Best cycling method: easy, fast growing plants + seeded bacteria medium

S

slipstreamv2

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Jul 16, 2007
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Manhattan, NYC / Northern NJ
I've posted this before in a response to a thread, but I think this merits a discussion on its own. I'm not an expert by any means, but I think that this method is superior to fishless cycling.

Some LFS's will try to sell you Cycle or other off the shelf bacteria products (of variable effectiveness), but if you ask nicely and offer $5 for some established filter floss from their simple box filters, they usually will be glad to sell it to you. These contain large quantities of the bacteria that you may spend weeks trying to cultivate in a cycle. Whenever setting up new tanks, I'd take some filter material (and even some of the mulm/crap squeezed out), and simply add it to the new tank, along with plants.

A decent amount of fast growing, low-light plants can also help greatly. These basically serve as ammonia removal machines, and provide decent surface area for beneficial bacteria hitchhikers. I've had luck with watersprite, duckweed (I think), and other floating weeds. I'm sure others with more experience can add their favorites.

Maybe it's just me, but I've had horrible experiences with anacharis. They seem to suffer from transplant shock, and almost all the leaves die off, leaving you with decomposing matter that breaks down into ammonia (the complete opposite of what you want).

You still have to watch the amount of food you feed, as well as doing water changes, but the plants+bacteria make the cycle a lot faster. If you don't overstock fish from the beginning, you may even eliminate the cycle.

I'm not sure why this is not promoted more. I'm open to hearing why people dont' use this method more...maybe there are other factors I'm not considering?

http://www.aquabotanic.com/plants_and_biological_filtration.htm
explains plant preferences for ammonia versus nitrates

http://www.aquatic-plants.org/articles/basics/pages/index.html
someone else posted this in another AC thread, forgot who, but seems like good info
 
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You are talking a simple media transfer from an established tank...often recommended by many folks here. Folks with several established tanks often use this method. The problem exists that you may be bringing in other undesirable issues such as disease and contamination from an LFS source.

Also, many newbies have no other tanks to draw from and fall to impulse buying a tank and fish on the same day.
 
rbishop, good point about the contamination and disease.

Hmmm, maybe newbies with no access to disease-free LFS's or friends with established tanks could get decent portions of well-established filter media shipped to them by forum members with big filters (I only have 2 10g tanks)?

The only problem I see is bacterial die-off from lack of oxygen...maybe a large bag would do the trick?
 
Yes if that would work i would be interested in getting it from a good established tank from a member...great idea if it works?
 
if you want to use plants as 'scrubbers' you need to let them get established first..it can take a week to more ...
initially plants will need time ti acclimate then they establish and start sucking up nutrients.
 
Once you have a fully cycled tank you should NOT do a 100% WC, if you do your WC daily/weekly then you shouldn't have to do 100% water changes. When you do a 100% WC you are killing all the beneficial bacteria that you gained in the tank. So therefore after you do the 100% WC then your going to have to do a cycle all over again, to regain all the beneficial bacteria you lost.
 
computerman0219 said:
Once you have a fully cycled tank you should NOT do a 100% WC, if you do your WC daily/weekly then you shouldn't have to do 100% water changes. When you do a 100% WC you are killing all the beneficial bacteria that you gained in the tank. So therefore after you do the 100% WC then your going to have to do a cycle all over again, to regain all the beneficial bacteria you lost.
Click to expand...

This statement is completely untrue. Propagation of misinformation is one of the problems we have in getting people to properly understand the cycling process.

While it is true that a small amount of bacteria are present in the water column, the majority (99%) of the bacteria are resident in filter media and in the tank substrate, if present. Unless you do a 100% water change with chlorinated water, it should not crash your biofilter. EVen then, the crash would be caused by the chlorine/chloramines in the water, not the water change itself. While it is true that regular maintenance should negate the need for 100% water changes and they aren't really recommended from a stress point of view, they should never crash your filter like that.

Back to the original poster's comments...Like RB stated, adding cycled media from an established tank is often suggested here. One problem I see with plants is that, even with low-light species like java fern and java moss, many tank setups do not have sufficient light to grow even these species. if you get a straight 55gal setup with two 18" fluorescent bulbs, at 15w each thats about .6 wpg. While the plants might survive, I don't know that you would get enough growth to make a big difference in the cycle.
 
Sorry you guys for the miss understanding, you are complete right and I was wrong, I guess that what happens when you get a newbie to answer the questions. Sorry again, and now I have learned something.
 
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