# Conflicting Info on Plants During Initial Cycle



## Cballas (Aug 25, 2010)

OK...Did you add your plants on the VERY fist DAY of cycling?
Or a little after? Or does it just depend on the the plant?
I've read conflicting info supporting both methods
and I'm really confused. 
I want to do a pure ammonia cycle method.
I have a 10G fishless I want to cycle. 

I also have a 3G I'm trying to stabilize with 2 Danios in it,
nobody at Petco told me about this step so I'm just doing water changes and AmQuel + so they live till testing says its cycled.

Thank for your advice!


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I've known people to do it both ways. Add them last with the fish, or cycle the tank with them in on day 1. Some plants with eat enough ammonia to make a difference. But if you add ammonia to measurable concentration on a test and retest a few extra times to find out if the plants are gobbling it up, you can safely use them in a fishless cycle.


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## Corwin (May 23, 2010)

ive always put my plants in while the tanks were still cycling


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

I add the plants on day one, well before adding any fish a week or so later.


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## Schwartzy61 (Jan 25, 2010)

As with anything in the hobby...it all depends. I started up my 10 gallon recently and I used Stability by seachem and hornwort. I had my tank cycled in a week. Im not even kidding....i also had old filter media tho. Anyways...when the beneficial bacteria start to feed on "waste" produced in a tank they release nitrogen in the form of nitrate and nitrite. Plants love nitrate and will absorb it. Planted tank keepers are actually supposed to keep their nitrate level relativly high...I keep mine between 50-40ppm. So a good cycling plant is hornwort...helps suck out all the nasty nitrates and nitrites to put them at a desired level. Best up luck.


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