Question of the Day Is cycling even a thing in planted aquariums today?

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I remember cycling being one of the biggest discussion points with hobbyists. Now, it's hardly mentioned or discussed. Why is that?

What do you do now-a-days? Put it together and don't even worry about cycling or do you have a specific cycle technique? What about bottled bacteria?
 
Art said:
I remember cycling being one of the biggest discussion points with hobbyists. Now, it's hardly mentioned or discussed. Why is that?

What do you do now-a-days? Put it together and don't even worry about cycling or do you have a specific cycle technique? What about bottled bacteria?
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When I re-started my aquariums hobby I worked everything by the book, including the cycling part, I used to use Seachem stability, did everything as mentioned in the instructions which takes 7 days to cycle a new tank, started to add like 3 fish at the beginning, then add more as I go ...

Now, I am not doing everything by the book, just a local brand of bottled bacteria, add the fish, if I face any spikes just change a good % of the water and in like 1 - 2 weeks everything is ok, so far I didn't lose any fish with this method and it is much much faster than the manual way of cycling which I started to think is not really necessary

On the other hand I believe I have some experience now, so I won't advise new hobbyists to do what I am doing but rather stick to the instructions until they gain the needed experience, but still I would advise to use some bottled bacteria and follow the instructions rather than doing things manually and wait like a month until the tank gets cycled. The manual cycling takes a lot of time, not very effective and error prone
 
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Thanks. I think that this is rarely a thought to planted aquarium aquarists so this is why this didn’t get many responses.

I think the plants bring in bacteria to begin with. Then, any ammonia is quickly taken up by the plants meaning that the risk to fish is minimal.
 
I do use a bottle of Dr. Tim’s every time I start a new tank. I want my filter operational as fast as possible.
 
Hmmm, interesting question. If the tanks was intended to have fish I would likely cycle to tank.
But, there were a few people on TPT that were running canister filters with only mechanical filtration - no biological media. They also had heavily planted tanks with minimal fish load. So, "I think the plants bring in bacteria to begin with. Then, any ammonia is quickly taken up by the plants meaning that the risk to fish is minimal" could be a valid point.

I do know on one of my summer experiments, I cycled a 10g tank with an empty canister filter (empty trays and no medial/filters what so ever).
bio will grow on pretty much anything within a tank - including plants and substrate. So, if you set up a new tank with a new filter and new substrate (non ADA?), would you be able to successfully keep fish if you also planted heavily from the start? (plants from other active tanks).
 
Immortal1 said:
Hmmm, interesting question. If the tanks was intended to have fish I would likely cycle to tank.
But, there were a few people on TPT that were running canister filters with only mechanical filtration - no biological media. They also had heavily planted tanks with minimal fish load. So, "I think the plants bring in bacteria to begin with. Then, any ammonia is quickly taken up by the plants meaning that the risk to fish is minimal" could be a valid point.

I do know on one of my summer experiments, I cycled a 10g tank with an empty canister filter (empty trays and no medial/filters what so ever).
bio will grow on pretty much anything within a tank - including plants and substrate. So, if you set up a new tank with a new filter and new substrate (non ADA?), would you be able to successfully keep fish if you also planted heavily from the start? (plants from other active tanks).
Click to expand...
In my experience, the filter is mostly there as a mechanical filter and a backstop biological filter. An ammonia spike can bring on algae fairly quickly so I like having the biological in place just in case the plants have a hiccup with their uptake (for example, after a heavy trimming).

IMO, a new tank is unstable and the microscopic environment needs time to settle into a mature balance. This takes time so I would not suggest a start with new filter and non-soil substrate. Obviously, if it's a fishless start, then it's fine. If fish are going in relatively quickly, I would always add a bacterial started like Dr. Tim's.
 
It’s always best to wait for bacterial cycle to finish. Bacteria will only grow where there is food for them to consume. You can add bottles of bacteria to a tank. An if you don’t have the waste for them to consume they will die back. So always add fish after the cycle has completed.
I come from a reef background. A back in the early 90’s we learned that bacteria living in our “live rock” did all the filtering. The “bio”balls in sumps were doing nothing. As the bacteria in the aquarium was consuming all the waste from the fish before it reached the sump. So sumps have evolved to equipment containers today. Bacteria in a planted tank are all over the plants and rocks in the aquariums
 
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