On Fri, 16 Jan 2004 14:53:02 -0500, "Harry Muscle"
wrote:

I'm close to being ready to get my 55G planted tank up and running, which
means it's time to figure out how I'm gonna cycle it as well as the
quarantine tank, and how/when to introduce the first fish, etc. So I'm
wondering if I could get some feedback about what I'm thinking of doing
(it's sort of a morph of what Chuck Gadd recommends on his web site).

The main point of the "Cycling a planted tank" article on my website
is that for a medium-high light, CO2 injected planted tank,
traditional cycling isn't needed (or really even possible) because the
plants will consume the ammonia waste very quickly. The method
outlined in the article relies on several factors: 1) Lots of fast
growing plants established in the tank. 2) Optimum plant growing
conditions. 3) Low fish stocking levels.

As for the quarantine tank, I keep a 10g quarantine tank filled, but
it often has no fish in it, which means that the filter probably
doesn't contain a large biofilter bacteria colony. When I have a fish
or two that need to live in the quarantine tank for a while, I make
sure to add lots of fast growing plants to the 10g. Usually plants
like hygro, hydrocoytle, wisteria, water sprite, ambulia, etc. And I
leave them floating. This gives them high amounts of light, and
access to CO2 from the air.


Chuck Gadd
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua