Fishless Cycle

Wait! Im lost Are you going to be setting up a fresh, fresh planted, or salt tank?

Straight ammonia is preferable for FW setups--the shrimp will work, as will straight ammonia in a SW tank. With ammonia, there's not odor, so it's preferable, but requires daily dosing.

However--since you want to go planted, it's much easier (IMO) to plant the tank heavily, get the plants established and growing, then slowly stock. Plants utilize ammonia as a food source. If they are growing and healthy, a gradual increase in stock will be easily adjusted to, and there won't be any serious ammonia spikes. If you choose to go fishless, you'll want to wait until after the tank is fully cycled before adding plants. Mixing the 2 methods tends to result in serious algae blooms, since the new plants are unable to immediately utilize all the available food, and the algae can.

You fertilize to feed them. Nitrates are typically supplemented for this purpose.

No, IMO, the main drawback to using a shrimp is that you have no control over how high the ammonia spikes. Using the bottled stuff, you can dose to keep it consistant and stable, instead of dealing with the fluctuations of the shrimp method.

Check the planted forum--there are several different fert needs, depending on the setup and the plants.

In a 200, you could add 10 fish one week, the next 10 in 2 weeks. A 200 gallon tank will be more forgiving about initial stocking levels, and 10 juvenile fish won't produce enough waste to reach critical titre. However--if you fishlessly cycle the tank, you can add the entire batch of 20 all at once--that's one of the perks of fishless cycling. The bacteria bed is established and ready to support the full fish load.

pbecot01 said:

I think i will just fishless cycle like I originally was going to, just with ammonia instead of a shrimp

Leave the plants out till after the cycle. Final question... where is some good information on what you can put in a tank, driftwood, substrate options, that kind of stuff?

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I think it's a good call with the fishless without plants. Ideally, with fishless, you can add your entire bioload when it is cycled rather than a few fish at a time. Congrats on the big tank too. I wish I could get something even half that size. As for information as to what to put in the tank, well, I cannot think of any one source of information, really. I think it all rathe depends on what you like and want. You could always ask for opinions. Also, If you are into "Window" shopping, you could always hit Big Al's online and see what they have in the decorations section. It's at least a start to get ideas as to what is out there.

As for substrate, have you considered sand? Sand is usually very affordable for FW setups and it does great as a bed for plants. I use pool filter sand that I picked up from Home Depot for $5.00/50 pounds. It would take some time to rinse enough for a 200 gallon tank, but compared to gravel and Flourite or Eco-Complete, it saves some cash. 7 bags of pool filter sand would be enough substrate, if my calculations are correct. You can see how it looks by clicking the link in my sig.

I hope this helps a little, and good luck. Be sure and post pics of that tank sometime too, I want to drool and be envious.