# do i need to cycle my tank before adding plants?



## DANIELSON

I always add my plants before it helps your tank cycle. They pull a lot of the chemicals you want out of the water.


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## mordalphus

I cycle for 2 weeks or so before adding plants. The bacteria needs a food source to begin the cycle, and if you have the tank planted, it may draw out the process and make it take much longer. I wait for my nitrites to go up before adding plants. But I think it depends on whether or not you're doing a fishless cycle. If you have fish in the tank, having plants in the tank will help your fish survive... But if you have no fish in the tank, you want as much ammonia and nitrite in the tank as possible for your bacteria to feed and grow to a healthy size on.


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## tuffgong

no, IME the plants help the tank cycle faster. go for it!


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## Hoppy

"The Cycle" is not some sacred rite that has to be completed according to ancient rules laid down by the druids.:smile: If you put fish into a bare tank, no plants, no wood, no rocks, no substrate, the fish waste will cause a gradual build up of ammonia in the water, and eventually kill the fish. We don't do that. When we have a planted tank we have a substrate, with lots of surface area, we have lots of plants, each of which has bacteria on the leaves, we may have pieces of wood, with bacteria on the surfaces. Plants consume ammonia as a source of nitrogen, and if they have enough of the other basic nutrients, they consume a lot of ammonia and grow fast.

If you set up a new planted tank with lots of plants, a stem plant every inch or so, plus the other non-stem plants, maybe some wood for decoration, then begin dosing a complete menu of nutrients, with adequate lighting, the plants will start growing and consuming. Now add a few small fish, and the fish waste will largely be consumed by those plants.

Meanwhile, the bacteria on the leaves of the plants will also be consuming ammonia, converting it to nitrites, part of which the plants will consume and part of which will feed new bacteria which eat nitrites, converting them to nitrates. The tank will be cycling.

Now add a few more fish, and the cycle will continue, growing even more bacteria, with the plants growing even faster, consuming more ammonia, etc. You will have done nothing specific to cause a cycle - nature takes care of it for you.

Just don't put 3 small plants in a 55 gallon tank, with 6 big fish, and expect it to cycle before the fish begin to suffer.

Cycling was recognized as an important step when people had only plastic plants and fish in their tanks. It was an important step then. I used to kill lots of fish when I failed to understand that. But, you wouldn't be here if you didn't have real plants in your tank, and you will plant lots of those plants because you have read here that it is important to do so.


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## thrak76

Good answer, Hoppy. Makes perfect sense.


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## Dan the Man

> you_* will *_plant lots of those plants because you have read here that it is important to do so.


 ...an old Jedi mind trick


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## justin182

just begin cycling with your plants!!
like Hoppy said, they will help.


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## Carson Albright

I've actually read on fish only forums that you should use plants in an uncycled tank with fish in them already to minimize the affects of the cycle.


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