Plants In A Fishless Cycle

[qkingston]

Hi, this is my first post and one of woe! New freshwater tropical tank 125L with internal filter/no C02/Tetraplant substrate covered with Unipac micro gravel. Attempting to run a fishless cycle with ammonia to get bacteria up and running, week 2 added some plants(from Aqua Essentials) which within 3 days are looking distinctly unwell with blackened leaves on 3 out of 5. Problem with these forums is that there is so much information and so many experts available it is difficult to know which thread to follow. Anyway I have just found one of the sticky threads here which says plants and fishless cycle is a no-no; question is what do I do now?
Many thanks

 

[qkingston]

Nobody?

 

[Xraymark]

Plants initially planted don't look well but tend to bounce back so I wouldn't overly worry.
It depends how many plants you have. They will use up some of the ammonia which can muddle the readings but once the ammonia drops drastically it's probably the bacteria doing its work. The other issue is that you need lights on for plants which means you will develop algae. But in the short term not a big issue.

That's my understanding.

Ie don't panic having plants and cycling is doable. If cycling is your main issue then drop a post with a record of your water parameters in the new freshwater section. Alot of regulars will give feedback on your progress.

 

[Mikaila31]

Its not really a no-no. It just that with sufficient numbers of plants you don't need to bother cycling.

 

[dtw]

Its not really a no-no. It just that with sufficient numbers of plants you don't need to bother cycling.

I'm no water chemistry expert, but plants aren't going to absorb Nitrites though are they? and that can kill fish as much as high ammonia.
With or without plants I can't see the cycling is going to take much longer or be shorter, I'd have thought the main difference is whether you can use a filter foam from a ready cycled tank and/or some cycled gravel to start the tank off with a good population of bacteria.
Temperature will affect the process too, up to a point warmer water will promote faster bacteria growth, might kill back some plants though as some are sensitive to water chemistry and temp, but as said above, a lot of them will grow back. Use something cheap and tougher like java fern or Water Wisteria (Hygrophila difformis).

 

[SO19Firearms]

I'm no water chemistry expert, but plants aren't going to absorb Nitrites though are they?

Where would the Nitrites come from...?

 

[dtw]

I'm no water chemistry expert, but plants aren't going to absorb Nitrites though are they?

Where would the Nitrites come from...?

fair point but being serious (-ish), some fish poo/p155 is going to get sucked into your filter media before the plants can absorb it all I guess

 

[SO19Firearms]

fair point but being serious (-ish), some fish poo/p155 is going to get sucked into your filter media before the plants can absorb it all I guess

That's the idea really - You can take your plant mass as a large ready made filter - the smaller amounts of waste that do find a home feed the actual filter and get the cycle going on, but at baby steps compared to without the plants...
You could compare it to the cycle going on in an established tank....there's nitrite somewhere, it's just not a concern.

 

[Mikaila31]

I'm no water chemistry expert, but plants aren't going to absorb Nitrites though are they?

Where would the Nitrites come from...?

fair point but being serious (-ish), some fish poo/p155 is going to get sucked into your filter media before the plants can absorb it all I guess

I run completely filterless tanks that can support a medium bioload despite not having any filter. Ammonia is the prefered nitrogen source for plants. If you have a lot and they are hungry they can easily consume all of it. My best filterless tank use to have about 24 small fish plus shrimp and snails with perfect water quality and water changes 1-2 times a week. Currently I just use it for shrimps and fry grow out.