Using plants from a store tank to establish a good cycle colony?

Neo Sithlord

Neo Sithlord

Nerf Herder
Mar 20, 2004
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Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin
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So today as I was mulling over how to get the cycle seeded in my tank, other then that bio spira stuff afew folks have suggested with mixed feelings. I was thinking along with it I could pick up a plant from an aquarium at a store and hopefully get allitle insurance in case the bio spira didn't work. Since it's my first run with a tank I'm pretty sure I'll just toss the plant once i've cycled the tank rather then trying to learn horticulture on top of fish keeping all at once. Any opinions on this option? This is assuming I can't get a filter or rockbed from an established tank. I've found four small stores in my area I plan to visit today along with a petsmart. If I can't get anything from them I figure buying a plant would make me the consumer happy and the buiness happy alike.
I'm such a newb eh! lol
-Neo Sithlord
 
Unless you plan on packing a tank to the brim (well.. maybe less than that), I wouldn't suggest cycling a tank with a plant in it. You will want to add a light to your tank if you want your plant to survive... light, coupled with the fact that you will be adding ammonia to your tank, will definately translate to big algae bloom. Seeing how you are a first timer, you don't want the added headach of learning how to beat back algae, on top of learning how to keep fish. My tip to you, go to one of those smaller stores... and ask if they can give you some of their filter media... or gravel. Just make sure that their tanks are healthy. Better yet, see if you have a friend who has a healthy established tank and grab some gravel or filter media off of them.

That aside, how are you going to go about cycling your tank?

HTH
-Richer
 
"the fact that you will be adding ammonia to your tank, will definately translate to big algae bloom."
Ok so no plant then lol couldn't handle that.
I've read into the fishless cycle alot and plan on going that route. I wish I had a friend I could score some gravel or filter media off but I don't. That's why I got the idea of tossing in a plant since I've read that the root bulb would be rich in bactiria (was suggested else where but not to a newbie like me). I'll see if any of the stores have anything to help me out I'm sure they'd be willing to since I'd be back to stock the tank afew weeks later. Just covering my bases since outside of a Petsmart an hour drive out of town I haven't found a store with tanks that look all that healthy, but I have 4 more stores I found online to go check out now so hopefully I'll find one that looks good and is willing to help a guy out.
-Neo Sithlord
 
Dr Chris Cow suggested a potted plant from the LFS as an inoculation medium for nitrification bacteria in his first article on the now-popular fishless cycling. Those plants potted in rock wool in the slotted pots have mostly been grown emerse with the pot in a circulating hydoponic solution. If they are fresh to the store, they likely are excellent souces of bacteria to start the filter off. Bare root plants will carry some bacteria, but not nearly the numbers that are present in the potted, fresh from hydroponic growth, plants.

I was one of the beta testers on that and it worked quite well. I saw a significant difference between using bareroot and potted plants in the test tanks. The plants were left in their pots, not buried, just sitting on the substrate. This is entirely different from the ammonia utilization of planted tanks, not at all the same thing.

The plant is not present for serving as a planted tank, only for the bacteria in the rock wool.

HTH
 
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