Re: [AGA Member] Aquarium Planning

["Rachel Sandage" <rachelsor@hotmail.com>]

"My plan is to cycle the tank with fast growing plants only, no fish."

Cycling refers to the period of time when the bacteria which convert ammonia 
to nitrite & nitrite to nitrate colonize the tank. See 
http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html for a very nice explanation of the 
nitrogen cycle.

Since plants are nitrogen consumers, not producers, you cannot cycle a tank 
using plants only, unless you were planning to add ammonia as a nitrogen 
source in the tank. But, since plants us ammonia and ammonium directly, even 
if you did that you might not see the NH3-N02-NO3 progression that you would 
see in a non-planted tank.

The only reason I can think of for waiting more than a day or two to make 
sure heaters, filters, and lights are all working before adding fish is if 
you want to wait a week or so to make sure the plants are really going to 
grow.

My own preference, if you want to be serious about plants, would be to go 
with a substrate meant for plants, like flourite or caribsea eco-complete, 
rather than messing with the laterite mixture.

Sorry if this is stuff you already knew.

Rachel 
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