added live plants to a fishless cycling tank

[mcordelia]

thanks @essjay !

 

[LordHappy]

Happy day....I saw that you had only received 98 cents worth of advice, so I decided to add my 2 cents so you could have a whole dollar's worth of advice. There are definitely truths to what's been written here, and you're kinda stuck between a couple of worlds.

World 1 is the industrial world of buying products to do the cycling for you, adding in bits and piece of this and that. It works.
World 2 is the anti-industrialists, where you take some organic soil, cover it with sand or small gravel, grab some plants and stick'em in the dirt and nature will do what it does. If you have another tank, use that water. If you have a local fish store, ask if you can have 5 gallons of their water and use it. If you have a friend with a tank, ask for some of their water. It works.

For 35 years I was an industrialist and had between 3-6 tanks. Then I saw Foo the Flowerhorn on Youtube, and I learned about the Walstad method and I'm into my second tank now using the method. No filter, no pump, no fertilizer. Nature knows what it is doing...you'll learn what nature does and it will be ok

In conclusion, you sort of pick a world and roll with it, and most of all, have fun! You'll murder some creatures and learn from their deaths. It will be ok. Not for the deceased, but you know...for you

 

[megan1194]

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.

I just checked my fertilizer and that toxic chemical is not in there. It's just micronutrient fertilizer.

 

[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.

you said to check my water when there is growth from my plants. what would be considered good enough for fish after i do that?

 

[Essjay]

If the plants are showing lots of new growth and both ammonia and nitrite are zero, that's good for fish. But keep an eye on the ammonia and nitrite levels daily until you are sure they are staying at zero.

 

[megan1194]

If the plants are showing lots of new growth and both ammonia and nitrite are zero, that's good for fish. But keep an eye on the ammonia and nitrite levels daily until you are sure they are staying at zero.

my ammonia won't go down at all. i haven't added any since last week. it just stays high no matter what. should i do a water change? i did before i added plants too.

 

[Essjay]

You mentioned in an earlier post that you added 4 anubias and a sword plant a few days ago. The anubias are slow growers and won't take up much ammonia. That leaves just the sword. Is it showing signs of active growth - leaves getting bigger and new leaves growing? (And depending on the type of sword it might outgrow the tank as some species are big plants)

As it's only been a few days, I would wait at least a week and see if the ammonia does drop. Monitor nitrite as well as bacteria will convert ammonia into nitrite while plants don't.

 

[megan1194]

You mentioned in an earlier post that you added 4 anubias and a sword plant a few days ago. The anubias are slow growers and won't take up much ammonia. That leaves just the sword. Is it showing signs of active growth - leaves getting bigger and new leaves growing? (And depending on the type of sword it might outgrow the tank as some species are big plants)

As it's only been a few days, I would wait at least a week and see if the ammonia does drop. Monitor nitrite as well as bacteria will convert ammonia into nitrite while plants don't.

but shouldn't the ammonia still go down if i'm not even adding any?

 

[megan1194]

and since getting my anubias, i also got wisterias and anacharis

 

[Essjay]

It should go down if there there are enough ammonia eating bacteria, or if the plants are fast growers and are actively growing. If there are no or very few bacteria it won't go down till more of them have grown; if the plants are new and mainly slow growers, the ammonia won't go down until the fast growing plants have established themselves and then start growing bigger/more leaves. This is why we say it is not safe to add fish until you can see active plant growth.
Once one or both of those happen, the ammonia should start to drop.

The water wisteria and anacharis are fast growers - they should start to show signs of active growth soon.

Take a photo of the plants so you have something to compare them to when looking for signs of growth. I would wait till this time next week and if the plants are growing, but the ammonia hasn't changed, then do a water change.

 

[megan1194]

UPDATE: my plants have been getting significant growth. i've had a few pea puffers in my tank for about four days and have checked my ammonia levels and have had nothing consistently even with all the feedings with snails and shrimp. i'm gonna be honest, i got impatient and used an ammonia reducer BUT only once. it has stayed down even without it. it has all been my plants since then. they're getting tall and lush green now