FISHLESS CYCLING

[panther1505]

I am currently fishless cycling my 42 gallon aquarium. I have been adding 4 teaspoons of ammonia to the water for the past 6 days. My ammonia level is between 4 and 5ppm. My nitrite level is still 0ppm.

If I were to remove the artificial plants and replace them with real plants, will this speed up the process?

I've got gravel as a substrate. Will that be alright for plants?

Should I keep adding the 4 teaspoons of ammonia, daily, until I get my nitrite spike?

What do you consider a nitrite spike?

I read in another posting that someone's nitrite level was "only half way up the card"

Would that be considered a spike?

 

[guppymonkey]

My nitrite didn't spike for a long time. Finally I had to add some nitrifying bacteria that I bought at the LPS. I am not sure if plants would do any good. I am not an aquarium plant expert but I thought that plants help with nitrates not ammonia and nitrites.

 

[panther1505]

Look at some of the other posting addressing seeding. In some of the posting I have been told that adding live plants from established tanks will help cycle your tank.

 

[luxum]

Live plants help for a couple reasons. First, they have surface area that in an established tank will be home to some of the bacteria you need. They also will directly use ammonia and nitrate (not sure about nitrite) although to make a significant dent you'd have to have large amounts of fast growing plants, probably in high light.

Regarding your specific situation - cycling takes time. It can take up to a couple weeks for nitrites to show up, especially if you didn't have much seeding material. It will take even longer for the nitrites to finally drop. Proceed with your cycle, keep adding ammonia daily, pretty soon you'll see the nitrite and the ammonia spike will drop. When that happens cut your dose in half and continue adding that until the nitrite spike drops to zero. Then do water changes until you get the nitrates down to something reasonable and go get yer fish!

 

[panther1505]

Luxum,
So I shouldn't replace my artificial plants with live ones? Just keep going with my fishless cycling like I am?

 

[luxum]

You could replace them with real plants if you wanted, but you'll have to ensure you get the right plants for your light levels. However you could also just continue on with the artifical plants, they also provide surface area for the bacteria to grow, they just won't use up any of the waste products as nutrients. Either way, the tank will cycle. You could also add some live plants and keep your fake ones as well, but again, make sure you get the right plants. Low light plants really won't make much difference to the cycle although they are aesthetically pleasing.

 

[panther1505]

How would I know which plants to get. The plants are rated in a number of ways.
Low-medium ligh, low-high light, ph 5.5-9 etc.
I'm using a florescent bulb for lighting.