Plants In Fishless Cycle

[freshy]

Hi everyone,
I'm about to start a fishless cycle and I'd like some live plants in my tank. When is the right time to add them? Right at the beginning of the cycle or when cycling is over? Do high levels of ammonia hurt the plants?
Thanks in advance!

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

I'd advise you to pop over to the plants section of the forum, they helped me sort out my "adventure" into real plants (initially that were not true aquatics, but regulars identified the ones that would rot within months and the stire manager happily exchanged them for proper plants)

Plants will use both ammonia and nitrates as a source of food. However, they will not touch nitrites. As to toxic concentrations, I shall leave that one for the plant experts to give a precise answer, but I suspect normal "fishless cycling" concentrations of 4ppm ammonia to be fine. However...

Depending on how far you dive into the planted route (long-term fertsiliser in sand; carbon dioxide bubblers; high intensity lighting; medium-fast growing plants; >75% plant coverage in the tank base etc.), you might not want to "fishless cycle." http/www.fishforum...-planted-tanks/