Re: Using media/plants to help cycle new tanks

Posted by Thriftyfisher on 2012/3/22 23:02:31

Plants can be used to shorten the cycling of a tank. Plants are covered in with beneficial bacteria and they themselves also remove ammonia and other harmful chemicals from the water.

I set up tanks and put fish in them the next day. I use some tank water from other tanks, plants and light stocking at first. The other thing I do is a large water change after 2-4 days. Remember, most of my tanks are species tanks and I usually am only putting a pair or small group of fish in it and then as they breed the tank fills up with more fish.

Setting up a planted tank and then putting a bunch of Najas grass into the tank will effectively cycle the tank. Najas grass grows very fast and can eliminate the need to cycle a tank. Once the other plants have established themselves, after a couple weeks, you can remove all or part of the Najas grass. (You will probably need to at that point anyway so that it doesn’t completely take over the tank.)

You can also read Diane Walstad’s book “Ecology of the planted tank.” This is a great book if you would like to do low tech planted tanks she is the king.

I hope this helps.