Nitrogen Cycle and plants

B

betsonmets12

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Jan 2, 2006
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About how long should the nitrogen cycle take before i can start to add other fish besides Danios? Also what are some good second fish for a community tank?
How much plants and rocks should be in the tank for the fish? Are live plants better to have than plastic? Also how much gravel should be in the tank?
-thanks
 
Cycling a tank will about be the same with or without live plants. But it will involve much lower levels of Ammonia and Nitrite with live plants involved. Plants recycle the waste of fish and acts as a "veggie" filter.

How long it takes to cycle a tank varies. Some people have experienced a complete cycle in as short as 2 weeks. Others 2 months or even longer.

If there are no live plants, then keep the gravel as thin as possible. If it is planted keep it as thick as possible (but don't use inert gravel. Use something made for planted aquariums like Eco-complete or Flourite).

Decorations such as gravel and fake plants make the fish feel more secure. But are not actually really necessary.

Cories would be a good fish to add with Danios as they keep to the bottom of the tank, clean up any dropped food, and do not bother other fish usually.
 
betsonmets12,
First off, welcome to the forum.
Second,I realize you are anxious to get your aquarium up and running, but you could have started just one thread. It would be a lot easier to get all of your questions answered that way.

Bret
 
Sorry, wont happen again
 
testing water levels

What kind of water testing device should I get and how much do they cost?
 
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64301

Hopefully this article will answer a lot of questions for you. Including what kits to buy and why.

If I had to chose a limited number of kits and was cycling a tank with fish in it. I would go with ammonia, nitrite, KH, and nitrate in that order these three would constitue the absolute minimum for me. Next would be Nitrate, pH, GH.
If I had plants and drastically soft water (I do) then I'd add in PO4, and probably caclium.

HTH
Dave
 
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