Plants Before Are After

[kreacher]

Just a quick question...

Would it be better to add plants before or after adding fish? Now i have always thought that adding them after or the same time as fish would be best as then the plants will be able to feed of the fish waste.

A few people have said adding them before the fish so i wanted to get the facts right on this.

Thanks

 

[Colin_T]

It doesn't make any difference.
You can set up a tank with plants, cycle it and add fish after. You can set up the tank and cycle it with fish and plants. You can add fish first and add plants after. It really doesn't make any real difference.
The only advantages of adding plants first is to give them a chance to grow and settle in before the fish are added and possibly get disturbed by the fish digging around in the gravel. You also get to have something in the tank while it is cycling, rather than just having a bare tank.

 

[Thomas 2507]

It doesn't really matter but probably just before the fish so that they can get established ans stuff.

 

[kreacher]

Thanks guys, but am i right in thinking the plants need the fish to feed from, to get the nitrates

 

[Colin_T]

use a liquid plant fertiliser.

 

[Bignose]

Thanks guys, but am i right in thinking the plants need the fish to feed from, to get the nitrates

Aquatic plants, for the most part, actually prefer to take up ammonia as their nitrogen source (most terrestrial plants prefer nitrate, though any nitrogen source is good for terrestrial plants. Lots of aquatic plants take up nitrate, but actually expend energy to convert it back to ammonia before putting it to use).. However, if the plants you buy are healthy, they will live off of stored energy for quite some time. Potentially as long as months, depends on if they are in "survive" mode or "thrive" mode. If they are just keeping alive, they won't grow and bigger, greener, fuller, but won't die. They can use stored resources for that. This is the mode most plants are in when you buy them, because there is a shock from being uprooted and handled and transported and put into different water. But, after a break-in period, if everything is good (good CO2, good light, good nitrogen source, good micronutrients source) then they can go into thrive mode.

But, no, they don't need the fish to stay alive. Like I said, most plants have stored resources that can keep them alive for a fairly long time.

 

[kreacher]

Thanks Dr. Honkerface and everyone else. Just what i needed i can now put this back to the person who wanted to know..

 

[doresy]

If you are anything like me then it takes ages to find "the look" you're after.

In that case, if you get plants in there while cycling and before fish then it gives you plenty of time to settle with how your tank looks. Then, if you don't quite like it and decide to move things around a bit then you don't have to worry about stressing out the fish.

Finally, when it's time to add your stock evryone is happy......other than that makes no difference

 

[jonnyf84]

Thanks guys, but am i right in thinking the plants need the fish to feed from, to get the nitrates

I find its best to add the plants at the start, this way it gives the substrate vital nutrients and gives the plants a chance to grow a root system before the fish are added.
Plants feed off fish to a extent as the fish breath out CO2 which plants need to grow however plants will grow without fish providing there is suffient and regular lighting.
Unless you have a lightly planted tank it is a good idea to add CO2, NutraFIN CO2 system is both cheap and reliable, this will really make your plants flurish, however if your lighting is less than 3 WPG (watts per gallon) then this shouldn't be necessary.