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Should I fishless cycle a new planted tank?

aaron.c

Member
Joined
27 Mar 2013
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355
Location
Manchester, United Kingdom
Hey All

I was going to approach my new tank with the same approach I have always used... a fishless cycle and then stick most of the bioload in the tank in one hit.

Now, as I wait until I can set up my new tank I have been reading lots and lots online (sometimes a mistake I think) and there seems to be another school of thought. The silent cycle gang.

They say do away with cycles, whack a whole load of plants into your tank, fast growing stems with at least 75% substrate coverage and start adding fish more or less straight away.

Now I have read hundreds of forum posts about this, some new, some old, etc etc.

But I wanted to come to you guys for your advice

How do you cycle your new planted tanks? If you do a planted fishless cycle are you plagued by algae?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Now just over a week untit I can start assembling my tank :)

Aaron
 
I've never done a fishless cycle. Instead of spending weeks pouring noxious chemicals into your (sad, barren-looking) tank, you can spend the same time establishing a healthy biomass of happy, beautiful, growing plants which will then look after your fish.

I would advise against stocking fish heavily from the outset, in case you have issues with the plants or they take a while to acclimatise. Once the plants are flourishing, then build up your fish stock. If you need to stock from day 1, then try and include some very fast growing stems and floaters, at least for the initial period.
 
Thanks Tom

I am in no rush to stock. I would be quite happy to spend the 4-5 weeks doing a fishless cycle before stocking anything. So I don't mind waiting just as long for plants to establish before stocking.

I place getting the plants right, and tank algae free, above stocking fish.

I have some filter media sitting in a friends filter, but I am guessing this is going to be off little use in the tank without a food source? I might add these on the day I add the first batch of fish as a little boost to the filter system.

Aaron
 
I'd add shrimps right away, tho. Cherries are pretty hardy and will help the balance in the tank and keep any algae growth down.
 
If it were me and i was taking the cautious approach.
Get the tank planted up,lots of quick stems eg. Limnophila Sessiflora.Daily water changes for the first couple of weeks.
Hopefully after the inital settling in and new growth has started, bang in the mature media you mention, add a small shoal of fish.
Keep the up the waterchanges for the week, and observe.
Do you know what tank & fish?
 
I am probably at risk of upsetting a few with my response but in general, I agree with the getting your plants in and the environment settled put the mature filter media in the same day. Ammonia is created by all sorts of bacteria and the breakdown of the plants, so the filter media will process this. Check water parameters before buying fish and if within the required fish's environment requirements, add fish in low numbers, repeat water checks and only add if the water parameters allow. If fish kept to a minimum number you will not even register ammonia/nitrite. I personally have not used shrimps in any new environment set up, so cannot comment on their suitability.
Big Tom just for your information the adding of mature filter media to a new setup (with prepared water) has proven to be the quickest way of cycling a tank before adding livestock to a new aquarium without adverse affect of livestock. Testing carried out by Sparsholt students.
 
I would say it depends on how experience and confident you are with growing plants!
Assuming we are talking about a Co2 injected high tech tank..... then If you have little experience with such a set up the last thing you want are fish or shrimps in your tank!
Adjusting & playing around with Co2 levels is not recommended with anything other than plants in the tank.
On the other hand if you are confident about all the factors required to grow algae free plants then yes you can add fish although personally I would not do so myself for at least four weeks.
 
Good call Foxfish. Get the plants right and you'll have a healthy environment for your plants.

After reading about various instances of fishless cycles inducing weird algaes and stuff, I'd be inclined to just put in some floating plants and a couple of hardy fish.
 
I find "Hardy fish" an objectionable term. While some fish have wider tolerances than others, none should be subjected to any exceptional parameters. If you can't give the fish the water and care it needs, don't buy it.

Silent cycles can work. As suggested, get the tank established as a planted tank, plenty of plant mass, plenty of fast growing plants. Choose the fish, avoiding the super senitive soecies. and add slowly, and watch for ammonia and nitrite like a hawk, daily water changes may be necessary, if not recommended. Don't let the ammonia or nitrite get to a detectable level. A mature media donation would be a great start, but only add it when you're ready for fish or it may not be useful if left fallow too long.

