I have a 29G tank and have been fishless cycling for the past two
weeks. I am on the reduced ammonia addition portion of the process
(about 0.5 mL ammonia added 1x/day) - ammonia is running 0 - 0.25,
nitrites greater than 5.0. Haven't tested nitrates yet as the nitrite
is still high. pH is running between 6.4 - 6.8 and I have DIY CO2
injection, about 6-8 bubbles/minute through a bubble ladder. Three
days ago I added two pieces of driftwood and about 50 plants (assorted
small-mdium size crypts, ludwigia, swords, java moss and bacopa) along
with Dupla K tablets in the substrate. The substrate is gravel,
average size between 3-5 mm. Filter is a Marineland 300 with two
biowheels - no carbon. Lighting is homemade - 66W fluorescent -
12hrs/day on a timer. My questions a

1) Should I still being adding ammonia each day to the water to keep
the cycling process moving forward?
2) How will the addition of the plants affect the cycling time?
3) When should I begin to fertilize the plants? I will be using
Flourish and Tetra FloraPride (for the iron) and probably Flourish
Trace for the trace elements.
4) The water has turned a bit "tea" colored due to some leaching of
tannins from the driftwood. If I start doing water changes to clear
up the tannins, will I delay the cycling process? Or should I use
carbon and not worry about it filtering out the trace metals from the
tank?
5) I am beginning to see a little bit of dark-green algae on the
driftwood, but nowhere else in the tank. Is this normal?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

Mitch

mslfl wrote:

I have a 29G tank and have been fishless cycling for the past two
weeks. I am on the reduced ammonia addition portion of the process
(about 0.5 mL ammonia added 1x/day) - ammonia is running 0 - 0.25,
nitrites greater than 5.0.

Some folks claim that planted tanks never cycle, because the plants eat
all the ammonia before bacteria have a chance to cycle it into nitrate.

Other folks say this is nonsense, plant tanks have all the same bacteria,
because you can't keep the bacteria OUT of the tank. Plant tanks just have
smaller colonies of the bacteria because the plants are eating so much
nitrogen.

In any case, you have added plants in the middle of the nitrite portion of
the cycle. This will throw off your ability to plot nice clean ammonia and
nitrite spikes. So just do the following:

1. Wait until ammonia and nitrate are zero. Whether it's bacteria or
plants eating the ammonia, who cares, it's gone.

2. Slowly add fish. Do not add any fish within 24 hours of dosing ammonia!

You may also want to read how other people do it:

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_newtank.htm