I'm about to start cycling a new tank. Wondering if it would be bad to put them in at the start of a fishless cycle? I'll be using pure houseold ammonia for BB nutrients(X drops per Y gallons.) I don't see how it could hurt really - they may be a little "hungry" until nitrites start getting converted to nitrates, but other than that, would they make it ok?
Live plants during fishless cycling?
- Thread starter letstalkfish
- Start date
I think it would be fine, but why not try seachem stability? It's faster and easier to do then going that route. Or for more immediate results, you can steal bio from an established filter.
They consume ammonia, but if they are starved of other nutrients maybe less so. If it's just a couple if plants it probably won't make that much difference.
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Some "harder to keep" plants will suffer. But most common aquatic plants will simply stall or slow growth. Normal growth will resume after conditions become more favorable. Unless you are growing things like madagascar lace, you should be fine to add plants now. You can always artifically add whatever the plant is missing
I actually did decide to try stability. never used it before, excited to see how it works
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I know microbelift nite out is garbage..wrong bacteria.. I was just reading that stability is as well (weird because seachem has good stuff) but I haven't used it.. I have used tetra safestart and microbe lift and safestart worked very well. I used a shrimp to create the ammonia and never saw nitrites with safe start..just nitrates and ammonia until the ammonia was gone.. took like 4 days.. Any way if you don't see nitrates in less than a week I would give safe start a shot.. Good luck
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Plants actually are great to use in a freshly cycling tank. Ive done tons of planted tanks over the years and the more plants the better. You do have to make sure you have adequate light and micro and macro. BUT the plants help the tank Cycle fast/easier as well as they will consume Ammonia as a source of food.
I cycle all my new tanks just by adding live plants from established aquariums. Lots of beneficial bacteria on the plants. No need to add ammonia. Just add fish.
You absolutely wont regret it. I used it to setup my 180 gallon freshwater setup and I'm tempted to give some a try in my saltwater setup (just got my sump up and running today, need a better bacteria colony in there!).