Which order is right?

My sequence is plants, CO2(if used), then fish after the plants have 1-2 weeks to settle in.

Yup you definitely don't want to add the fish before your co2 drops your pH to a steady level. Plants, co2, fish.

What's the lighting going to be like? If it's more than 2.5 watts/gal. I would add, for fish, a cleanup crew. Specifically Otos and an SAE.
Most plants are good for a couple of weeks and then fertilization needs to be started.

Len

I would also follow the order that RTR and djlen set up. But, I would like to add a couple of things that have helped me on the last two tanks I have set up in no particular order. All of this assuming you have decent lighting (2 wpg or more) and are planning to plant the tank full from the outset.

1. Substrate: I have been adding one cup of boiled peat moss and mulm from another tank (if available) to the bottom 1/2" of substrate. Mulm is the crap you vacuum out of the bottom of a tank or from a filter cleaning. This seems to help the beneficial bacteria get established quicker.

2. Water- I have been using at least 50% water from an established healthy tank and the rest new water. If you don't have another tank to take from, see if there is someone who can give you some of their water change water. Just make sure it comes from a healthy tank and there isn't too much crap in the water.

3. Filters - I have been running my new filters for a month or so on another healthy tank before moving to the new tank. Helps establish the bacteria colonies.

4. Clean up crew- If using CO2, hold off adding any fish until you know you have the CO2 setup properly. For a clean-up I would add SAE's, snails, and my ancistrus cat(bushy-nose ancistrus is my favorite) soon after the setup of the tank to help with algae control. I know it sounds weird to add snails, but they really are good cleaners, I like the MTS snails the best. Stay away from the ramshorm snails. Ottos are really good cleaners and eaters of diatoms. But, IME they are a little sensitive to wide swings in water parameters especially when cycling a new tank. But, if you do the above the should be fine adding them soon after tank setup.

5. Ferts - Personally, I started with Traces(Flourish) and Potassium(Nu-salt) about 2 days after adding the plants. It seems to help them get established quicker. But, I hold off on the supplemental Iron and any of the macro nutreints for a couple of weeks. Those are what seem to trigger algae outbreaks for me.

6. CO2 - I setup the day after I add the plants.

This has lead to one tank with minimal cycling completed in less than two weeks. The other, experienced no real cycling or significant algae outbreak. Both tanks were high light, somewhat high tech setups. I hope this helps!

What if you have a 55 gallon cycling now and are going to add fish in a week and then get all the stuff for plants (lights, co2) later like for Christmas. Is it ok to add plants, co2 and lights after the tank is established with fish?????

Just taking from above posts, if you add CO2 after fish it will cause some significant PH changes and your fish may die.

For the "Dew" person.
You can do it in any order as long as you're careful with the addition of CO2. Much of it depends on your kH. This is the element of your water that helps keep it stable. If it's 3.0 - 3.5 or above you shouldn't have any trouble adding CO2 to an established tank..............carefully.
As to the lighting; what is your lighting like now? Is it enough to carry you over until you get more wattage for Xmas? If not, you don't want to get plants that need more light than you can supply.
If you want to start a 55 up early, get some plants that will grow enough to help you cycle the tank with the available wattage, and add only a few fish to supply the ammonia etc. that will start the nutrification process.
When you get your CO2 system and other lights, start the CO2 first. Then the lights.
How much wattage are you considering down the road?
Don't be afraid to ask questions if you're unsure. We live for the questions!!

Len

I strongly agree w/DIYMatt's suggestions of peat and mulm addition to the base of the substrate - Tom Barr's great instant establishment helpers.

If you have the mulm, you don't have as much need for the heterotrophs from an established tank (the water addition DIYMatt suggests would add these).

Also if possible, the filters are best pre-conditioned on an established tank. I have too many tanks and more filters than tanks, so this is no big deal for me. If you can do such a thing it is a huge help.

With this sort of handling, it would be more unusual to see any symptoms of cycling either nitrification or heterotrophic bacteria - I never do on routine setups, but then most of my plants come from divisions from my other tanks to boot - so I am really re-arranging rather than setting a "new" tank.

"Dews" condition (from her bf as she studies hardily for finals)

KH = 4.0+ out of the tap. So maybe adding CO2 GRADUALLY may work???? I did this before on my 30G (ever SO slowly) and worked well - at least no fish died...(the Plants were losing to algae until Len helped me recover - now it is doing GREAT - except my Anubias Nana is having difficulty)

Lighting is 2 15W Lighting Fixtures from All Glass (came with combo). Making the WPG low at .54WPG (not the ideal situation)


Available options from established tanks are - possible to help with cycling:

30G Planted Tank - established. But parameters are much different (KH ~18, PH = 7.5, Ammonia=0, NitrItes = 0, Nitrates = ~3PPM). THis is CO2 injected

29G Light Planted Tank - established - unknown parameters

29G No Plants - established - unknown parameters

Cost is a huge factor for mtdewlover. The cheaper the better but I say cheaper is not always better if it causes problems down the road.

What are everyones thoughts for the Nutrafin Commercial CO2 DIY system? Pressurized CO2 might be out of reach cost wise. Also, looks are a considerable hurdle to overcome as well. She does not want bulky weird looking things in her tank - the less the better.

THANKS!!!!