Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Tank Plant Advice => Topic started by: mikewilde on February 22, 2013, 10:46:06 AM
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I have set my juwel lido 120 up its got 9 plants in it that are doing nicely. I've got 3 moss balls in the post and I've put 5 rosy fin tetras in to start the nitrogen cycle. I've read up about the silent cycle after putting my plants in straight away and not wanting to damage them from the high ammonia levels of a fishless cycle. I've been testing pH ammonia nitrite and nitrate daily so far and all seems good.
Any advice with regards to plant fertilisers and what nutrients I could test for would be appreciated.
Mike
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Update: moss balls are in (3 x 40mm dia) and a piece of bogwood with two plants attached. So 11 plants doing well and 3 moss balls.
All water tests have shown 0 so far.
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Hi Mike, FYI I am also at the beginning of a silent cycle, though an unintentional one. I made a note [here (http://www.thinkfish.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,161.msg1893.html#msg1893)] about my readings you may want to take a peek at for reference.
My Roma tank is a low-tech dirt environment with a moderate number of different plant types so far. I'm currently using up some "API Leaf Zone" to dose the water column to help the plants get established. I'll be switching to "JBL Ferropol" once the Leaf Zone is used up and after that I probably won't need any more as the plants will be well rooted through the substrate to the dirt base.
Both of these ferts say to dose weekly, but I have broken down the weekly dose into smaller daily parts instead to be more consistent.
For your silent cycle to begin, you will need a source of Ammonia to promote the growth of first the Ammonia eaters, then the Nitrite eaters. My own starting Ammonia was spotted just 2 days after my initial planting, and has likely come from the melting Crypt leaves, as I haven't added any diluted Ammonia myself. You could start it very gently by adding a small amount of fish food, which will decay and produce Ammonia for you. See point #3 in the Fishless Cycling portion of article "Fish or fishless cycling (http://www.thinkfish.co.uk/article/fish-or-fishless-cycling-and-aquarium-maturation.html)".
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Hi Dave, Thanks for the link. I'll keep my eye on your posts.
I planted my tank with a jbl clay base layer and then a 2-3mm substrate on top. Its really deep, about 50mm at the shallowest point.
I'm using the jbl ferropol. It seems good stuff, my plants are doing really well. New shoots everywhere. I'm dosing 5ml twice a week going on the fact my tank is holding 100litres now after all the bits I've put in.
I've got a bit of furry algae growing on a couple of my plants but I think its down to a stale patch of water, maybe a small pump directing in that general direction will help...
I'm hoping the fish food and fish waste from my tetras will give a source of ammonia to kick start the cycling, is it possible the plants are using 'too much' ammonia and not allowing bacteria to grow?
Mike
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Hi Mike,
It's probably unlikely that all the Ammonia has been used by the plants, your Ammonia test kit should register at least some if there is any there. If your current regime of decaying food and fish waste isn't working after a few days, then maybe a boost might be considered.
For me, as I have a bottle of diluted Ammonia on hand, I expect to be dropping in a small amount to get/keep things going, as I'm sure my inherited source of Ammonia will expire fairly quickly. The amount will be very small, unlike my first tank, but I'm also learning as I go.
I too have a little bit of algae growth on my Java Moss (dark furry hairs), but nothing on anything else so far. Oddly I have white algae slime growing on the black rubber suction cups used to secure my filter inlet/outlet pipes to the inside of the glass. My invading pond snails seem to like it though.
Edit: Missed the fact you have fish in... sanity check © SteveS. I must have been half asleep.
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Mike,
You are not doing a silent cycle. You have too few plants and too many fish. You are doing a "fish-in" cycle. As such, you have an ammonia source, your fish! You should on no account be adding more, you will be poisoning your fish.
Is it possible that your plants are consuming all the available ammonia? Yes, it's one of the reasons for not having plants during a cycle, the plants are in competition with the bacteria you are trying to grow.