Fishless cycling and plants

[nonot8946]

I am going to start fishless cycling today and I want to add plants.

Should I add the plants today? I have a 75 gallon tank and plan to buy a few (10?) small plants.

Some people say that the ammonia levels will kill the plants, others swear that I should add them right away.

Should I add them now or after cycling is finished? This is my first tank, so I have no cycled tank.

Also, will the plants help speed up the cycle?

 

[a1wonder]

I'd add them at the beganing of the cycle for two reason.

1. They are given a couple of weeks to take root and grow a bit before the addition of new fish

2. When my friend did a fishless cycle the plants grew more in thoughs few weeks than in any other time I've seen. Obviously it wasn't harmlful then again he did use rather hardy type plants.

I'd try asking this question also in the greeny sections of the forums they may know a bit better than I

 

[Dubby]

I would suggest adding them now. This would give them a chance to root before the fish try to uproot them

I dont believe that they will affect the cycle significantly. They would definitely benefit from the nitrates.

 

[r0b3y]

plants unlike the fish like the ammonia.. i suggest u put in the plants before you start the cycle

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

I added plants about a week into my fishless cycling. Part of it was that I was hoping to introduce some beneficial bacteria into the tank as the plants were/are coming from already established tanks.

But also -- it gives you something to do after a week. I tend to be a little impatient, so it's good for me to be able to fiddle with things, like add plants or rocks, etc as the tank is cycling.

The plants got a little cruddy looking after the algae bloom -- but I cleaned them up and they look much better now -- especially after you start getting nitrAte readings they seem to perk up again.

If you get hardy plants, they will be fine. I used vals, amazon swords and java moss in the beginning.