Fishless Cycling a Planted Tank

[MeganL3985]

Is it okay to add the plants to the tank and then cycle it with the ammonia drops? I just was curious b/c i'm still undecided for whether or not I want to do a real planted tank or use plastics/silks. Thanks! :)

[salman]

I don't think ammonia can kill plants, but correct me if i'm wrong, I read somewhere that when you have plants in your tank and your doing a fish cycle it takes about half the time. Which equals to the fishless cycle, and all you have to do is wait and not add ammonia daily.

[Darkness]

im on day nine of fishless cycling with plants, and i just got my nitrite spike. seems to be going fine.

[Kuli_Loach]

Yes, plants are fine. I cycled all mine with live plants.

[Lady Hobbs]

If you have a lot of plants, you don't need to cycle at all as the plants will absorb the ammonia. But if you only have a few, you can cycle with no problem with ammonia.

[sergo]

If you have a lot of plants, you don't need to cycle at all as the plants will absorb the ammonia. But if you only have a few, you can cycle with no problem with ammonia.exactly :19:

[MeganL3985]

Thanks! :)

[zackish]

I don't think ammonia can kill plants, but correct me if i'm wrong, I read somewhere that when you have plants in your tank and your doing a fish cycle it takes about half the time. Which equals to the fishless cycle, and all you have to do is wait and not add ammonia daily.

If it's really heavily planted you can get away without even having to cycle the tank I thought I heard someone say before. I may be incorrect but either way I do believe it reduces the time to cycle in some way.

[RobbieG]

If it's really heavily planted you can get away without even having to cycle the tank I thought I heard someone say before. I may be incorrect but either way I do believe it reduces the time to cycle in some way.

You are right zackish like Lady Hobbs said the plants will use the ammonia produced by the fish.

The only thing I would add is that you need to be sure that the plants are growing and healthy also - I would make sure that the plants were well established and growing before adding any fish.

[Chrona]

You are right zackish like Lady Hobbs said the plants will use the ammonia produced by the fish.

The only thing I would add is that you need to be sure that the plants are growing and healthy also - I would make sure that the plants were well established and growing before adding any fish.

Like Robbie said, there's a caveat to the "lot's of plants no cycling" thing. The plants must be allowed to acclimate to the tank first and you MUST make sure the plants are doing well before putting fish in. Furthermore, they must be in an environment where they can grow moderately quickly, meaning that throwing a bunch of high light plants into a 55g tank lit by 20 watts of light and then a tankful of fish will produce a bunch of rotting plants contributing just as much waste as the fish themselves without processing any. And even then, you do not ever put in an entire tankful of fish, regardless of the setup you have. Patience is still key, and fish should be introduced in groups.

As a sidenote, a lot of the biological filtration ability of a plant comes from the fact that live plants (so long as they are kept wet and not treated for algae) contain a lot of bacteria on the leaves.