stocking after cycling

Essjay said:

@new240 The plant which Circus identified as anacharis is called elodea in the UK, proper name Egeria densa. (It used to be called Elodea densa but the old name stuck when the proper name was changed)

Floating plants -
Amazon frogbit. This does have one long root per plants and it grows so long it trails on the bottom of the tank. I give mine a haircut just before a water change (so I can hoover up any bits I drop). Also has dense sort roots
Water sprite. This has dense short roots, though the plants themselves grow large. I used to have this but found it difficult to thin out as the 'branches' were all tangled up together.
Water lettuce. I have never had this plant but I think it grows to the same size as frogbit.
Salvinia. Water spangles is Salvinia minima. I had this a few years ago but it turned brown and died one summer. This plant is smaller than the others and doesn't have such bushy roots.

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TwoTankAmin said:

A major benefit of this fishless cycling method is that you can now fully stock your tank in one go. This means an average stocking level for your tank size. It certainly does not mean you can stock heavily or over stock.

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Essjay said:

I would add all the neons you want at the same time. With shoaling fish, it is important to get all the same species at the same time.

With fishless cycling, the idea is that you grow more than enough bacteria for a sensibly stocked tank. From the fishless cycling method on here -


If only a few fish are added, there won't be enough food for all the bacteria you've just grown so after a few weeks the 'spare' ones will start to go dormant, then after a few months to die. As long as you get all the intended fish within a month, the bacteria should all still be active.

Shrimps do better in a mature tank, so leave those till later. They won't add much to the bio load.

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