An article about fishless cycling.

[By_a_coo]

Hi everybody!

I start apologizing my english, because it's not my first language and I don't know if this is the right place to post my question! (it can be moved if needed)
Now I decided to set up a 20G planted brackish tank for 1 Figure 8. I started to read all I could in matter of cycling a tank, to keep my first puffer in better conditions. After beginning the fishless cycling in my tank, I found an article that the author says that fishless cycle in a planted tank is waste of time, because plants use ammonia as a source of N. So... the cycle in a planted tank is "silent", and any amount of ammonia that could appear at any moment, plants would consume it.

Here is the article:
http://www.rexgrigg.com/cycle.htm

After that, here goes my question:
How can I cycle my planted brackish tank, if my plants really consume ammonia? The tank began to run on November 23rd and the water got tested many times and the results for ammonia and nitrite always show up ZERO!!! Then, I believe my plants are using ammonia produced by the waste of my mollies - I took them out of tank to start the fishless cycling today. As a matter of fact, my tank isn’t brackish now, I’m waiting for plants to take hold and get strong enough to stand in a brackish environment and then up slowly the SG. I got a lot of Val. Spirallis, some sagittaria subulata and watersprites, I’m injecting CO2 (18ppm) and I have 4 PC’s/20W (6500ºK).

Sorry if I was not clear enough... =(

Could anybody please help me???? I don't know what I should do...

PS: I'm gonna show you some pictures of the tank pretty soon...

[mikeosoft]

If you've had Mollies in there then I see no reason to start adding ammonia now. IMO leave the Mollies in there and the tank shoud be ok by the time you add the puffer. Just watch the water parameters for the first couple weeks to make sure you don't get any ammonia/nitrite spikes.

The statement that the plants will consume the waste is correct. Although it's hard to recommend adding a fish to an uncycled tank (even if it's planted), just because it's pretty easy to a puffer to produce more waste than the plants will consume. If you have enough healthy plant growth, then everything should be fine.

[By_a_coo]

Well.. about mollies: I took them out yesterday to start the fishless cycle. I understood puffers need a full cycled tank, but I'm still so confused about those informations I got...

[Pufferpunk]

I don't feel that a few mollies will produce as much of a bioload as a puffer. I don't like cycling with fish anyway. Continue with the fishless cycle. I believe plants eat nitrates, not sure about ammonia.

[By_a_coo]

I agree with you PufferPunk, I dislike cycle a tank with fish. Somebody corrects me if necessary, but I know plants consume nitrogen and ammonia - NH4 - is a good source for this. More information I got, less I know...

Thanks for while...