added live plants to a fishless cycling tank

[Essjay]

Just as a demonstration - a few months ago I wanted to buy some fish. I set up my 25 litre/6 gallon quarantine tank and moved two large water sprite floating plants from my main tank. Then I went fish shopping and while I was there I also bough two clumps of anacharis (aka elodea). I did not use any media from the main tank, nor any bottled bacteria.
The fish that went into the quarantine tank were 12 kuhli loaches, greatly over stocking this small quarantine tank. I tested for ammonia and nitrite every day and didn't see a trace of either. The plants did their job very well.

 

[megan1194]

Fishless cycles can take as long as 7 week or more. Nitrites should not appear until enough ammonia eating bacteria have grown to make it, and nitrate should not increase above tap level until some nitrite eaters have grown.


Reading through your posts, if I have it right, you've had the tank 5 weeks but you didn't add any ammonia until about 2 weeks ago. So you are still probably at the stage of waiting for the ammonia eaters to grow.
What brand of bacteria did you add? Some are better than others.
Ammo lock isn't needed during fishless cycling as there are no fish to come to harm.


The idea behind silent cycling is that plants use ammonia as fertiliser. if there are enough of them, they'll take up all the ammonia made by a sensibly stocked tank of fish - and they don't turn it into nitrite or nitrate. But there needs to be a lot of fast growing plants, the odd one or two slow growing plants aren't enough. Anubias are slow growers.
As mcordelia says, floating plants are particularly good because they can can get carbon dioxide from the air and they are close to the lights. Everything from Salvinia, though Amazon frogbit and water lettuce to water sprite. Stem plants like anacharis (aka elodea) and hornwort can also be used as floating plants.
Once the tank is planted, take a photo. You can use this to see how much your plants are growing. You need to wait until the plants are showing signs of active growth - the last thing you need is to get fish then the plants just die. Once you know the plants are growing well, fish can be added. With 10 gallons, it's not really practical to add them a few at a time, the recommendation with bigger tanks. I would probably get all the puffers at once - but make sure there's lots of nice new growth on the plants before you do.
You may find there's some nitrite in the water when the tank is ready for fish - if there is, do a water change before going fish shopping.
Once you have fish, test for ammonia and nitrite every day till yuo are sure they are staying at zero. If either do show up, you just need to do a water change.

Floating plants and those stem plants which feed through their leaves need a liquid fertiliser. The two best are Seachem Floruish Comprehensive Supplement and Brightwell FlorinMulti. For the sword plant, a root tab - mcordelia has already mentioned that Seachem Flourish root tabs are one of the best.

 

[megan1194]

Fishless cycles can take as long as 7 week or more. Nitrites should not appear until enough ammonia eating bacteria have grown to make it, and nitrate should not increase above tap level until some nitrite eaters have grown.


Reading through your posts, if I have it right, you've had the tank 5 weeks but you didn't add any ammonia until about 2 weeks ago. So you are still probably at the stage of waiting for the ammonia eaters to grow.
What brand of bacteria did you add? Some are better than others.
Ammo lock isn't needed during fishless cycling as there are no fish to come to harm.


The idea behind silent cycling is that plants use ammonia as fertiliser. if there are enough of them, they'll take up all the ammonia made by a sensibly stocked tank of fish - and they don't turn it into nitrite or nitrate. But there needs to be a lot of fast growing plants, the odd one or two slow growing plants aren't enough. Anubias are slow growers.
As mcordelia says, floating plants are particularly good because they can can get carbon dioxide from the air and they are close to the lights. Everything from Salvinia, though Amazon frogbit and water lettuce to water sprite. Stem plants like anacharis (aka elodea) and hornwort can also be used as floating plants.
Once the tank is planted, take a photo. You can use this to see how much your plants are growing. You need to wait until the plants are showing signs of active growth - the last thing you need is to get fish then the plants just die. Once you know the plants are growing well, fish can be added. With 10 gallons, it's not really practical to add them a few at a time, the recommendation with bigger tanks. I would probably get all the puffers at once - but make sure there's lots of nice new growth on the plants before you do.
You may find there's some nitrite in the water when the tank is ready for fish - if there is, do a water change before going fish shopping.
Once you have fish, test for ammonia and nitrite every day till yuo are sure they are staying at zero. If either do show up, you just need to do a water change.

