Silent Cycle - Exeriment and Journal - Heavily Planted

[SHARPiE]

Hi Guys,
I've been seeing more and more about the "Silent Cycle". No-one at my LFS' had heard of it, and they were all eager to see the story. I thought I would share this with you all.

It has been found that setting up a tank with many fast growing plants, you can skip the traditional "cycle" and add large fish loads. You won't see the ammonia or nitrite spikes. The reasoning behind this is scientific - plants love ammonia, not only this, the plants come covered in beneficial bacteria that will start the traditional cycle. By using this method you can add the fish you want earlier in the cycling process.

Now before people start on the "you are killing your fish rant", please let it be known - these fish won't be exposed to adverse water conditions. I will continue to conduct water changes and twice daily tests. I've also been promised by my LFS, at any stage of this process, I can home the fish in their Quarantine facilities. All fish are drip acclimated over an hour period.


Planted Community Aquarium - 70L (18.5 Gallon)

Blue Planet Haven 70L Tank
Pump Capacity: 550 L/hr
AquaOne Maxi 101 internal filter 400 L/hr
Lamp: 1 x 13 watt T-5 Tube
Fluval 88g CO2 System
Dupla Plant 24
Seachem Equilibrium
API Stress Zyme

Filter Media from established Tank
Driftwood established Tank
Heavily Planted - this is key

Stock List:

2x Molly
9x Cardinal Tetra
11x Rummynose Tetra
4x Ghost Glass Catfish

2x Anubia on Driftwood
2x Vallisneria spiralis
1x Hygrophillia
1x Dwarf Hairgrass
1x Small Cryptocoryne
1x Dwarf Blyxa


Day 0
pH - 7.6
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Temp - 26.3

Added substrate, driftwood, anubias.

Day 1
pH - 7.4
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Temp - 26.3

Started with 2x Molly
Both fish eating
Added first dose of Stress Zyme

Day 2
pH - 7.6
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Temp - 26.6

Found one Molly dead - tested water, parameters OK.
Water change just in case.
Added Air Stone incase it was an Oxygen issue?

Day 3
pH - 7.6
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Temp - 26.2

Added remaining plants:
2x Vallisneria spiralis
1x Hygrophillia
1x Dwarf Hairgrass
1x Small Cryptocoryne
1x Dwarf Blyxa

Added Glass Catfish and Cardinal Tetras

Day 4
pH - 7.4
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5
Temp - 26.5

First sign of nitrates

Day 5
pH - 7.4
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5
Temp - 26.3

Water change
Added Rummynose Tetras

Day 6
pH - 7.4
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Temp - 26.6

Water change


Day 7
pH - 7.6
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0-5
Temp - 26.8

Second dose of Stress Zyme after another water change


Planted Community Tank 70L - YouTube



Feel free to add suggestions, comments and criticism.
This is an evolving project, so I'm not locked into tank mates as my LFS is very flexible and allows me to trade in, hold or re-home anything I purchase.


For further Silent Cycle Reading, click this Link

 

[Bubbles0oO]

Im interested to see where this goes!

 

[DirtyTankMan]

I know duckweed, water sprite, water cabbage, and any other similar fast growing plant has always helped me add fish quickly.. They also absorb excess nutrients faster before algae can get a hold of them (very helpful for dirt tanks). Sounds like it will be a nice tank

 

[Mumma.of.two]

I used hornwort during my silent cycle. It's very hungry. The seeded media you used would be going a long way towards a fully cycled tank. Looks like its going really well!

 

[SHARPiE]

Thanks guys!
I was interested to see what the responses would be.
It's early days yet. But my test results seem to back the hypothesis of the Silent Cycle.

Day 8
pH - 7.4
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5
Temp - 26.0

 

[jlk]

I would be interested in seeing the results minus the cycled media. This would accurately reflect a silent cycle. As Mumma mentioned, adding this likely put you well ahead of the game and may have been sufficient to cycle your tank on its own
minus the plants but we don't know this absolutely. Live plants are a wonderful thing for a healthy tank regardless!! Maybe another experiment in the future?

 

[SHARPiE]

Good point jlk. Once this tank is set up and established, I might try this with my spare QT.

 

[JRMagno]

Following, very interested! I will be trying this in the next few weeks on a very heavily planted tank with no seed. I experienced something similar to this with a moderately planted tank, but about a month in after adding more fish it started a mini cycle.

