Cycling and plants

[Slapa]

Hi everyone
Quick question probably a stupid one but i dont know the answer so im gona ask anyway.
Does having live plants in my tank make any difference to the cycling and will the feed im using for them make any difference to the cycling.

[rich311k]

They will not hurt the cycle and may help. What do you mean by feed for them?

[Slapa]

By feed i mean fertiliser thats got iron and other stuff plants need or do i not need to use it

[imma24]

Do you know what type of plants you have? I have what are called "easy" plants (wisteria, java fern, anacharis, anubias) and I don't add anything or have special lighting. They are all doing well. From what I've read here, fertilizer won't affect the cycling but you might not even need it - depends on the plants you have. If I'm wrong I'm sure someone else will chime in : )

[Cliff]

+1 to the above

You are likely not going to need to feed them anything during the cycling process. the plants will also use some of the ammoina in the water as well.

[fishnewbie1]

I had some anubias and gold ribbons and a fern in at the beginning of my fishless cycle; fern died, lost a few anubias, had a few new sprouts. In the middle of the cycle, I added bamboo, at the end of the cycle I added wisteria and anacharis. I also put seachem flourish tabs in the sand under the plant groups (4-6 inch radius per tab it states on the box). I also just have the stock Marineland Double Bright LED that came with the setup. I have to say they are now doing great and most are growing like weeds, the bamboo really greened up as did the wisteria.

Today my nitrAtes were reading 0 (haven't really been above 5-10 since adding my fish over a week ago). I was scratching my head, so I tested it again; still clearly 0. I attribute that to the amount of plants I have in there. [edit - pH is constant 76, turned my temp down to 75-76 F because I'm dealing with I think is cotton mouth, and ammonia and trItes "0" the last 3 days running and trAtes "0" today]

So as a newbie, I would say having plants (or adding MORE) and the ferts you use should not affect the fishless cycle.

Good luck!

[funkman262]

Technically, plants hurt the cycle. A cycle (in our case) refers to the growth of various forms of bacteria that will convert ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate. Plants will offset the need to cycle by utilizing the ammonia and nitrates. When the plants consume the nutrients, the bacteria no longer have access to it for growth.

It's important to understand this because if you remove all of your plants then your tank will still need to cycle since the bacteria colonies will be very low depending on how heavily planted the tank is along with the bioload.

[fishnewbie1]

Thanks for clearing that up funkman. Last thing I want to do is lead someone in the wrong direction.

[funkman262]

Don't worry fishnewbie, my post wasn't directed towards anyone in particular, I was just responding to the OP. There's nothing misleading about your post

[rich311k]

Plants will provide a source of seed material and the amount of ammonia a few plants will use is not going to effect the end results of a cycle.