Plants and ammonia

Hello,

I am currently in the process of cycling my aquarium using 10% ammonia. I am at 5ppm for the ammonia, no nitrites and no nitrates. Is it safe to add plants to the aquarium with such high ammonia levels? If so, which plants would be best for a first time fish aquarium owner which is very hardy and easy to maintain?

Also, how much faster is the cycle when the plants are added?

Some plants like hornwort and water sprite will metabolise ammonia, but in high concentrations it will kill almost anything. If it were my aquarium, I would take the approach mentioned in my answer to your previous posting. Of course, that's just a personal opinion. The ammonia way is supposed to work. Please let us know how it works for you.

Thanks again for the reply John. I've been reading articles and reading other forums, some people have raised their ammonia to almost 15ppm. This eventually was converted to nitrites but took a lot longer than a normal cycle. So I believe that the ammonia level has to be extremely high before it really starts to kill off beneficial bacteria. I really do believe that my water is about 5-7ppm, but do you think this is too high for plants, or are you not sure?

Thanks again for your guy's help.

It's probably OK for something like hornwort, but i don't have direct experience. At least, hornwort is cheap. Are you aware that you can now buy live beneficial bacteria in a bottle? Since it's a living organism, it seems like shipping, warehousing, etc. would be important.

Yeah, I am aware of these products. It's funny though, the local fish store near my house told me that these products hardly ever help the cycles. I do have some gravel from a well established aquarium already, although I added this gravel 2 week ago...I don't see any benefits from it so far

I've also read some articles on these bottled bacteria. I've heard good and bad stories about their help with cycling.

I've never used the stuff but would not be surprised if storage in hot or cold warehouses affected their effectivity. How about that for an effect.

Usually I avoid all the ammonia problems in setting up a new aquarium by simply not measuring the ammonia for the first couple or three weeks. Nature just does its thing. Before adding fish, it's a good idea to check water parameters; if they're OK, check again in a couple of days to make sure the cycle is complete.