cycling of planted tank

[elimmel]

what kick starts a cycle? ammonia.
just put something into the tank that will generate ammonia.
fish food & mp are good choices. some even use ammonia powder (expensive).

if you plant dense enough, you can even put in the fishes you want from day1. maybe not full bioload but beats having to wait 3-4weeks
note to plant densely and start fert dosing regime to prevent nutrient depletion leading to new startup algae issues.

should i on the lights when cycling?

Originally Posted by bcg

should i on the lights when cycling?

Of course, with the plants they will need the lights.

Its just normal tank with normal photo hours, just without the fishes initially.

If you plan to cycle with plants then yes. if not then dun put any lights. diff bros have different methods of doing the cycling. personally i wont plant anything yet until things are more or less stabilised. If not, gana green water, also back to square 1 where plants dun get enuff light n their growth suffer.

Originally Posted by Barra21

If you plan to cycle with plants then yes. if not then dun put any lights. diff bros have different methods of doing the cycling. personally i wont plant anything yet until things are more or less stabilised. If not, gana green water, also back to square 1 where plants dun get enuff light n their growth suffer.

Same here, I only on the filter when cycling. No plant and faunas inside, only the gravel.
Like that Bro Barra21 said, different bros have differnt method, just check around and see which one suit you most.

[elimmel]

err... if don't add plants, then why call it a planted tank?

even if you add plants after the tank is "cycled", you may still run into problems due to base fert leach, algae, mini-cycle etc.

As for me i cycle with plant & live stock

Ha bro elimmel,

let me explain the concept the way i see it. the purpose for cycling without plants actually the same as other normal tanks.

When its first set up, ammonia spike, nitrate spike, basically every spike could and most likely will happen as all ur BB (benificial bacteria) namely your nitrosomonas and nitrobacter bacteria havent colonised your filter media and substrate. so there are 2 options to take depending on landscape.

1) First option - Dun bother so much and wack hell loads of plants in there at once. Lights will be turned on. This method works where you want a jungle in ur tank. It works because the huge volume of plants take in all the ammonia, nitrates etc before the algae can get to the nutrients. But the key to this is plant like crazy.

2)Second option is where you want to do proper landscaping. eg in my case i chose a zen landscape where lesser plants are used in strategic locations according to landscape planning. Lights will be off and no planting will take place for a mth.

Imagine this. Lets say i have 100 ppm of ammonia and 100 ppm of nitrates in my tank. I on the lights And because of this landscape i have, my small volume of plants can only take up 20 ppm of each nutrients. Whats gona happen then? 100ppm - 20 ppm= 80 ppm
Green algae, hair algae. all the green monsters will come haunt u and its definately no easy task getting rid of them. this is cause the BB havent formed or stabalised so ur 80ppm remaining nutrients will be like a buffet for the algae.
Also, for this 2nd method, no lights will be turned on so that the algae has little chance to grow. and my BB will be growing exponentially by the day. After a mth when its done cycling i'll start the planting process. This also give me time to think of my landscape.

So like i have mentioned in my previous post, it all depends on what you are going to do with ur landscape and diff bros methods. Both methods will work if u know what ur after.

Hope this helps all the bros doing their cycling.

Originally Posted by Barra21

Ha bro elimmel,

let me explain the concept the way i see it. the purpose for cycling without plants actually the same as other normal tanks.

When its first set up, ammonia spike, nitrate spike, basically every spike could and most likely will happen as all ur BB (benificial bacteria) namely your nitrosomonas and nitrobacter bacteria havent colonised your filter media and substrate. so there are 2 options to take depending on landscape.

1) First option - Dun bother so much and wack hell loads of plants in there at once. Lights will be turned on. This method works where you want a jungle in ur tank. It works because the huge volume of plants take in all the ammonia, nitrates etc before the algae can get to the nutrients. But the key to this is plant like crazy.

2)Second option is where you want to do proper landscaping. eg in my case i chose a zen landscape where lesser plants are used in strategic locations according to landscape planning. Lights will be off and no planting will take place for a mth.

Imagine this. Lets say i have 100 ppm of ammonia and 100 ppm of nitrates in my tank. I on the lights And because of this landscape i have, my small volume of plants can only take up 20 ppm of each nutrients. Whats gona happen then? 100ppm - 20 ppm= 80 ppm
Green algae, hair algae. all the green monsters will come haunt u and its definately no easy task getting rid of them. this is cause the BB havent formed or stabalised so ur 80ppm remaining nutrients will be like a buffet for the algae.
Also, for this 2nd method, no lights will be turned on so that the algae has little chance to grow. and my BB will be growing exponentially by the day. After a mth when its done cycling i'll start the planting process. This also give me time to think of my landscape.

So like i have mentioned in my previous post, it all depends on what you are going to do with ur landscape and diff bros methods. Both methods will work if u know what ur after.

Hope this helps all the bros doing their cycling.

Hahaa, agree with you, i did mine using your method.
Afterall there's not absolute right or wrong about it, just different bros have different preference of doing it.

yup We're all here to share our experiences. All learn together.