plant introduction in new tank

[kostasonia]

Hi all!!

I have a question. i have just bought my new 110liter tank and i am in the process of letting it roll for tow-three weeks until the filter has the necesary bacteria to accept fishes.
My question is. What about natural plants??? whenshould i introduce them? before the fishes or after? soon or after some days??

Thanx!!!!

 

[Purrbox]

Are you adding a source of ammonia to your tank? If not, your filter won't be growing any bacteria to form the biofilter. While it's a good idea to run the equipment for awhile to make sure that everything is working properly, you really only need to do this for 24-48 hours.

You can add plants at anytime to your tank. If you plant heavily right at the beginning, it will help get your tank established since plants will act as a part of your biofilter. Make sure to read up on the plants before you buy them. Often times nonaquatics are sold right alongside of the true aquatics with nothing to let you know the difference. Also plants have different needs just like fish do, so you'll want to make sure that your tank can provide them with what they need.

There's a great forum specifically for planted aquariums which has several stickies about the various aspects of keeping plants. I suggest you read them, as they'll be a great deal of help. There's a lot of info, so don't be afraid to ask about anything that doesn't make sense at first. There's also some great articles in the articles section.

Welcome to AA!

 

[Mosaic]

Start with some fast growing plants (yay for hornwort - can't go wrong). If you throw them in now, they'll compete with algae for nutrients before the algae can take hold. I believe they'll also compete with the nitrifying bacteria, but really, plants will take care of a lot of toxins, so you may never see the ammonia/nitrite spikes that you're worried about. I say go for it now.

 

[SkullJug]

I always add my plants as soon as the tank is filled - Hygophilia Difformis and Blue stricta are my usual choices to start with.I never knew this until recently but plants will acually uptake ammonia before nitrit or nitrate so makes sense to plant them before you start cycling.