# New tank: Cycling, plants and fertilizers



## Boogerboy (Sep 23, 2008)

Hi there

Just set up my 50gal on ADA-clone Netlea aqua soil (day 2). Supposedly the ADA kind gives a sufficient ammonia boost at the beginning to not need additional ammonia for cycling: the same doesn't appear to be the case with the Netlea. One day later and I'm getting Ammonia readings of about .3ppm. Do I need to pick up some supplementary ammonia to get the cycle going? Do you think this is just getting eaten up by my plants?

Onto the plants, I have a range of stem and rooted plants (all in all about 20 bunches including HC pots), this is my first experience with a high tech system. At the moment I have my lights (2 Oddysea 2x39W Fluorescent, total of 156w) on for about 8 hours and CO2 at 1 bubble per second. I have gotten conflicting information on whether or not to dose ferts at the beginning of the cycle (especially with a high-nutrient substrate and the delicate chemistry of a freshly started tank). Right now I have a homemade NPK bottle and CSM+B bottle but I've held off on putting any in the aquarium until I can get a definitive answer.

Having said that, I don't want to lose any plants (especially the pricey batch of HC it took to plant across 2/3 of the bottom.) I don't mind the cycle taking a bit longer if it means having the plants as healthy as possible (this is the primary purpose of the tank, the fish are just a nice addition later). Will the plants be okay without ferts for the first while? should I be adding them in and carrying out water changes that will inevitably mess with the growing bacteria ecosystem? Any advice would be great

thanks for reading!


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

Chances are, any ammonia that is being leeched by the substrate is being absorbed by the plants (hard to say without a picture to see how high your plant biomass is). Keep in mind that ammoniacal nitrogen is more readily absorbed by plants than NO3. If your biomass is high enough, you will not even notice a cycle (so-called "silent cycle).

Water changes will not mess with the beneficial bacteria, as most reside within the filter, and not free floating within the water column.

As this is your first high tech aquarium, you may be in for a bit of a learning curve 

Regarding nutrients/dosing, you should start dosing immediately. I would recommend the EI dosing regimen. For your CO2, if you do not already have a drop checker, I would recommend you get one (be sure to use a 4 dkH reference solution and not aquarium/tap/distilled water).


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## Boogerboy (Sep 23, 2008)

Here is an image i snapped this morning (from my phone, excuse the quality). There are some fast growers around the back. 4 stems Lysimachia nummularia 4 stems Rotala Macrandra, 6-7 stems of Ludwigia Arcuata, a good 15 of Rotala Rotundifolia. Some other plants include ~10 staurogyne Repens, lots of HC, bolbitis heuledotii, 2 anubias nana. (That's all that comes to mind right now, please excuse any errors in spelling)

It looks fairly sparse at this point yet, although I did catch 2 tiny little shoots of HC where I'm fairly certain i didn't plant any (I didn't plant the HC in single shoots anyway) so maybe the plants are taking up all the ammonia to get into gear. In any case, should I supplement ammonia?

Also that cloudiness of the tank, is that Nitrobacter forming? (It's not likely to be substrate cloudiness since It's been 2 days)


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

You could just dose fertilizers as you would normally, and wait a few weeks for the plants to fill in.

By that time, any ammonia that is produced by live stock that you introduce (slowly) will be easily absorbed by the plants.

As for the haziness of the water, indeed it is caused by a bacterial bloom (though it could still be very fine particulates).


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## Boogerboy (Sep 23, 2008)

Today the tank is getting close to crystal clear so I'm glad, either there is a slime coat forming for the bacteria or the filter got hold of whatever loose particles may have been clouding the water up. I dosed some ammonia last night, only got to 2ppm before I had to run, but I'm thinking I might just stop adding ammonia and let the tank take its time to cycle, since I'm worried about high nitrates leading to algae and not really in a hurry for fish anyway.

On a dissimilar but related topic: any opinions on what mid-tank plant species I could look for to fit in the currently bare area between the driftwood branches? The background plants directly behind it are Ludwigia Arcuata and to the front theres staurogyne repens if it helps.
EDIT: Nevermind that last paragraph, I rearranged a bunch of stuff. (I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing, but i hope it looks good grown in. In the past I've always gotten plants gradually as I came across ones I liked, first time planting a whole scape at once)


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