Plants Whilst Fishless Cycling?

[Jonno]

Hi there,

I bought some plants on ebay thinking my tank would be cycled by now... anyway... i have put them weighted in the tank so let them get some light until i have the time to plant them.

Will this effect fishless cycling at all or shall i remove them and just leave them in a bucket?

Jonno.

 

[Jonno]

whoops can someone move this to new to the hobby forum?

probably more relivant in there as its a more of a fishless cycling than a plants question.

 

[DevUK]

Plants won't hinder it too much, just be aware that the plants are going to be using nitrAtes as food so it might throw off your testing a little if you're not expecting them to do that. With a fishless cycle (using amonia mainly, I think) you keep adding the amonia untill you hit that magic 12 hour amonia process time. That means theres lots of nitrAtes in the water, hence why the big water changes as part of the process. Plants might mean less nitrAtes probably.