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Cycling

M

MrLiam

Seedling
Joined
24 Nov 2011
Messages
17
Hi all i have all the stuff for my 19l planted tank that i plan on setting up tomorrow (Sunday). However i have a really stupid question how do i cycle a planted tank is it the same as a normal ie fishless with adding ammonia. Any help/steps in which to do it would be very helpful thanks in advance.
 
Hi mrliam, no need to add ammonia IMO, plant up, first week of setup daily water changes of 50% or more if you wish, week two water change every other day, third week every third day, week 4 twice a week and as long as plants are well established and growing should be good to go adding livestock. Plants will use up ammonia nitrate etc and the water changes help remove plant waste from their transition to under water life. Ime smaller tanks benefit from regular water changes all my nanos get x3 per week 30-50% depending on the setup.
 
Thats the perfect answer i was looking at thank you very much :thumbup:
 
Just another quick question when washing my sand and gravel should I use dechlorinated water or is just tap water fine?
 
Use tap water, set it up, in with the plants and plenty of stem plants.

Forget 'cycling' just do 50% water changes a day for the first couple of weeks then 50% weekly. wait 6 weeks and the tank is ready for all you what to put in it. No need to add any chemicals or ammonia.

Harry
 
Not sure if this is the best way, but I always just add a couple of bags of daphnia, the ones you get from LFS. This adds tons of micro fauna and when the daphnia die, they push the cycle along nicely, so generally cycle a fresh tank in 10-14 days.

Cheers
 
Oh my days...how to make life complicated...just plant and let it do its thing...Tim is right, IME usually all will settle in a couple of weeks...just keep a weather eye on the intensity and duration of your photoperiod. As far as duration goes 6 hours is fine to begin with.
 
Is there anyone who doesn't think doing 50% water changes every single day is just a PITA?

Come on!
 
ourmanflint said:
Is there anyone who doesn't think doing 50% water changes every single day is just a PITA?
Come on!
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Yes it can be, especially with a larger tank. It's no trouble to me at all as I have all the time in the world (retired)! and only an 80 ltr sized tank so it's a breeze.

The secret is to be organized and make every stage as simple as possible. Having buckets or hoses handy and being close to a drain a tap for refill. Once a system is established I'm not suggesting it's enjoyable but less of a PITA.

One thing is for certain, it's a VERY rewarding job and there's always the knowledge that once the tank settles a bit you can reduce the pain to just twice a week.:p
 
tim said:
It's a massive pita :) but as I've learnt I'd rather do them for the first couple of weeks than still be doing them 3-6 months down the line trying to overcome algae issues.
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Can you explain what you mean Tim? Never heard anything like that before!

Cheers
 
ourmanflint said:
Can you explain what you mean Tim? Never heard anything like that before!

Cheers
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Hi ourmanflint, speaking from my experiences with past setups, especially under t5 lighting I suffered lots of algae issues which normally led to me taking the tank down, I've persevered with my latest 3ft tank which I didn't follow the stated waterchange regime with and I still find nearly a year into the tanks life 2-3 water changes are required to keep it looking it's best, other setups following that regime have been hassle free after a month or so even though I feel two waterchanges a week benefit all my setups preferably three on small tanks, it's worked for me and it's advice I've read from some of the respected scapers/ posters on the forum. I'm not saying it's the only way, just IMHO a very good way to start a tank.
 
I'm with Tim.
Allegedly the first month or so,is the most crucial time in a new/immature set up.(unless I've got that wrong) .If you go down the organic waste + light = algae route,then keeping the lighting period shorter and the tank clean is going help in the long term.,
 
I'm sure there are good explainable reasons why what happened to you happened. But and it is a very big but!, unless you understand the causes then everything else is just supposition and voodoo! I'm not saying one way is better than another, but the end result should always be to have a broad biological fauna that provides the basis for a healthy aquarium.
 
When i saw the title this came to mind strangely:cool:

french_cycling_races_tour_de_france_cycles_m59739.jpg
 
Edvet said:
When i saw the title this came to mind strangely[/quote

Similar Ed, plenty of fresh water on board is the secret in both cases..;)
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[DOUBLEPOST=1396257820][/DOUBLEPOST]^^^what I wanted to say got mixed up in the 'quote' for some reason:D ^^^
 
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