MORE ABOUT THE NITROGEN CYCLE

One of the monthly aquarium magazines just published an interesting bit of information about cycling a newly established tank to get rid of the ammonia spikes...

Article moved to the blog, too good to be buried here in two months. http://www.myaquariumclub.com/more-about-the-nitrogen- cycle-46.html

I'd be interested to hear what you find out on this one.

I've heard about plants making the aquarium inhabitable immediately... However... If you don't have good gravel, from an old tank, with all the waste and cooties and such in it... Or some kind of fertilizer... then the plants won't grow anyways... Unless they're potted plants... Blah! I'm too tired to think about this correctly... I can't get going today!

Both aquariums have under gravel filters, laterite, and about a cup of gravel from a well established tank. I still need to add plants.

Yesterday, I fixed and installed the lights and hoods, and this morning, I used two different test kits to measure ammonia. It was zero in both aquariums, probably meaning there is none of the stuff in my tap water. Next, I added a bunch of hornwort and some Java fern as well as a little flake food. The mighty ammonia chronicle will continue tomorrow.

I got my first hornwort!

I love it! I want more!!

LOL!

Hornwort seems to grow fine even in less than ideal conditions, and it sucks up all the bad cooties. Plus it's a safe haven for fry. I even like the way it looks.

Just a quick update: still no ammonia. Today, I'll add more driftwood, and later this week more plants will arrive. We'll see if the driftwood affects water hardness.

Before adding the driftwood yesterday, I did one of those dip tests to check water parameters. Everything was fine, but the pH in both tanks was about about as high as it gets. Time for a couple more Indian almond leaves (Terminalia Catappa).

It's been a week and still no ammonia. After the ammonia check, I added a bunch of plants and will wait a couple of days to do another check of water chemistry.

Way to keep up with it John!

Yesterday a plant order arrived and was much bigger than anticipated, so both new setups are fully planted. Just now, an ammonia test showed zero. Maybe the hornwort really does eat up all the bad cooties. Maybe in a week, I'll find out what some juvenile angelfish think about it.

It's been the better part of a week, and I added a medium piece of Malaysian driftwood to each aquarium. The driftwood, almond leaves and plants must have helped greatly with water hardness and pH, both of which are now ideal as are other water parameters. More significantly, ammonia still measures zero. Although there are no fish in the aquariums yet, the plants have shed a few pieces (normal when you move them) and I've been adding a bit of flake food and brine shrimp every few days. Thus, there is a biological load, and the good bacteria must be working. I'll check for ammonia after fish are added, but this experiment seems to confirm the idea that a well planted aquarium does not need to go through a long cycling process. Of course, the whole thing can be upset by overloading the aquarium with fish and/or food. A well planted aquarium, however, does not happen by adding one dollop of duckweed and a hank of hornwort.

When I get time, I'll summarise the whole experiment and edit the thing into the blog.

I have a stupid question?
How to you get CO2 into the tank?
Don't you need that also for the plants to thrive?
I've never done the live plant thing..although I think a planted tank is beautiful.

You need supplemental carbon dioxide only if you are growing some demanding plants or if you want something to grow really fast and lush. There are two basic carbon dioxide systems for aquariums. One uses a pressurised bottle of the stuff and usually has all sorts of fancy gadgets, including a pretty fancy price. The other, which can be built at home, uses sugar water and yeast. When those two things get together, they ferment, making alcohol and carbon dioxide. Apparently, both systems work better if you can make the gas bubbles very small by using a diffuser or something like that. If you leave either system on when it's dark, they and the plants, which make carbon dioxide at night, can use up all the oxygen supply in the aquarium and even mess with the pH. Of course, there are ways to turn them off at night.

If you know what you're doing, carbon dioxide systems help make some truly beautiful planted aquariums. I may try one of the DYI systems on an aquarium with nothing but plants and clay based substrate supplements. In fact, with one of those systems, I could probably get wealthy selling hornwort and duckweed over the internet. Whadaya think?

Very good info. there JohnA..thanks !!
You answered my question friend !!

In the next week or so, I'm going to edit that whole thing and put it in the blog. However, it's just one experience and not necessarily scientific fact.

I still haven't gotten around to editing the blog, but yesterday, one of the new aquariums received its very own angelfish. They're doing fine, and the ammonia still reads zero.