Plants During Cycling

[LionessN3cubs]

I've seen a couple of threads on this but the advice seems to be conflicting. Some seem to say that adding a live plant or 2 is a good source of the beneficial bacteria and others say its a bad idea because plants eat the ammonia. Im wanting to use a plant SOLELY for the bacteria and Im willing to keep adding ammonia as needed ...would this be an okay idea or not? For some reason Im having a hard time getting this cycle started (and yes I'll admit to impatience) so I want to kick it up a bit. I dont know anyone that would donate filter media to me as all the people on the list that live close to me are no longer active forum members.

 

[aaronnorth]

where abouts are you? The plants will use ammonia so wait untill the ammonia has dropped to 0 it is good to cycle with fish (if you have plants and quite a lot - 50%+) as they will use the ammonia that fish produce so there is less stress, if a plant rots, it will give off ammonia.

 

[waterdrop]

Lioness,

LOL! You and I are such opposites! I am on Day 54 and figuring I have more to go. You are effectively on Day 6 and rattling the cage!

I looked in my log:
On Day 7 my Ammonia was not dropping and my Nitrites and Nitrates were Zero.
On Day 12 I saw a hint of Nitrites but my Ammonia was not detectably dropping.
On Day 19 I did a kickstart water change to bring my pH up from 6 to 7.5
On Day 23 my hint of Nitrite went up from 0.25 to 1.0, Yea!
On Day 26 Official Nitrite Spike of 5.0+, Ammonia dropped to zero, but in more than 24 hours
By Day 40 Ammonia was dropping in about 24 hours, but Nitrite still spiked
By Day 45 Ammonia now dropping from 4ppm to 0ppm in 2 hours(!), Nitrite still very high
By Day 54 Lots of Nitrates being produced but Nitrites can't drop to zero less than 24 hours

Now my case can't compare directly to yours or anyone elses of course (I have speculated about various reasons mine might be slow, like my low pH problems) but I've noticed other TFF members who admit their fishless cycles took as many as 8 weeks, just as some members report extremely fast fishless cycling of only a couple of weeks.

I too have speculated about the pros/cons of plants for fishless cycling speed, but I don't seriously think there is any real data on whether they really help the speed problem.

Hang in there! Its fun that your impatience stirs up discussion!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[LionessN3cubs]

Lioness,

LOL! You and I are such opposites! I am on Day 54 and figuring I have more to go. You are effectively on Day 6 and rattling the cage!

I looked in my log:
On Day 7 my Ammonia was not dropping and my Nitrites and Nitrates were Zero.
On Day 12 I saw a hint of Nitrites but my Ammonia was not detectably dropping.
On Day 19 I did a kickstart water change to bring my pH up from 6 to 7.5
On Day 23 my hint of Nitrite went up from 0.25 to 1.0, Yea!
On Day 26 Official Nitrite Spike of 5.0+, Ammonia dropped to zero, but in more than 24 hours
By Day 40 Ammonia was dropping in about 24 hours, but Nitrite still spiked
By Day 45 Ammonia now dropping from 4ppm to 0ppm in 2 hours(!), Nitrite still very high
By Day 54 Lots of Nitrates being produced but Nitrites can't drop to zero less than 24 hours

Now my case can't compare directly to yours or anyone elses of course (I have speculated about various reasons mine might be slow, like my low pH problems) but I've noticed other TFF members who admit their fishless cycles took as many as 8 weeks, just as some members report extremely fast fishless cycling of only a couple of weeks.

I too have speculated about the pros/cons of plants for fishless cycling speed, but I don't seriously think there is any real data on whether they really help the speed problem.

Hang in there! Its fun that your impatience stirs up discussion!

~~waterdrop~~

::::shamed look::::: I know I know I shouldnt be so impatient! LOL I am trying to relax ...really!! During the week isn't so bad when the kids are in school and not asking "when can we get fish" every second but the weekends are rough I tell ya. Especially being as my oldest son is special needs and doesnt have NEAR the ability to "wait" that I do LOL Although to be honest alot of it is just my personal desire to suceed at this. (okay so he gets it honest, what can I say?) I've always wanted an aquarium and Im just excited! I did get some rocks from LFS out of desperation. Tossed a few into the bottom of my filter and a few in with my gravel ...hoping it helps. I also went today and purchased an air stone. I'd had a bubble wall but I thought it was too weak since everyone says surface turbulence is important. The bubble wall was giving lots of bubbles but wasnt strong enough to cause surface turbulence so I really do like the air stone strip better even tho my air pump isn't strong enough to use the entire strip. Luckily the part of the strip that isn't being used is difrectly under the filter so the filter is causing spillage there. I didnt end up getting a plant while I was there tho. They looked icky. I DID get a new test kit since I used up all the ammonia tester in the tetratest kit I was using. Dont laugh that I used it up so quickly please LOL. I found an api master test kit so I shelled out the extra money (ouch). Bigger bottles plus now when I talk colors more people will know what Im talking about LOL. Okay so now Im 7 days in and here are the stats

ammonia 4
nitrite 0
ph 8
Temp 86

 

[Colin_T]

plants won't use that much ammonia unless the tank is chock a block full of them. And if you are adding enough ammonia to get the levels up to 5ppm then there should be plenty left for the bacteria to live on.

You could get some plastic fish that bob around the tank.

It generally takes about 2 weeks to get the ammonia levels down and another 2 to get rid of the nitrite.

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For Waterdrop
What sort of filter do you have running on the tank?
54 days is a bit long to still be cycling the tank. Try doing a couple of 50% water changes and increase the aeration. Make sure the filter is running at maximum and there aren't any restrictions in it.
If the tank doesn't settle down soon I would drain & refill it, leave for a day and add some fish. Then just feed the fish a tiny amount each day and see how the cycle goes.