Wierd cycle...

[dpatte]

all that plants and media from another tank are going to do is speed up the time for the tank to grow a sufficiently strong nitrogen cycle.

But the principle remains the same, to insure the tank can consume 3 PPM of added ammonia per day.

[Marc]

I have to back David (dpatte) on this one.   I would finish the cycle before adding fish.  As he said, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate do not harm plants.

Some plants lose their leaves when moved from one aquarium to another but leave those plants in and they will start growing new leaves after a few days.

[BigDaddy]

Don't get me wrong.. I'm not saying it wouldn't be best if he waited...

But the poor guy just seems stressed out about the whole thing.  All I am saying is it would not be the end of the world if he gave up on the ammonia and started lightly stocking his tank.

[Marx]

im ok.. just my plants are takingf the beats.. but everything seems going fine.. the nitrites spiked and should over the next few days die off...

[artw]

tho I wouldn't be so uncareful if I didn't have africans

Why? other fish are just as hearty as Africans.
otherwise I agree with Drew.
put a used sponge in the tank, throw some fish in, and then go outside and enjoy whats left of summer.

[artw]

(I know this is not relevant for this situation)..
I dont know why you guys put plants in a tank that is being fishless cycled anyway.  you are cycling the filter media, the glass, the rocks and the gravel.    yer not cycling the plants or the water.
plants just interfere with the cylce anyway (read consume ammonia before the nitrosomonas can get it).

[ambushman2j]

I completely disagree with other fish being as durable as africans!..work at a petstore and you will see, anytime there's a outbreak of something, practically the only fish that don't seem to be effected by the disease are the africans!  when it's all the same water why do a bunch of neons die where maybe 1 african a week? if that much?

[BigDaddy]

im ok.. just my plants are takingf the beats.. but everything seems going fine.. the nitrites spiked and should over the next few days die off...

Marx... just to let you know.. the nitrite spike is the longest part of the cycle.

[dpatte]

i think adding plants while cycling is a good idea.

it gives them a chance to settle in before the fish arrive, and they likely have nitifying bacteria on them to o, which will help speed up the cycle-building process.

I think part of the difficulty is the terminology.

The word 'cycling' somehow suggests that its something you do once before throwing in the fish, but thats not really what we are doing at all.

The real idea is to build a strong 'nitrogen cycle' in the tank which will persist as long as the tank is set up.

Perhaps we should really call this initial process 'cycle building' - if you get my line of reasoning.

[BigDaddy]

On that point... I'd disagree from one specific point.

If the goal is to build a healthy biocolony as quickly as possible... plants won't help.

If the aquarist is adding 3ppm of ammonia to a fishless plantless tank, then ONLY the nitrifying bacteria have access to ALL the ammonia.

However, add plants to the equation, and now the nitrifying bacteria only get that part of the 3ppm that the plants don't consume.  As well, nitrite and nitrate production would be much slower again because of plant consumption.

In essence, it would take longer for a tank to finish cycling with plants in it than without.

I don't understand why people go through the process of fishless cycling a tank and then planting it.  You spend 4 to 6 weeks cycling the tank and building up a bio-bed, only to have a good portion of it die off when the plants begin consuming the nitrogen in the water before the bacteria can access it.

I've always liked Chuck Gadd's article on starting a new planted tank.  It can be found here:

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_newtank.htm