Cycling A Tank Whilst Planted.

[Ginge]

My problem is that my current finachial income(not much ) doesnt allow me to get the whole lot of stuff for starting up my tank at once. As the fish in my tank are going fairly soon the bacteria will start to die of very rapidly unless i get some new fish from my lfs as soon as the old ones are gone.
If not i will have to cycle the tank again whilst it is planted and when cycling the tank becomes very very dirty and will be a pain in the butt to clean whilst hevilly planted is there a way around this and does fishless cycling (adding ammonia) harmfull to plants?

 

[B2k2]

According to a very well know person in another forum, you should never fishless cycle a planted tank. As plants remove ammonia from the water it is absolutly pointless to add it in the large ammounts needed to fishless cycle. His website is here www.rexgrigg.com and he mentions it in bits of wisdom. I wish I had know this before I started it in my planted tank almost a year ago, the fishless cycle took ages to finish and I'm pretty sure this is because of the plants.

So in conclusion I think that as long as you add new fish slowly as normally recommended you will not see an ammonia spike. The plants will take care of the small ammounts of ammonia.

 

[jayjay]

plants can essentially be like a filter but as the tank goes up to stocking limit it would be hard for them to cope with it.

what fish are you planning? small fish waste will be dealt with easier than large fish when considering fish cycling.

i've only ever cycled one tank though and this was years ago so my cycling knowledge is just from reading.

 

[Ginge]

Not heavy stocking at all the following are all juvies in a 55G.

3Anglfish
5Corys
7 Harequin Rosoboras
A few ottos.

 

[George Farmer]

As B2k2 suggests, Rex's advice assumes that the tank is very heavily planted with high growth rates. This ensures the toxic nitrogen compounds produces via fish waste etc. are dealt with by the nutrient uptake of the plants.

If you're running decent lighting, CO2 AND plant heavily from the outset then traditional fishless cycling i.e. ammonia is unecessary. You bio-load should be low enough for your plants to cope, assuming growth is sufficient.

Aim for covering well over half of the substrate with easy, fast growing plants.

However you are at an advantage because your filter is already mature so personally I would add some fish ASAP after losing your old ones to keep the bio-filter working. Then still plant heavily. The biggest cause of algae in new setups is too little plant growth. If you have plenty of light and CO2 then all the better.

 

[Ginge]

Thanks GF i think i should be ok either way i go:

Tank: 48x15x18 200L.

Filtration: Fluval 305.

Lighting: 2xT8 40W 6500k 1xT8 30W 6500k. About 2.00wpg.

CO2: JBL Proflora CO2 Set Vario 500 Profi Set 1. Will be about 30ppm.

Substrate: Sand.

Fertilisation: Now decided on EI dry ferts.

 

[julia298]

As B2k2 suggests, Rex's advice assumes that the tank is very heavily planted with high growth rates. This ensures the toxic nitrogen compounds produces via fish waste etc. are dealt with by the nutrient uptake of the plants.

If you're running decent lighting, CO2 AND plant heavily from the outset then traditional fishless cycling i.e. ammonia is unecessary. You bio-load should be low enough for your plants to cope, assuming growth is sufficient.

Aim for covering well over half of the substrate with easy, fast growing plants.

So from scratch with a new tank, heavily planted, Co2, there is NO need to fishless cycle ie add ammonia?

Would you still need to start off with hardy fish or wouldn't that matter if all the ammonia is being used by the plants? Im not convinced yet.

 

[zig]

As B2k2 suggests, Rex's advice assumes that the tank is very heavily planted with high growth rates. This ensures the toxic nitrogen compounds produces via fish waste etc. are dealt with by the nutrient uptake of the plants.

If you're running decent lighting, CO2 AND plant heavily from the outset then traditional fishless cycling i.e. ammonia is unecessary. You bio-load should be low enough for your plants to cope, assuming growth is sufficient.

Aim for covering well over half of the substrate with easy, fast growing plants.

So from scratch with a new tank, heavily planted, Co2, there is NO need to fishless cycle ie add ammonia?

Would you still need to start off with hardy fish or wouldn't that matter if all the ammonia is being used by the plants? Im not convinced yet.

The plants need to be growing, hence the use of fast growers to use up the waste byproducts quickly, you just add fish slowly, add some fish after the tank is setup a week or so and growing well, CO2, ferts added etc. Dont add too many fish only add a few initially, a few weeks later you can add some more and so on, do tests as you go along to double check everything is ok, but if you set it up properly with enough plant mass there will be no problems, i have done it myself so i know it works, i never got an ammonia reading at all when i cycled my tank this way.