Started Fishless Cycle

Thank you for all your help, it is much appreciated 

That's just how I felt when it happened. I was beginning to give up hope  It took 4 weeks for me.

It is fine to mix silk and live plants.

Live plants use ammonia as their preferred source of nitrogen, but it takes a lot of fast growing plants to remove all the ammonia made by fish. Floating plants are particularly good because they are close to the tank lights and can take up carbon dioxide from the air, so they process ammonia faster than submerged plants.
If you plan on just a few live plants you will still need to grow a lot of bacteria to remove ammonia, the plants won't be able to do it all.


And yes, cories do love sand. They feed by taking a mouthful of sand and sifting it for morsels of food then expelling the sand through their gills. Just about all bottom dwelling fish are better on sand.

I know that 3 ppm is more ammonia than a sensibly stocked tank makes in 24 hours. The reasoning is that if we grow enough bacteria to remove 3 ppm, we'll have more than enough to fully stock the tank as soon as the cycle finishes. Note I said 'sensibly stocked' - it won't be enough for a very over stocked tank like some Rift Lake cichlid tanks you see

Plants take up ammonia faster than bacteria so a well planted tank will not grow as many bacteria as a tank with only fake plants. Some bacteria will grow but only slowly.
If fish are added slowly, a few at a time, to a tank well planted with fast growing plants, and the water quality tested daily, there is no need to cycle a tank before getting fish. Some bacteria will grow slowly as more fish are added. The important words are 'add fish a few at a time' and 'well planted' and 'fast growing'. Adding half the proposed stock at one go with 2 slow growing java ferns will not work!


So the answer to your question is - it depends  It depends on how many plants and what type. But yes, a tank with a fair number of fast growing plants does not need to be cycled and will remove all the ammonia made by a tank of fish. As for whether that is actually 3 ppm, it is probably a bit less than that.

Sorry, misunderstood 

Yes, 3 ppm ammonia is harmful to a lot of plants. Either do a fishless cycle then plant the tank after it has finished, or plants the tank and use them to do a silent cycle.

Algae is common in cycling tanks, particularly if you have the tank lights on. It's because of all that ammonia. The commonest algae during cycling is diatoms. These look like brownish dust which is easily wiped off. The good news is that once the cycle is finished it usually goes away. Slowly.
It is because we add ammonia as one big dose instead of tiny amounts every minute of every day like when there are fish in the tank. And it just stays there until the ammonia eaters have grown.

Keep testing every third day until nitrite is over 2 and ammonia under 0.75  If nitrite is beginnig to show it should shoot up quite quickly.

Three and a half weeks in now and the nitrites i thought I'd seen have disappeared  , ammonia is between 1 and 2 , could be lower it's hard to be certain. There are no nitrites or nitrates. I'm hoping something will happen soon , I'm starting to think that actually there is no such thing as nitrites   

Hi Sue, yes it is frustrating  I think i'll throw a nitrite party when they appear  . PH looks fine it's around 7.5 - 8 .

You'll get there Andy, and before you know it, struggling with with the cycle will be a distant memory... 

I have nitrites  think it's four weeks today , i would say 0.5 on my chart but they are definitely there  Ammonia is still around 1. I shall wait now and hopefully the nitrates will spike soon and the ammonia will drop a little more.

Yey, congratulations!   

By the way, any chance you could upload a photo of your tank? I'm curious to see what you have been staring at for the last 4 weeks waiting!