[djembekah]

in my 29 gallon, i'd like live plants but i dont think i want to go so far as to have a NPT yet. when cycling with live plants though, do i need to do anything different than the sticky for cycling says? i'm going to do fishless, whether with ammonia or fish food/raw shrimp, that all depends on if i find pure ammonia.

i havent got the tank set up for cycling yet, but i do want play sand as the substrate. for the filter i'm thinking the Aqueon QuietFlow 30, and for the heater i think i'm going with the Aqueon Pro 100 watt.

any tips for this would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Silverfang]

With live plants it's a different set up, I suggest you talk to OFL, she understands the "silent cycle".

 

[Oldfishlady]

It will be much easier to do the fishless cycle without live plants-especially if this is your first time to fishless cycle....

If you plan to add lots of live plants-you can safely cycle with both the plants and fish-but you can still have problems understanding the water pram numbers if you are new to the testing products and cycling in general......sometime you have to rely on the fish to tell you when you need to make an extra water change-but this is even with an established system with or without live plants......

What kind of testing products are you using, number and species of live plants you want and what will the finial stocking plan be......

 

[FastH20Betta]

My community tank has a bunch of live plants, I love them. I keep fish with and they seem to like the habitat.

 

[djembekah]

i plan on buying the API Freshwater Master Test kits

i have no idea on numbers, but i am interested in Anubias, Anacharis, Marimo Moss balls, Vallisneria, Water Wisteria and Water Sprite. i dont need ALL of those, but those look to have the ammount of care i can give.

the fish i plan on keeping in this tank are: 6 female bettas, 6 corys, 6 blue pearl OR red cherry shrimp, and 5 or 6 harlequin rasboras.

The light hood i'm going to buy is this one here: http://www.amazon.com/Marineland-LE...TF8&coliid=I2RCYSI9QJGWBO&colid=1WUD9ESYTK8G5
the marineland LED aquarium hood, 30inx12in, if the light is something you want to know about

if it'd be easier to just go with silk plants, i'm all for that. but if i wanted, say, an anubias to float and a fe moss balls, would that upset the cycle?