[woaussie]

I will be cycling a new 29 gallon tank soon. Do I cycle it without plants or is it ok to cycle with plants? I do cycles with fish in all my tanks. I am not worried about how fast they cycle. I will probally use Black Mollies or Platies. I will be using Flourite and small gravel substrate. Using Coralife lighting (t-5) AC 50 filter. With all said and done it will be a Guppy tank. Will also have drift wood. Thanks:help:

 

[wkndracer]

Plant it and fill itroud:

 

[KShoes]

I planted my tank pretty heavily with fast growing plants and added a light load after 2 weeks. The 2 weeks were to insure my plants were doing well and growing.

 

[lauraleellbp]

Plant it from the getgo, and I also strongly recommend a fishless cycle. No reason to harm fish these days cycling a tank.

 

[Mr. Fisher]

Plant it from the getgo, and I also strongly recommend a fishless cycle. No reason to harm fish these days cycling a tank.

I agree, and the author's first post says he isn't in a rush. :biggrin:

 

[blackandyellow]

I have found that a combo of a heavily planted tank with hagen´s cycle or other brand´s bacteria really speeds up the cycling of a tank. My 100 gal is 15 days "old" from the re-setup and it´s completely cycled. Ammonia and nitrite levels never got into the "danger zones" and fish are so happy that yesterday a pair of Angels spawned

 

[[email protected]]

By the way, black mollies are a lousy fish to cycle tanks with. They have been a standard suggestion forever, but they are vegetarians and quite often starve to death in a new tank before they get ich or something else. Male common guppies are healthier but fishless cycling with plants and fish food will work just fine and in about the same amount of time.

 

[The Exiled]

I cycled my 29 gallon tank with a betta i had from a smaller tank, it worked pretty well because betta's can tolerate alot of different water conditions.