Adding plants after cycle

Rushdude

Rushdude

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Jul 8, 2004
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I am currently cycling a 29 gallon tank. I have about 3-4 weeks left. I am going to put live plants in this aquarium and currently there isn't any in there. I am having new floors being put in my house just after christmas so I figured I would wait to add the plants. I will store 15 gallons of the tank's water in buckets and leave water in the tank one inch above the gravel line to protect the bacteria. Should I add plants now during the cycle or wait until after the floors are put in? Will it affect any thing? This will also be my first planted tank. I am currently cycling the tank with 2 balloon mollies which will be returned to the lfs when the tank is done cycling.

Thanks, Jim
 
If the filter is left without an ammonia source for 2 weeks, all your cycling will be for naught. Saving the water won't do much, there're very few bacteria in the water itself, it's the filter that you need to colonize (and keep colonized).
 
The tank would only be stripped down like that for about 12 hours. I will store the bio-wheels in bags with aquarium water in them also. I am using a penguin 330 bio-wheel filter. Will this be ok? Also, should I add plants now or wait to add them later?

Thanks, Jim
 
It should be fine. Add a little fish food to the bags, or pure ammonia if you've got it handy.

Wait to add the plants until after. IME, newly added plants take at least a week or two to get settled in, get over the shock of transfer, and really start going. It would seem that you'd only be going through this process yet another time after reflooring.

What I'd suggest is to put aside the money that you were planning on spending on plant stock and add to it pay by pay (unless money's not an issue, in which case, good for you ;) ). It will also give you time to consider your setup and make sure that you have everything just like you want it. It will also allow you some time to think about (or save up for) any other hardware you may decide you'll want or need.
 
Once they get going, plants soak up more Ammonia that any bacterial colony I have ever seen. I tried to fishless cycle a tank before it was planted, and was getting to the point where I would need to add 2-3 ppm weekly. This was about 15 days or so into the process. I then added some plants. Once they got established the young plants would soak up 2-3 ppm ammonia every day!

I soon, gave up the fishless cycling, and just let the plants eat through the Nitrites that were present. It wasn't doing any good to continually add so much ammonia on a regular basis. It was disappearing so fast, and the Nitrites were rapidly dwindling to zero. Another thing that liked the Ammonia was a bunch of bright green beard algae. That was the last straw. I stopped adding Ammonia, bought a few Mollies, and everything shook out pretty well.

If you plant moderately with fast growing plants, pretty soon they will outcompete your bactierial colony for Ammonia, and the colony will stop growing.
 
I have just a gravel substrate in the tank now. I didn't plan on putting live plants in the tank until after I started cycling it. Will a normal gravel be fine? What will I have to add to the water to help maintain the plants?

Thanks, Jim
 
Rushdude said:
I have just a gravel substrate in the tank now. I didn't plan on putting live plants in the tank until after I started cycling it. Will a normal gravel be fine? What will I have to add to the water to help maintain the plants?

Thanks, Jim
Click to expand...

Some plants do fine with just gravel for a substrate, not all of them by all means! Plants appreciate several things in the water.

1. CO2 - even the ambient amounts in water are OK for some plants as long at you don't try to grow them too fast.
2. Nutrients - Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphorus are necessary for proper plant growth. The levels matter greatly. Too much Nitrate can be bad for fish, and by most accounts, too much phosphate can cause an algae bloom.
3. Minerals and metals - Most of these can be added through using Flourish or some other fertilizer.

If you use a better substrate than just gravel, then many of these ferts can be gotten through the roots of plants. Built up mulm is another good thing for plants.
 
I have well water. How do I know how much to add? I think that a lot of that stuff will already be in the water. I might just get a nitrogen additive to start off with. Also how can I be sure most of that stuff is already in the water?
Thanks, Jim
 
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