Cycling and CO2 question

[Mewkey]

Apologies if this is covered in another thread.

As far as fishless cycling goes...if I buy substrate (EcoComplete plant substrate to be specific), should I put the substrate and plants and whatnot in before adding the initial dose of ammonia, or should I completely cycle the tank first and then add substrate/plants/etc.? I'm asking because apparently this particular brand of substrate material contains some sort of bacteria that break down fish waste into plant food and I don't want to screw them up by cycling to create bacteria. If that even makes sense...

As far as CO2...is it necessary? I know that seems like a dumb question, but unless a CO2 diffuser or whatever costs around $20 I'm probably not going to be able to get one. Are there other ways to keep live plants healthy in an aquarium?

In case it helps to know this...I'm in the early planning stages of creating an Amazon River tank. I want to keep a school of Neon Tetras and I was hoping to create an environment as similar to the actual Amazon River as possible. I had a 20-gal tall tank in the past with a bunch of different types of tropical fish but I never really knew what I was doing and ended up giving the whole thing including the fish to a friend of mine when I could no longer maintain it. Now that things are more stable for me I'd like to get into fishkeeping again, and do it the right way this time lol.

 

[SubRosa]

Put in the plants right away. Watch the levels but you probably won't need to cycle the tank per se, because the bacteria are present in good #s in the Ecocomplete. Make sure the tank can metabolize the ammonia to nitrate in the span of few hours before adding fish. You don't need CO2 unless you get a really powerful light. There are liquid carbon sources that are a better choice in lower lighting levels. Flourish Excel from Seachem and FlorinAxis from Brightwell are two products that work well.

 

[Mewkey]

Put in the plants right away. Watch the levels but you probably won't need to cycle the tank per se, because the bacteria are present in good #s in the Ecocomplete. Make sure the tank can metabolize the ammonia to nitrate in the span of few hours before adding fish. You don't need CO2 unless you get a really powerful light. There are liquid carbon sources that are a better choice in lower lighting levels. Flourish Excel from Seachem and FlorinAxis from Brightwell are two products that work well.

so in other words: set up my tank, dump some ammonia in there (lol) and test the levels for a few hours and see what happens? Yay for no CO2! According to what I've read so far Neons like subdued lighting so the liquid sounds like a perfect fit for me. Thanks!

 

[tanker]

so in other words: set up my tank, dump some ammonia in there (lol) and test the levels for a few hours and see what happens? Yay for no CO2! According to what I've read so far Neons like subdued lighting so the liquid sounds like a perfect fit for me. Thanks!

No, you do not need to add the ammonia with Eco.

 

[SubRosa]

You don't need to as theoretically the tank is instantly ready, but I try not to base my actions upon theory! A single dose of ammonia will only slow things up by a day at most if the EcoComplete does what it's supposed to. And if the EcoComplete got frozen or seriously overheated on the way to you it will save the lives of your fish.