What Do You Think ?

[goldenboy]

hi will be starting a fishles cycle very soon now, after reading posts on this forum im still unsure which road to go down.
do i cycle with plants in? or do i cycle and add plants after.
what method would you recommend and why?

 

[waterdrop]

For me it would kind of depend on how much I knew about plants. A total beginner might do better to just skip the plants or anything else other than substrate in the tank and even consider blacking out the tank with plastic or towels to minimize algae.

On the other hand if you have had enough experience with plants to understand amounts of light and nutrients and if you wanted something to look at with lights on during the fishless cycle then I'd consider buying a medium number of the cheapest elodea or other very easy stem/bunch plant and planning to throw them out at the end of the cycle. There's always a little change the water coming in on the plants will add a little to your tiny initial bacterial seeding. The reason you want to at least understand light and fertilizers a little is that if the plants die on you it can make the cycle worse.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[alexfish]

When your tank is cycled, do more research to find out what kind of plants you want to use. Guess either way is a learning experiance. My opinion, do one thing at a time.