recipe for fishless cycle

J

Julianna

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Does anyone have a recipe for a good fishless cycle. I know this has been posted umpteen times before, but humor me...:) Also, can live plants be in the tank when you cycle it??
Julie
 
cycling with plants

If you plant the tank first, the cycle will be less dramatic when you do add fish. The plants eat up the excess ammonia/ammonium and the fish won't suffer as much.


The Amano site suggests planting, letting it grow for about 4 weeks, then adding the algae crew, then substituting the final fish later. Sorry I don't have the link. Vector-something....I forgot, but if you search and find it, look for the Beginner's Guide.
 
Fishless cycling and plants do not mix. The excess ammonia will be utilized by algae, and you'll end up with an ugly algae bloom.

If you want to plant the tank from the beginning, here's what you do:

1.) Plant the tank to the brim with fast growing plants. Give the tank a day or two to settle.
2.) Add your herbivores (algae eating crew). Be careful at this stage, although herbivores produce less waste compared to omnivores and carnivores, they can still produce enough waste to overload your tank at this time. Give the tank 3-4 weeks to settle with your algae crew.
3.) Start adding your main show fish. Be very careful at this stage, although your plants have probably established by now, and your biological filters have some bacterial colonies, its still not high enough to handle a full load all at once. Add a couple of fish once a week, giving your tank enough time to establish a larger bacterial colony in response to the increase in bioload. After your tank has been stocked to what you want it to be, give it a few more weeks to further settle down.
4.) You can start your aquascape at this time. Slowly remove the plants that you don't want, and replace them with other slower growing plants if you want. Be careful when removing plants, don't remove too many at once.

HTH
-Richer
 
Discrepancy Noted

Richer, you stated the following:

"http://www.tomgriffin.com/aquamag/cycle2.html
One of the best articles for fishless cycling.

As for plants, plants + fishless cycling is not suggested. With the constant addition of ammonia, and the lighting that plants require, you will eventually end up with a tank full of algae... an unnessessary headache.

HTH
-Richer"

The article that you referenced as one of the best for fishless recycling states that adding plants to a new aquarium is the second-best method for adding beneficial bacteria to the tank for the cycling. The only thing listed as a better source is filter media from an established, healthy tank. And then you state that plants and fishless cycling are not compatible. What are we who are trying the process for the first time supposed to believe? I, for one, am confused. I have followed the advice in the article and added plants. The process is only three days along, so no effects noted yet.
 
If you have enough plants, you also have instant biofilter. I have set up several tanks almost fully planted with some seed material as well. I then dose 4 drops of ammonia/10 gals and test the water in about 2 hours for ammonia. If the reading is 0 (which it usually is) I stock. I have fully stocked tanks in this manner and never lost a fish due to ammonia or nitrites.

I have read here and other places not to plant then try fishless. I have always ignored that rule and never had problems. But I also know no two tanks nor fishkeepers are the same. All I know is what has worked for me :-)
 
Chris did not intend to set up a dichotomy between fishless cycling and planted tanks. The entire aim of this technique was to provide novices with a painless means of cycling their filters/tanks without stress, injury, or death to fish.

For those with no existing tanks, one of the best sources of nitrification bacteria are the potted plants at the LFS. These are normally grow in hydoponic solutions with the pots in the solution and the foliage emerse. No algae problems, clean heathy plants which just happen to have ammonia and nitrite oxidizing bacteria in their rockwool potting medium. Go back and read the original:

http://www.aaquaria.com/aquasource/cycling.shtml

The situation for a fully planted tank is quite different, and not at all what the original intent of the article was.
 
What kind of potted plants are those you mentioned?
Also I have read different aproaches some say add 5ppm ammonia each day and others say to just add as much ammonia needed to keep it at 5ppm. So far my ammonia hasn't droped yet(only been 5 days) so I haven't been adding more ammonia. I did not use the method of adding 5ppm each day because I read something about too much ammonia actually inhibits bacteria growth. So which is the correct way? Add 5ppm no matter what the current level is or add only as much as needed each day to bring ammonia to 5ppm?
 
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Just thought I'd put my two cents in as far as dosing goes... I'm approaching the end of a fishless cycle, and I read (among others,) the article by Chris Cow; I understood it to mean bring the ammonia level BACK UP to 5ppm every day. So if it's still at 5ppm from the day before, you don't need to dose again. It just made sense to me. Keep in mind that 5ppm ammonia is quite toxic to fish, and what you're doing by KEEPING it at that level is building enough bacteria to cope with (more than likely), more ammonia than your final actual bioload of real live fish will produce. So why would you need to add more than 5ppm, right? Also, I think the reason fishless and plants don't go together is because plants take up ammonia as a nutrient, (thereby competing with our beloved bacterias). Sorry if this has already been stated in this thread, (can't remember).

...Although...being a newbie myself, and as I'm nearing the end of a fishless cycle, I WOULD like to know when it IS OK to add plants. One reply I got on another post informed me not to add plants til AFTER the fish...this seems a little odd to me... would adding them at the same time be OK???
 
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