Im cycling as you might now from the "Getting Started" forum. Will plants help cycling, and will they die? I will be adding the fish, plants, gravel, and decorations into a new tank. No worries, they're all full of bacteria and im adding my old filter to assist the new filter.
cycling, so?
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DanTheGuppyMan
Aquarium Advice Addict
Live plants can help in cycling as they can help break down the waste in the tank but as you said you won't add any fish or other animals you shouldn't have a problem with waste. Some plants are good with absorbing ammonia though which is needed to cycle an aquarium properly and adding a fish into the tank can help create that ammonia you need and once the ammonia spikes get the fish out and go on with the rest of the cycle. All in all, live plants should do fine in a cycling aquarium.
nereksnad
Aquarium Advice Freak
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EDIT: further reading on the subject has proven that plants are able to use ammonium, which is something I wasn't aware of.
however, while it might help with the cycling process, I wouldn't count on it to keep your aquarium safe for fish. it will aid in the fish-in cycling process though.
however, while it might help with the cycling process, I wouldn't count on it to keep your aquarium safe for fish. it will aid in the fish-in cycling process though.
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DanTheGuppyMan
Aquarium Advice Addict
Well from what I know only some plants absorb the ammonia, but what I did to get my tank cycling is I just threw in a feeder goldfish with all my plants for about a week to get all that waste broken down to create ammonia then took it out and went along with the cycle. You shouldn't leave the fish in there too long and rely on the plants to take care of the excess nutrients and such, only to get the ammonia started if this is the first time setting up this tank.
By seeding the tank with the old filter, plants will aid the cycling. But alot depends on how many plants you add. If you only add one or two then they won't do much. But if you plant alot of the tank, and I mean alot, covering at least a minimum of 50% of the substrate then they will aid the cycling a lot. But your tank is still going to probably have some cycling to do so if you add fish right away you need to check ammonia/nitrites daily and do WC's as needed to keep those reading as close to 0 as possible but no higher than .25.
jetajockey
come get me tang police!
Just to clarify, plants can use ammonium (nh+4), not free ammonia (nh3). This is why many terrestrial ferts have a portion of ammoniacal nitrogen in them.
nh+4 and nh3 make up total ammonia nitrogen (tan). The ratio of each that make up the TAN is dependent on pH and temp. As the temp drops/ph drops below neutral, the TAN shifts more and more toward nh+4, and vice versa when the temp/ph rise. Liquid salicylate tests like the API master kit (and others that use the yellow to green color shades) only read TAN, so they don't differentiate between free ammonia and ammonium. This is why people often say that Prime and other ammonia 'binders' give a 'false positive'.
This isn't essential reading, but just thought I'd share for anyone interested.
The summary is that in an alkaline tank, plants will not do nearly as much to combat an ammonia problem as they would in an acidic environment.
nh+4 and nh3 make up total ammonia nitrogen (tan). The ratio of each that make up the TAN is dependent on pH and temp. As the temp drops/ph drops below neutral, the TAN shifts more and more toward nh+4, and vice versa when the temp/ph rise. Liquid salicylate tests like the API master kit (and others that use the yellow to green color shades) only read TAN, so they don't differentiate between free ammonia and ammonium. This is why people often say that Prime and other ammonia 'binders' give a 'false positive'.
This isn't essential reading, but just thought I'd share for anyone interested.
The summary is that in an alkaline tank, plants will not do nearly as much to combat an ammonia problem as they would in an acidic environment.
Acid is a Ph under 7.0 and alkaline is above 7.0. 7.0 is considered neutral.
Also remember the more plants you add the more nutrients they will absorb especially water sprite, wisteria, and fast growing stem plants.
Also remember the more plants you add the more nutrients they will absorb especially water sprite, wisteria, and fast growing stem plants.
CoryFan
Aquarium Advice FINatic
To clarify a little, newaddict is taking everything that is already in his ten and moving it into his twenty nine. So this is the stock that filter was already covering, and the substrate. 
