Liquid Fertilizer During Cycling Process?

Hello,

Over the next couple days I will finally have all plants and driftwood together to scape my new 55Gal Tank. I have neutral dark and natural gravel without planting substrate and am wondering if I need to start liquid fertilizer from Day one or let the tank cycling finish before starting fertilizer. (I guess main question is , does the fertilizer affect the cycling process).
Plants to be used are Java Fern Lace, Java Fern, Anubias Lanceolota, Vallisneria Corkscrew, Dwarf Hairgrass . Cycling will be done fishless.

Thanks in advance.

 

It'll maybe give you a higher nitrate reading then it would be from just the ammonia-nitrates conversion. But with all those plants it shouldn't be a large impact

 

What fertilizer? Some don't contain nitrates at all

Fertilizer does not affect cycling, dose immediately. The better health the plants are in the more likely they are to outcompete algae

 

Thanks for the feedback! I was thinking to use Nilocg thrive at the beginning and once fish are in the tank, change to seachem flourish. I believe since Flourish has only minimal amounts of macro elements, it might not be the best choice as starter fertilizer. Once fish contribute to add to the cycle, I would think it might work better as no or limited extra Nitrogen is needed. Does that sound reasonable?

 

Thanks for the feedback! I was thinking to use Nilocg thrive at the beginning and once fish are in the tank, change to seachem flourish. I believe since Flourish has only minimal amounts of macro elements, it might not be the best choice as starter fertilizer. Once fish contribute to add to the cycle, I would think it might work better as no or limited extra Nitrogen is needed. Does that sound reasonable?

I would just get the Thrive and be done with it, no need to buy another thing to change to. There's no way of knowing if fish provide enough macros until you see deficiency.

 

Thanks a bunch for the help!

 

Glad to help!
I actually have a question of my own, but for the sake of not taking over your thread I made my own How To Dose Liquid Ferts With Carbon In Filter

 

I started adding thrive+ right away. The instruction recommends 20-30% Water Change weekly while using thrive. Do I assume correctly not to change water until cycling is complete or do I still need to change water to keep parameters in check? I am dosing 3ppm Ammonia to cycle the tank.

 

I started adding thrive+ right away. The instruction recommends 20-30% Water Change weekly while using thrive. Do I assume correctly not to change water until cycling is complete or do I still need to change water to keep parameters in check? I am dosing 3ppm Ammonia to cycle the tank.

Are you using a bacterial starter that requires no water changing? If not, daily or every other day water changes, or as frequent as possible, are ideal for newly planted tanks to prevent algae

 

I added Tetra Safe Start on day one to get some bacteria as a start (even though I read those bacteria might get destroyed at Ammonia levels above 2.5) and was planning to just let it do its thing going forward. With that said, I will do water changes weekly to prevent algae as you suggested. Thanks