Endless Cycle : Again I Know!

[WhiskeyHands]

Okay i have no live plants in this one tank. Yeah people tell me to shake well and bang the bottle on the table and that's what i'm doing.
Okay thanks, i haven't turned off my filter so hopefully im good to go

[Oldfishlady]

That is correct....Once you have nitrate of at least 5-10ppm without any ammonia, nitrite spikes for several days-you are most likely cycled-with your current stocking in the 10gal with a single Betta-this might take up to 6 weeks-more or less.

When you have lots of active growing live plants(more than a few)-like-heavy feeding/fast growing stem and floating plants-The active plant growth will use ammonia first as the food source and it may take a long time if ever to see the nitrate reading we look for to tell us cycling stage/completeness. However, the cycle is still happening-silent....the hobby grade test products only test on a ppm(parts per million) level and we will always have ammonia and other byproducts to feed the BB for the nitrogen cycle. With the silent cycle-you need lots and lots of plants that are in active growth-a few plants and/or slow growing plants might not filter the water to safe levels for the livestock.

[WhiskeyHands]

Well would it be better if i buy live plants for my tank so that the fish aren't exposed to the ammonia at all and can be healthier? or should i just keep doing what i am doing?

[Oldfishlady]

That depends....do you want live plants and do you have the proper lights to support live plants-if not, then live plants can end up being part of the water quality problem....

[WhiskeyHands]

I have proper lights with 2 live plants in it already. At first they were dying but since a few days from now, i can see a lot of new leaves growing

[Oldfishlady]

Good, since you have the proper color temp light bulbs to support photosynthesis-add lots of stem and floating plants.

What kind of plants do you have, kind of lights, age of bulbs, kelvin, watts and your photoperiod.

[WhiskeyHands]

i have no idea what plants these are, bulbs are 2 months old, Gol life glo, 15 watts

[Oldfishlady]

What is the kelvin and how long do you leave the lights on...can you post a pic of the plants...

[WhiskeyHands]

What's the kelvin? I leave the lights on during the entire day so that would be 8-10 hours and off during the night. And here are pictures, can you also tell me what plants these are?

This one has been gaining alot of new leaves on the bottom of the stem

[Oldfishlady]

The first one looks like water wisteria-a nice stem plant-you can pinch the top and replant it and the mother plant will bush out more-the leaves themselves can be floated and will sprout roots so you can plant them too.

The other plant-if I am looking at the right one-is also a stem plant called Ludwigia repens(natans) (or it might be mexican oak leaf)-it tends to get leggy and drop bottom leaves-I lay mine on the substrate with a rock on top of it so it will root from all nodes when it gets leggy-it tend to creep a bit across the substrate.

I keep my light on 10h/day in the cooler months and 12h/day in the warmer months.

Kelvin is your color temp-you want 5000k-7500k with 6500k being ideal