Floating plants and those stem plants which feed through their leaves need a liquid fertiliser. The two best are Seachem Floruish Comprehensive Supplement and Brightwell FlorinMulti. For the sword plant, a root tab - mcordelia has already mentioned that Seachem Flourish root tabs are one of the best.

 

[megan1194]

this is the fertilizer i have

 

[megan1194]

i have the one and only live nitrifying bacteria from dr tims aquatics

 

[Essjay]

i have the one and only live nitrifying bacteria from dr tims aquatics

That is one of the better brands. But even that doesn't work instantly.

 

[megan1194]

That is one of the better brands. But even that doesn't work instantly.

what would you suggest?

 

[Essjay]

If you decide to go for a silent (plant) cycle you don't need to add any bacteria, just the plants.

But if you want to continue with the fishless cycle, it's a question of waiting. It took 21 days for my ammonia to drop, and 7 weeks to complete the cycle. No bacterial starter cycles a tank instantly, and even the best ones don't work if they've been stored incorrectly at any time since they left the factory - if they've been allowed to get too hot or too cold during transport, for example.

 

[megan1194]

i wanna do the silent cycle. so i'm just waiting for all my ammonia to be gone and my plants to grow, right?

 

[ClownLurch]

yeah anubias plants require little to no maintenance besides trimming when they get big. the amazon sword was kinda an accident lol. i thought it was also anubias and didn't read the package but i kept it but yeah i'll definitely be getting some faster growing plants cause i'd like to try a silent cycle instead.

That’s the style. Why put yourself through all this fish in fish out nonsense? It’s a load of old tosh put about by the fishkeeping industry to sell a load of unnecessary chemicals etc etc paranoid rant etc.
Silent cycling is the way. Any idiot can do it. Including me.

Put your tank stuff in, then water n lots and lots and lots and lots of plants*. Turn everything on. Take a photo. Go to the pub. Research fish on your phone. Come back in a couple of weeks. Check photo with tank. If there’s plant growth test your water. If it’s ok get your fish.
Sorted.

*Water Sprite
Frogbit
Water Lettuce
Salvina
Anacharis
Duckweed
Hornwort
Moneywort......are the ones recommended to me on here. It works.

 

[megan1194]

That’s the style. Why put yourself through all this fish in fish out nonsense? It’s a load of old tosh put about by the fishkeeping industry to sell a load of unnecessary chemicals etc etc paranoid rant etc.
Silent cycling is the way. Any idiot can do it. Including me.

Put your tank stuff in, then water n lots and lots and lots and lots of plants*. Turn everything on. Take a photo. Go to the pub. Research fish on your phone. Come back in a couple of weeks. Check photo with tank. If there’s plant growth test your water. If it’s ok get your fish.
Sorted.

*Water Sprite
Frogbit
Water Lettuce
Salvina
Anacharis
Duckweed
Hornwort
Moneywort......are the ones recommended to me on here. It works.

i honestly didn't know silent cycling was a thing otherwise, i would have done it from the start. SOOO much less work.

 

[ClownLurch]

i honestly didn't know silent cycling was a thing otherwise, i would have done it from the start. SOOO much less work.

“They” don’t want you to know. There’s big business in selling little bottles.

 

[mcordelia]

I'm going to ping @AbbeysDad on this thread to see if he is familiar with that fertilizer (see post #18). If not, he can at least tell you the name of the toxic chemical in the other fertilizer and you can check the ingredients for it.

Hopefully he's not getting sick of me tagging him in half the water quality/plant or substrate related posts I come across

 

[megan1194]

“They” don’t want you to know. There’s big business in selling little bottles.

you're very right about that

 

[Essjay]

I presume the toxic chemical you refer to is the one in the 'liquid CO2' products? That's glutaraldehye. Google it and see what it's also used for. It's not in fertilisers, those are just nutrients needed by plants but these liquid Co2 products are marketed at those people who think they should be adding CO2 but can't be bothered with CO2 cylinders or home made CO2 generators, drop checkers etc.

Some brands of liquid fertiliser contain virtually all the micronutrients (minerals) needed by plants, some contain only a few; some contain macro nutrients as well (the NPK known to gardeners) while others contain only micronutrients.
With low tech plants (the 'easy' ones), the fish and fish food usually provide enough nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) and fish respiration and bacterial action provide enough CO2. But hi tech ('difficult') plants do need extra NPK and CO2.