marek313

I have 45g tank that I'm trying to cycle without any luck so far. No matter what I do I cant get ammonia up. It's been 10 days since I had fish in there and ammonia stays under .25 I think my live plants are using all ammonia as fertilizer and thats why I get such a low readings. No problem I figure I'll add more fish but at the same time more plants came in that I ordered over a week ago from the internet so I couldn't waste those neither. So now its day 10 I have 9 fish in the tank and around 15 live plants and my ammonia is still under .25 Right now my water is

ammonia - less then .25
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 0
pH - 7.2

I didn't do any water changes since there is nothing to dilute in my tank until I get some ammonia I don't think I will. I'm thinking about getting more fish since what I have is not producing enough ammonia.
I read on some website about a guy that was heavy on live plants and he always starts with live plants too and his tank cycles without any spikes in ammonia or nitrites but that was just one person so I don't know if I should believe it.

I guess I'm just looking for some clarification from people that are more experienced then me.
Thanx in advance.

BTW
My tank:
4 - zebra danios
2 - small angels
2 - swordtails
1 - platy

tan.b

i'm no expert....i've only cycled one tank, but mine didnt show any ammonia or nitrites, then last week showed really low levels of nitrates which are remaining constant. i was rather concerned at the time, but now accept that so long as the levels arent high and my fish are ok, then all is well!!i have 8 plants in a 15gal and have 8 fish in there at the mo which is the max i can fit. so i accept your theory that the plants maybe "buffer" the toxins and reduce the spikes typically seen. be interesting to see how well other planted aquariums cycled.

just started cycling my new tank, plants coming tomorrow. fish may move in next week if all is well. not done any readings yet, but it may prove/disprove the theory of plants and cycling!! be interesting to see!!

horsensnowrider

OK This thread is over a year old...does anyone have more input? I was looking to see if this question was addressed somewhere.
I'm planning to start the setup on a new 90g tank next week and want it to be a planted tank...wanted to know when during the cycle I should add plants...does it matter?
Do I need to be concerned with the volume of plants I add, like fish?
Does it make a difference if I cycle with or w/o fish when adding plants.

Suggestions are appreciated.

My horses water trough needs more gold fish (they eat the skeeter larva) so I'm planning to get feeders at the LFS to use for cycling then when done put the surivivors in the horses tank.

nickf5

If you start the tank up with plants you can generally get away with cycling with fish. Detailed info: http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_silent_cycling.php

Shawnie

Hi horsensnowrider...welcome to fishlore....read this link http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm ...it will answer ALL your cycle questions... we dont reccomend cycleing with fish...its not fair to them to have to breath this poision...that link will help ALOT ....goodluck!

Butterfly

Although if a tank is stuffed full of fast growing plants they will keep the ammonia sucked up and you may never see ammonia or Nitrites (this is called a silent cycle) we still don't recommending cycling with fish.
Carol