 

[SHARPiE]

Day 9
pH - 7.6
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0-5
Temp - 26.1

Fed some brine shrimp
PWC

I also stopped past my LFS on the way home, they needed a hand moving a very large empty tank, I obliged and was given a couple of plants for my time!

1x Purple Temple Bunch
4x Mayaca Buch

After bringing them home and planting - I've since found the Purple Temple is not a true aquatic plant and will only last 2-4 months. I might take this out...

Thoughts?

It does add some nice foliage toward the back left of the tank. The Mayaca Bunches are toward the back right of the tank.

After the PWC and adding the plants, the Rummynose Tetras had lost their colouring. I left them overnight as all parameters were correct. Will see what they are looking like when the light comes on later on.

I'm also going to move the Vallisneria spiralis behind my driftwood bridge in the middle as it is barely visiblie.

 

[SHARPiE]

OK - results were supporting the silent cycle. However, I have just tested the water for today - and there are signs of ammonia. Water change being done now.

Ammonia was between 0.25 and 0.50.
PWC 50% and no trace of ammonia from the test kit.

Will do another test later on and have another batch of water for changes on the ready.

 

[JRMagno]

I'm no expert on plants, but I'm not sure if you have very many very fast growers in there? If you added some cobamba/hornwort/Anachris and some penny wort I would think that would absorb way more ammonia than Anubis and a crypt?

 

[jlk]

Wisteria is another good one.

 

[SHARPiE]

Thanks, good point.
I went in this afternoon and they had a delivery of plants the day before. I ended up getting a batch of used filter wool from one of their filters and put it inside my extra aquaone internal filter. When I first started, the filter inside the hood of the tank got the seeded material. There was some Wisteria left so I swapped that for the Purple Temple. While I was at it I also moved the driftwood from the background closer. The Vallisneria spiralis is at the back now.

Day 11
pH - 7.6
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0-5
Temp - 26.5

I tested the ammonia earlier on in the day and it was up to 0.25 - another 50% water change and no sign of ammonia.

 

[christine2012]

I've been following along and just wanted to say that the tank looks amazing. Results are looking awesome as well!

 

[Wy Renegade]

Tank is looking good. Like others however, I have to point out that by adding the seeded filter material, you've really stepped outside of the silent cycle. Personally I think there is a lot of validity to the idea, but plant selection is going to play a fairly large roll. Nice job on a nice looking planted tank.

 

[Jscoggins]

Very nice tank...keep up the good work...good luck

 

[rkilling1]

Why does everyone keep saying they think this is a valid idea? People have been doing silent cycling for the better part of a decade.

Here is when I first heard about it from Steve Hampton back in 2006:

Regarding ammonia in the tank when doing a silent cycle. Again I'll appeal to your logical side. Where does a nitrifying bio-film colonize the most? Answer...where O2 levels are high and food (ammonia and nitrite) are available. Plants themselves carry a nice bio-film of nitrifying bacteria on them. Placing healthy growing plants in you tank adds an element that can easily process the ammonia produced from a few fish...the plants accomplish this both through direct uptake and the bio-films that coat them. Done right, and the is the key. doing it right, a planted tank can be safely cycled without any measurable ammonia or nitrite be detected. Additionally for a silent cycle you must inject CO2 which adds the benefit of the ammonia existing as almost entirely less toxic ammonium due to the pH likely being below neutral.

From: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f24/iron-test-kit-84157.html

 

[SHARPiE]

Thanks for the encouragement! I'm still not 100% happy with the aquascaping, but it'll get there.

As mentioned in my first post, I've been hearing more and more about the Silent Cycle. I'm from Australia and the LFS' I visit hadn't heard of this (it may be because we are behind here, or because they are too concerned with sales to teach or learn this method) it seems to be a dark art and they were all eager to see the story. I'm using this thread as an experiment and Journal - by sharing this with a forum community I figured I could learn more about it. Of course it's a valid idea. The science behind it makes sense.

The article I sited in my original post is dated: Jan 2004

I'm not trying to steal anyone's thunder or claim this method as my own. I'm simply experimenting for my own benefit and sharing it here.

 

[rkilling1]

The article I sited in my original post is dated: Jan 2004

I'm not trying to steal anyone's thunder or claim this method as my own. I'm simply experimenting for my own benefit and sharing it here.

I really wasn't challenging your intentions. I was just a little surprised that other posters aren't aware or question that it works.

I am glad you made this thread. Nothing wrong with spreading good advise/ideas.

 

[SHARPiE]

Cheers - It's difficult to interperet text sometimes.
Appreciate the feedback - The more opinions the better!