycle, so I won't bore you with all that.

Aphotic Phoenix is spot on in what he states IMO. To add to this, your cycling may take a little longer to complete or you may be confused by the results...

Bear this in mind:

1) Plants eat 'ammonia', nitrite and nitrates.
2) Your filter bacteria also eat a.) ammonia to produce nitrite and b.) eat nitrite to produce nitrate.
3) Have you spotted the obvious? If the plants are eating the ammonia, how are you going to cycle, i.e. start a bacterial colony in your filters if there is nothing (or as much) ammonia for them to eat - hence it may take longer.
4) Bargain on a plantless, fishless cycle to take 6 to 8 weeks. Longer (since you have plants) in your case.
5) The level of filter bacteria will match the amount of food (ammonia initially) available and will therefore relate to the balance of fish & plants.

The easiest or should I say quickest route to cycle is fishless and plantless (I don't think the 4+4 plants you have in there now will have much of an impact).

6) If you're going to go planted consider adding a good substrate (now) - it makes things SO much easier. Something like EcoComplete or Tetra Plant. You don't have to have this but it does help and adding it later on will be nigh on impossible.
7) If you have loads of plants (something like 75% coverage) then the filter won't be doing much (reference above to 'what Aphotic Phoenix speaks of).

Good luck with plants,

Andy

I am not sure what results you are speaking of that I may be confused by. The ammonia level is remaining high after 12 hours because of the lack of an established bacteria presence. The plants themselves are not abundant enough to consume the level of ammonia I see in the tank, therefore I saw no change overnight in the ammonia levels. The lack of nitrates are a result of no ammonia being processed by the bacteria. Am I incorrect in my analysis of the results I have seen thus far?

 

[Underwurlde]

Sorry, I did not say that very well. I meant any future results and the time things take.

You are spot on in your interpretation of your results for the last 12hrs.

Note also that 2 types of Bacteria are colonized. Faster growing ones process ammonia, slower growing ones process Nitrites.

Andy

 

[426HEMI]

Sorry, I did not say that very well. I meant any future results and the time things take.

You are spot on in your interpretation of your results for the last 12hrs.

Note also that 2 types of Bacteria are colonized. Faster growing ones process ammonia, slower growing ones process Nitrites.

Andy

Gotcha.

It's been quite some time since I last did this, and all the cycling processes are new to me. Last time I did it, the process was decidedly old school. Buy tank, put in water, wait a day, put in fish, done. Trying to do it properly this time.

 

[lon1000]

hi guys,
i did my tank cycling with lots of plants in.. got textbook results.. no muddling of results.. basicaly added amonia, tested every day till it dropped and topped up. then every moring topped up the amonia, and every other day tested for nitrite levels. then after about 24 days ish (in total) the nitrite came back onto the scale and now its been 3 days going from 4ppm amonia to 0 amonia and 0 nitrite everyday.. now just got to sort out my serious cloudy water alge problem..

i'm sure other people have had far more experience of cycling a tank than me, but it worked with plants in for me, just how everybody said it would..

thanks

rgds
chris

 

[AJLee613]

just buy benificial bactiria from ur LFS. it works over night.

 

[littlest]

i used beneficial bacteria from the lfs once, it did nothing. I know a lot of people round here consider it to be a waste of money because by the time a customer buys the stuff, all the bacteria have died.

 

[Musho3210]

only thing that i know out of the top of my head to work SOME of the time is bio-spira, but that MUST be kept frozen at all times and it is quite expensive. Just be patient, wait until the full cycle is over, dont waste money on products that might not work.

 

[Underwurlde]

Is that frozen or refridgerated?

Anywho, better still to speed the cycling process is to seed with a piece of old (i.e. cycled) filter material or with mulm. A lot of times your LFS are quite happy to provide you with this, just ask.

Andy