It would be interesting to see how you go with this, and maybe keep this thread updated with the progress, if only for the purposes of the cycling data.
 
I probably should have been more specific when I said "hardy fish". I don't agree with simply dumping fish in an immature environment, but there are some that are more tolerant than others of less than ideal conditions. You mention "avoiding the super sensitive species"; this is what I'm referring to. There are fish that can withstand the odd mistake or lapse, and these are the sort of fish that will happily be put in an immature tank with ample plant density.

I'd never jeopardise the wellbeing of any livestock, but guppies and barbs are a lot less fussy about their water than Apistogrammas and such.

Maybe I should choose my words more carefully in the future.
 
Guppies are not the fish they used to be when it comes to a fish in cycle, they are one of the weakest fish on the market now.

I have to agree with foxfish, there's no point in spending shed loads on plants for it to fail on that side. What others do is to do you layout and plant as you would, then add some floating or bunches of elodea or other fast growing stems for the first couple of weeks to use any nasties up in the water.
 
Big Tom just for your information the adding of mature filter media to a new setup (with prepared water) has proven to be the quickest way of cycling a tank before adding livestock to a new aquarium without adverse affect of livestock. Testing carried out by Sparsholt students.

Hi Trog. Yes, no problems at all with aiding/avoiding cycling all together by adding appropriately seeded mature filter media, just hard to know how much of that bacteria/archaea will still be there if adding it long before the livestock go in. Too many factors to get my poor addled brain around.
 
Ive just fishless cycled my tank with no plants,i took some japenese matting out of my well established koi filter,shook it in the tank and left it in,then i just added 0.5ml household ammonia per day till i got a nitrite spike then a waterchange of 70%,then waited till got no readings,then a waterchange then added fish, took 19 days to cycle,i believe if you add the plants then they steal the ammonia which is needed for the bacteria in the filter,worked for me..not had any readings of N03/4 or N02 since ..
 
Hi Big Tom, Yes I understand what you are saying, however it is not only fish that produce ammonia as you know, so the archaea/bacteria normally die back and adapt to the new environment factors and consume the ammonia created by other bacteria and plant breakdown at this kind of level, in a low tech environment, without too many issues.Especially as we are only talking 0.02mg/l. If there is not enough ammonia to consume, they can go into a state of suspension until there is, for a good period of time before decaying. Even when they decay they provide food for others. However your points are accepted that there are a lot of factors to consider.:crazy:
I also agree that you can wait the 6-8 weeks for this to occur naturally.;)
 
Ive just done mine about a month ago. 40l low tech added a few plants and mature media on setup. 3 days later i added 5 ember tetras and removed old media and did a 30% wc. A week later i added 3 corys and 4 armano shrimp
ammonia/nitrite undetectable nitrate steadily increased from start, water tested daily
I think climbing nitrate came from old media as rising nitrate stopped when old media was removed
My algae was caused by too much light and not enough co2
Now i change 30% of water weekly. No problems yet
People cycle tanks in many ways but this is how i did this tank and i do all my tanks like this
 
Hi all,
Every time I read "cycle" and or "add ammonia" I feel a combination of sadness, incomprehension and incredulity.
If you know that biological filtration systems with healthy growing plants are an order of magnitude more efficient than microbial alone systems, and ammonia is highly toxic chemical, cycling becomes a non-starter for a planted tank.

Have a look at this one: <Best Way To Start A Planted Tank? | UK Aquatic Plant Society>.

cheers Darrel
 
I fully understand your point Darrel, but I'm not against a "test" of the tank's capabilities with some aqueous ammonia. I've never fully cycled a tank by any suggested means, ammonia, silent etc, I've always cloned or upgraded or managed to pinch sensible portions of media, although I have test cycled media in containers to satisfy some curiosities and for a little research. The main mantra and point to emphasise, IMO, is to ensure that any fish added are NEVER exposed to ammonia or nitrite.
 
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