Plants or not when cycling

[Essjay]

In recent years I have used plants every time I've set up a quarantine tank, using several bunches of cheap elodea bought for the QT and floating plants from my main tank.

 

[10 Tanks]

Thanks for the replies. I will be adding a small amount of vallis today, not using ammonia, just letting the tank cycle naturally. May add a small number (4) of fish at the end of april, as long as all my perameters remain stable.

Hello again. I'd be interested in your version of tank cycling. I've never been patient when it comes to adding fish. I've used a bacteria starter and water treatment and just allowed the tank to run for a couple of days to steady the water temperature and then added the fish after about 20 minutes to acclimate them by putting some of the new tank water in a bag of their original water. I just let them swim out of their bag and into the new one. I did this with about 40 Brassy Minnow fry and they all made it through the transition process.

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[Psychotic Madman]

I used instant cycle on my reef tank, adding 2 fish, then waited for 2 weeks added some more and so on. Never rushed a freshwater cycle though. I know you can get instant cycles for fresh, but that is not the way i want to go with this tank.

 

[gwand]

I have tried to rush a cycle using old sponge filters and denitrifying bacteria. It didn’t work. It still took three weeks for the tank to completely metabolize 1 ppm ammonia in 24 hours.