Newly Planted tanks and Nitrate levels on Fish-in cycles.

[Jferrante]

I started an unintentional fish-in cycle while switching over from goldfish to tropical fish.
Now I have a 55g with Fluval 305 canister filter that now has three sections of Biomax and 2 sections of marineland compact polishing foam recently that you cut to fit that I added in the 3rd section to collect the floating particles. I believe what remains is just tiny oxygen bubbles that cross the tank from the return water. I did wash most of the filter before switching except two of the main foam pads I left in after a quick rinse in tap water (which at the time I didn't realize hindered it.) I added eco complete and quartz gravel (which seems to have cirtine quartz and rose quartz, both of which actually have a good source of iron although they are obviously slow at leeching it.)
Anyway my plants now are
- Anubias Nana
- Anubias Hastifolia (added yesterday)
- Java Fern (not yet attached to lava rock/ added yesterday)
- Alternanthera reineckii (a bright almost neon vareity that's lower half was bare and some leaves were partially melted when I added it but now it seems to be gaining stability)
- Banana Plant (tripled in size in less than two weeks. it's growing big leaves now with the new light.)
- Two Italian Vals (they shed a couple of blades and some turned pale but are now turning a darker green again.
- A grass I cannot identify... When I bought it they weren't sure what it was lol they called it like an onion plant but it's not. It's dark green with straight cut tips and at first it was all distorted since it was left floating in their tank but it had really nice roots and color so I bought it. At first two blades started to turn yellowish very slowly but after I cut them it stopped and has slowly straightened out so far.
-I bought some christmas moss yesterday aswell and attached it all over the same lava rock as the java fern. They both have their space though since it's i pretty big rock for plants.

One question I have is if all that fishing line will be dangerous for things like shrimp that might hide in it. It has several twists and hollow spots and is really the best lava rock I have ever seen for an aquarium so far. but I have I kept most of the line away from the most obvious hiding places but it's still wrapped all over. It's fine for my rummy nose since they only occasionaly swim through it while exploring but I feel shrimp or cories will hide in the small cave I made under it and don't want them to scavenge it only to unexpectedly meet the fishing line and get hurt... So should I wait for those and cut and remove the fishing line after the xmas moss and java fern attach before adding them?


Finally my main question. Do new plants stabilize nitrate level while doing fish in cycles? With seachems stability, and prime and moderately cycled old filter foam would a slight rise in ammonia but no nitrite and steady nitrate. Could it mean that there is cycling going on but the plants are lowering the Nitrate to seem almost the same?
I know I will be able to tell in a few weeks to days. I just would like to know if all these plants could lower the Nitrate levels to make it appear that nothing is happening yet and if there is a way to double dose the test to see finer increases.

 

[BBradbury]

Your Tank

Hello Jfer...

You've got quite a lot of info in your post. I skimmed it, but it could have been shorter. The dark green plants take low to moderate light. A couple of bulbs from the local hardware store are sufficient. The light green variety will need considerably more, even a CO2 system, but these are pricey and tricky and to set up and run.

The fish line isn't the best means of attaching plants to lava rock or driftwood. The line will never dissolve. Cotton sewing thread is much better, it dissolves in the tank water. The fish line won't harm anything, though.

Plants are natural water filters, especially those that float. Drop as many individual stems into the tank as possible. They'll help steady the water chemistry. Hornwort and Anacharis are the best. Cycling a tank with fish isn't at all bad. You just need to get the right fish like Danios, Rasboras or Platys and test the tank water daily for traces of ammonia and nitrite. If you have a trace of either, you change out 25 percent of the old water with clean, treated tap water. When you have several daily tests with no traces of the above toxins, the tank is cycled. The process takes roughly a month.

Have fun!

B