10 Gallon Tank Cycling a planted tank - Week 4

I'm reading that with a moderate or heavy planted tank, you don't need to dose ammonia to cycle -- and in some cases, it can even kill your plants. Attached photo of my tank.

I'm using ADA Amzonia V2 soil, which gives off a lot of Ammonia, so I did a lot of water changes during the first 2-3 weeks. Now at week 4, my Ammonia is always around 0.25 ppm, and Nitrite and Nitrate are 0. I guess I'm not cycled yet. But I'm also not dosing any liquid Ammonia.

The tank is only 10 gallons, so I'm planning to stock it with ONLY one German Blue Ram, and probably 1-2 Nerite snails for algae control.

What do you suggested for cycling a planted tank like this?
Should I just add the fish, and then dose Prime and Stability every day for 1-2 weeks until it cycles? The prime would protect the fish from Ammonia poisoning due to the small 0.25 ppm Ammonia I still have.

 

You dont seem to be cycled yet. I wonder if the water changes didnt give it enough chance to start? Im not familiar with aqua soils personally. Ammonia will not harm the plants. Until your plants grow a bunch I would say you are light to moderately planted.

I would dose some ammonia and see what it does.

Before adding any fish or snails I would make sure the tank is processing ammonia and Nitrite in 24 hours with a Nitrate reading. (1-2 ppm ammonia in a 10 should work.)

GBR are very sensitive to parameter changes. It would be good to wait a few weeks or more AFTER the cycle is stabilized to add one. The temp also needs to be over 80*.

As for the .25 ammonia it will build once the fish and snails start to make waste.

 

Hi
Plants use ammonia as their first choice of fertiliser. Their second choice is nitrates etc.

I don’t know were you got the information that ammonia kills plants?
Of course to much of anything can kill anything .

I have used ADA a couple of times. Yes it leaches ammonia but not enough to kill plants. It’s designed to help plants grow and to cycle a tank.

A GBR is not a suitable fish for a newly established tank . Even with a fully working nitrogen cycle they are a difficult fish to keep alive. Not a beginner fish. Wait 12 months is my suggestion.


I have a very low opinion of stability. Don’t buy a second bottle. Certainly don’t believe you need to add it for ever and ever. You don’t need to buy bacteria. You have a tank full of dirt for goodness sake.

Would you put the dirt on an open wound?
Would you eat the dirt?
Give your money to a charity of your choice.

You must always use a conditioner . Prime is good.

To answer your question.
Add liquid ammonia

 

Hi
Plants use ammonia as their first choice of fertiliser. Their second choice is nitrates etc.

I don’t know were you got the information that ammonia kills plants?
Of course to much of anything can kill anything .

I have used ADA a couple of times. Yes it leaches ammonia but not enough to kill plants. It’s designed to help plants grow and to cycle a tank.

A GBR is not a suitable fish for a newly established tank . Even with a fully working nitrogen cycle they are a difficult fish to keep alive. Not a beginner fish. Wait 12 months is my suggestion.


I have a very low opinion of stability. Don’t buy a second bottle. Certainly don’t believe you need to add it for ever and ever. You don’t need to buy bacteria. You have a tank full of dirt for goodness sake.

Would you put the dirt on an open wound?
Would you eat the dirt?
Give your money to a charity of your choice.

You must always use a conditioner . Prime is good.

To answer your question.
Add liquid ammonia

Since my Ammonia is only 0.25 ppm should I start dosing liquid ammonia to get the cycle going?

 

Yes you should add ammonia.

The truth is the colour chart is a little confusing/ wrong. What looks like 0.25 is a lot closer to zero in my opinion. Regardless you need to add a little ammonia.

Don’t add fish yet.
And no snails unless they are already in the post?

 

I'm reading that with a moderate or heavy planted tank, you don't need to dose ammonia to cycle -- and in some cases, it can even kill your plants. Attached photo of my tank.

I'm using ADA Amzonia V2 soil, which gives off a lot of Ammonia, so I did a lot of water changes during the first 2-3 weeks. Now at week 4, my Ammonia is always around 0.25 ppm, and Nitrite and Nitrate are 0. I guess I'm not cycled yet. But I'm also not dosing any liquid Ammonia.

The tank is only 10 gallons, so I'm planning to stock it with ONLY one German Blue Ram, and probably 1-2 Nerite snails for algae control.

What do you suggested for cycling a planted tank like this?
Should I just add the fish, and then dose Prime and Stability every day for 1-2 weeks until it cycles? The prime would protect the fish from Ammonia poisoning due to the small 0.25 ppm Ammonia I still have.

It is untrue that one should not be dosing ammonia when cycling a planted tank. That's a common misconception that unfortunately keeps on being spread around very often.

It is important though, to not dose ammonia when ammonia is already high, sure that is true, but that is also true regardless of whether you are cycling a planted tank or a normal tank.

But yeah, once the soil stops giving off ammonia (or rather, once you stop being able to measure ammonia), then now you need to dose ammonia. Why? Simple - your tank needs to be able to handle ammonia produced by both the soil AND the feeding you'll do.

It is common for the API test kit to read 0.25ppm ammonia even when it is actually zero (or very close to zero), i.e. a false positive reading.

I'd suggest giving it two or three days without doing any water changes, and measuring ammonia daily. If ammonia is measuring at 0.25ppm and not changing, then yeah more than likely it is just a false positive reading and you can consider it zero for all intents and purposes. When that happens, dose the ammonia.

Once your tank can handle 1ppm ammonia dosed a day (i.e. full conversion to nitrate), then it is cycled and you can add fish.

Don't bother with Seachem Stability.

 

I just dosed 2 ppm Ammonia. I'll check levels in a few days.