Starting a cycle

[JessYe]

Hey, So I just got a 3.5 gallon tank the other day and I'm starting to think about decorating. I had a smaller tank before so I never really considered it before, but I want to start a nitrogen cycle with plants this time.

The problem: I have gravel. Is there any thing I can do? Or do I have to replace it with dirt?

[aokashi]

depending on how heavily you intend to plent your tanks...you may or may not see readings at all....

gravel is perfectly fine for most starter plants

[Sparrowhawk]

After asking a similar question about planting in gravel (I have gravel in my tanks too) I've found that you can indeed plant in gravel. The results won't be as good as if you use soil, but if you're cool with that, that's okay.

Another option is using a load of moss, and plants that attach to hardscape rather than rooted plants, but you'd want stem plants as well.

That probably didn't help much, but I'm sure there'll be many responses from people who really know their stuff. ^.^

[Trackpadtactics]

Hello there and welcome to the world of NPT!

So i did this a while back and to my surprise it did rather well! I used API liquid plant furt and all my plants grew really well. Here is the tank before i rescaped it and added real plant gravel.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4347574/Fsh...123_180535.jpg

I added about 5 to 7 drops a week to it to keep it low yet allows plants to grow rapidly. Hope this helps!