GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

20-04-2003, 06:09 AM

(FRBSTRD) wrote in message ...
Go back read the thread first off.And no tank water will do next to nothing as
it contains little or no bacteria. Gravel and filter material on the other hand
can be used to seed a totaly new tank to help it cycle faster. I did my first
tank using fishless cycling then seeded my new tank from it

So where did you get the fish? The tank etc? LFS's will be happy to
give a squeezing of a filter pad or let you vacuum and clean one of
their tanks.......
Most folks stop by every so often to their LFS and when you are
picking up the tank etc, get some mulm go go along with or fire a
filter up on a friend's tank etc.

Or simply don't turn the light on and don't add plants till after the
cycling is complete. A well planted tank right from the start has
never had any NH4 measurements from all the test I've done. Plant
roots have lots of bacteria and they remove any NH4 unless you add
large amount of fish right away, have rotten snails, use soil, jobes,
over feed etc.
After a couple of week add the main fish.

Basically you are growing up a nice colony of bacteria by feeding them
NH4 then later add plants. Now what happens to this colony that was
getting well fed now that the plants are doing a great job removing
it?
They reduce their numbers right back to the amount of food they get
regularly.

I still don't see much use for Fishless cycling on a plant tank, just
for fish only tanks.

Regards,
Tom Barr