Nitrogen cycle

[Lola]

Hello, I am a beginner in aquariums and I have questions about the nitrogen cycle. My aquarium is 75 liters. There will be 4 male guppies and several easy-growing plants. My filter is a "Slim S20 marina, my substrate is" Flourite black "and the brand of my water heater is" Eheim "(150 watt) During the nitrogen cycle, do I have to make changes water (if yes, how often and how much?) do I have to turn on the heat, put some food flakes, remove the algae ...
also, do you have any other advice to give me? thank you

 

[KaylNeko]

Depends on if you're doing a fish-in or a fishless cycle. Fishless is generally recommended. For that, no water changes are required since you want the ammonia to stay in the tank to feed the bacteria. I plant, personally, since the ammonia will feed the plants and, depending on what you're planting, the plants can hasten the cycle. Heater-- up to you. I don't think it affects the cycle, though I could be wrong. I generally put it in so I don't forget.

If you decide to go fish-in, yes you'll have to do water changes. How often depends on ammonia build up. You'd need your heater and plants in.

Fish-less is a lot easier on you and the fish, even if it's boring having an empty tank. My first tank, I was doing daily water changes on a 55g for a couple weeks. Next tank I set up, we did fishless.

 

[Lola]

Thank you I will do a fishless cycle. Do you know of aquarium plants that can speed up the cycle but grow easily or plants that guppies love?

 

[KaylNeko]

Water wisteria is a good one, as is anacharis/elodea. They're both nitrate sinks I like to use-- you can plant them in the substrate or let them float. I've been using ludwigia as a floating plant as well. Salvinia natans is a floating plant that growed fast enough to be a nitrate sink. So is hornwort. And I love anubias-- it's not a nitrate sink as it's a slower grower, but it's nearly impossible to kill and it's pretty. Glue it to a rock with super glue (straight cyanoacrylate, no additives) and let it do its thing. Don't plant it-- if you bury the rhizome the leaves grow out of, you will kill it.

 

[Tankereasy]

Plants wont speed the cycle, as you're still just waiting on ammonia to be converted to nitrites, until it converts to nitrates, which as someone else said some plants will suck that up keeping your levels low. For example one of my tanks is a planted setup, combined with the filtration I have I can run roughly a month between water changes and my water parameters stay well within the green.


As for cycling, Id keep water changes to once a week to possible even once every two weeks, doing too many water changes can stall a cycle if you don't allow the ammonia to build up and be converted to nitrites. Best thing to do is dose daily with some form of beneficial bacteria, such as Seachem Stability, and of course have an ammonia source. When I cycled my 60 gallon, I was a fish keeping bad guy and did a fish in cycle with 6 cherry barbs, all fish survived and remained healthy and it took roughly a month to get the cycle to complete (fish were not in for the entire month). My advice, don't water change too much, add bacteria daily, and have some form of ammonia source, and test every two to three days, once ammonia drops to 0 ppm, and the nitrites start to drop and you start seeing nitrates you'll know the cycle is almost complete.