On 16 Oct 2002 00:03:21 GMT, (Engine21) wrote:

later (after the cycle). I'm going to try the fishless cycling method. Should
the plants be put in at the beginning of the cycle or wait till the end? Will
that much ammonia at one time harm the plants?

If your tank has the lighting levels used for planted tanks, then all
that ammonia will lead to big algae problems.

If you are setting up a well lit, CO2 injected planted tank, then you
should consider an alternate approach that has worked well for many
people:

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


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

FWIW, I find this "fishless cycling craze" pretty silly. Simply
vacuuming some mulm from an established aquarium, adding this to the
filter, some old tank water etc, mix a bunch into your gravel right
before you fill the tank up instantly cycles your tank, no waiting for
3 weeks etc.

I mean how simple is adding what you want in the _first place_,
BACTERIA and organic mulm, vs Household cleaners?
I just don't get it.


well it kind of depends f you have an established tank to begin with to take
bacteria from that said i did fishless cycling on my first tank then seeded my
others from it

(FRBSTRD) wrote in
:

FWIW, I find this "fishless cycling craze" pretty silly. Simply
vacuuming some mulm from an established aquarium, adding this to the
filter, some old tank water etc, mix a bunch into your gravel right
before you fill the tank up instantly cycles your tank, no waiting for
3 weeks etc.

This procedure "instantly" adds enough nitrifying
bacteria to support a full load of fish?

So what's the point of biomedia having a huge amount of surface
area in order to support a bacteria colony that's probably
hundreds of times larger than the one you can add with mulm and
tank water?

Of course, with planted tanks you have some leeway as
the plants help to remove ammonia and nitrites ....

my point was yuo need a source tank to seed from if you don't have one why not
fishless cycle

(FRBSTRD) wrote in
:

my point was yuo need a source tank to seed from if you don't have one
why not fishless cycle

But even if you have a source tank, I don't think that adding mulm and tank
water is going to "instantly" cycle the new tank.

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

(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