Adding Plants to new tank?

[syburn]

Should I let a new tank run through the intial cycle process before adding plants - or can I add them at the very beginning??

Thx

[dcwk]

Plants should be part of the cycling process.

[Panut]

If im not wrong, plants can help shorten your cycling process..

[EvolutionZ]

yes, plant heavily on the first day of set up.
as heavy as possible.. as plants help in cycling the tank as well.

[torque6]

N cycling doesnt apply to planted tanks.

[syburn]

thanks for that, now im discovering that i better not "any-how" plant. Need to plan the tank a bit and order the plants and get the bog wood etc. All very interesting!!


But Torque6 mentioned that

"N cycling doesnt apply to planted tanks." Thats interesting!!

[torque6]

yes, it takes awhile to complete a planted tank, my new 1FT planted would probably take me another 12 weeks to finish before i migrate my existing fauna over.

[illumnae]

it's not that N cycling does not apply, it's just that the "rules" are changed slightly. the main purpose of cycling is to establish a healthy and sufficiently large colony of bacteria in your tank/filter such that ammonia and nitrites are removed from the system sufficiently fast.

With sufficient plants in the tank, ammonia and/or nitrites will be absorbed sufficiently fast such that they are also removed from the system. What this results in is the same overall effect as a full cycling, but with the bacteria colony taking a much longer time to establish due to the lack of available food.

The practical implications are that if a tank is sufficiently planted, ammonia will be removed quickly from the system, resulting in what seems to be a cycled tank. However, due to the slower establishment of bacteria, should anything cause your plants not to grow or to die out, your ammonia will not be removed and you will have an uncycled/partially cycled tank, to the detriment of your fish. As such, while it is possible to "almost instantly cycle" your tank with a densely planted setup, it's also a risky process should anything affect the growth/health of your plants.

You must also take note that for ammonia intake to sufficiently support a fully stocked tank, you need plants that grow fast and thus have a faster intake of ammonia. a tank densely planted with java ferns and anubias will probably not support as much livestock as a tank densely planted with hornwort.

[syburn]

Illumnae -that was very illuminating!

Do U think adding a few fish early on will help?

What other class of plants are great for supporting more fish?

[StanChung]

Syburn, Weeds! -Rotalas, Hygrophilas, Limnophilas... lots to choose from.

Do not however put Cryptocorynes, Pogostemon helferi[downoi] or cabombas in new tanks. Melt easily and can cause disaster.

Depending on whether your tank is using designer soil or just gravel. If just using gravel, it's ok to put in 1/10 of the final fish mass supportable IME. For a one feet tank, one or two otos and a yamato is fine.

If you're using soil, it's better to wait 2-4 weeks. Especially if you're using Aquasoil+Powersand. [recommended to do large water changes on 2 and 7th day]

[torque6]

illumnae, i meant the mechanics of N cycle doesnt apply, since the overall objective is to breakdown ammonia either by plant uptake or by bacteria. Although i have to agree you have given a very solid, detailed explaination behind this process.