Plantless Cycle?

[themissingelf]

Hi,

First post.

I'm about to set up a new planted tank and had planned to plant as I set the tank up. I then got to wondering about the merits of doing the hardscape, filling the tank, allowing it to mature for a week or so, and then draining it again to do the planting. I'd save the water so that I could mostly refill it with aged water.

Initial concern about allowing the tank to mature is also allowing algae to get a foot in the door.

Anyway, be interested in some views.

Cheers

Matt

 

[chibi]

I'd cycle with the plants. A little algae isn't bad, by the way! Some fish like to snack on it, including livebearers and angelfish

 

[Themuleous]

Initial concern about allowing the tank to mature is also allowing algae to get a foot in the door.

Hi and welcome to the forum

You got it spot on there the initial NH3 and to a lesser extent the NO2 spike can be a major cause of algae, so the more you can do to stop this the better and planting heavily from the outset is a very good idea, say 50-75% of the substrate covered by plants.

If possible you can avoid this by using an already matured filter. If you have a second tank run it on that for a few weeks to build the bacteria up.

Sam