How to cycle with plants

[louros7]

Hallo !!
Im gonna make a 30ltr planted shrimp aquarium with neocaridinas( maybe yellow one's) and i will use shrimp king active soil as a substrate and maybe nano deponit mix, easy plants (i will not use co2, only seachem flourish and excel) . I want a iwagumi awuascape.
I want to know how to do the cycling of the tank from day one ,for example how many water changes ,if i put flourish , does anyone know how to help me?

[KBOzzie59]

You will want to test you water regularly and water change as needed.  I can not think of a scenario where there is an absolute set schedule.  Every tank combination and water source is a little different.

 

[Isaac M]

I agree with @KBOzzie59. Aquarium Co-op has some great articles on water parameters and water changes. The nitrogen cycle video above is a great resource as well. I will add some links to helpful articles below. I would only dose fertilizers during the cycling process if you see a plant deficiency. I hope this helps! 
 

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/nitrogen-cycle

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/how-to-change-aquarium-water-correctly?_pos=1&_sid=f6b604694&_ss=r

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/ph-gh-kh?_pos=6&_sid=f6b604694&_ss=r

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/which-aquatic-fertilizer-is-right-for-you?_pos=1&_sid=e84734b08&_ss=r

[BigRedd]

I personally setup a 75 gallon tank with plants and to cycle it I used dosed a lot of easy-green and shrimp pellets until I was able to detect the ammonia spikes and nitrite levels. Got the nitrite levels around 5.0 and then waited until they went down. Then I waited a week and did it again but with half as much easy-green and shrimp pellets. After I suspected the cycling was done, I added normal amounts of easy-green and shrimp pellets and watched for any spikes. If no spikes occur, I would consider the tank cycled. 

Whole process took around 1-2 months. Also when you go to add your shrimp, only add like 10 at first to see if they survive. Sometimes when you suspect cycling is done, the tank can 'mini-cycle' and you don't want that for your shrimp.

 

Edited April 26, 2021 by BigRedd

[Eric R]

17 minutes ago, BigRedd said:

I personally setup a 75 gallon tank with plants and to cycle it I used dosed a lot of easy-green and shrimp pellets until I was able to detect the ammonia spikes and nitrite levels. Got the nitrite levels around 5.0 and then waited until they went down. Then I waited a week and did it again but with half as much easy-green and shrimp pellets. After I suspected the cycling was done, I added normal amounts of easy-green and shrimp pellets and watched for any spikes. If no spikes occur, I would consider the tank cycled. 

Whole process took around 1-2 months. Also when you go to add your shrimp, only add like 10 at first to see if they survive. Sometimes when you suspect cycling is done, the tank can 'mini-cycle' and you don't want that for your shrimp.

 

In my experience, mini-cycles seem to happen when you rapidly increase the waste generation in a tank, and the nitrifying bacteria can't increase their population fast enough to process the additional ammonia. Sometimes a tank may be "cycled" but still has a relatively small amount of nitrifying bacteria. For example, if you go from 10 cherry shrimp in a 75g to 10 cherry shrimp and a dozen guppies. Having a tank with a lot of live plants helps, both because the plants provide an excellent surface for nitrifying bacteria, as well as that they can absorb excess ammonia directly if there isn't enough bacteria to convert it all to nitrite/nitrate.