Newlywed, I just went through my first tank cycle. I tried the fish and real plants approach like you’re thinking of doing. If I had to do it again, I’d do it without the real plants.
For me, having the plants in the tank complicated things. Too much to worry about all at one time. I think the plants were OK on the lighting, but they didn’t have the nutrients they needed to survive. Adding fertilizers to a cycling tank just didn’t seem like a good idea to me. I didn’t really know what I was doing and thought that by trying to save the plants, I’d put additional stress on my fish.
So I ended up focusing on doing whatever it took to get the fish to survive the cycle, and let the plants fend for themselves so to speak. The end result was that all the plants died, and the fish all survived.
Now that I have a cycled and stable tank, and the fish are all healthy and happy, I’m going to start re-introducing live plants into it.
Getting thru a cycle the old fashioned way was a great learning experience for me. But next time I’m either going with fishless or with Bio-Spira!
Hybrid Mode
