Plant cycling 55 gallon concern

[Averus]

Hi!  I got another question regarding my new 55 gallon.  I started the cycling on 5/28 and been doing a fishless cycle with fish food.  I did add some Fritz Zyme 7 too.  My tank is heavily planted, I was able to save money on the equipment, so used that part of the budget to go with the plants.  I am using a Finnex Planted+ for my light.

The cycle has been proceeding as I expected to a point.  My Ammonia rose and then went to 0, and then I had heavy Nitrites and Nitrates.  The Nitrites and Nitrates started dropping, as of today the Nitrites are now 0 and my Nitrates are now very low too, at 3.  PH has been at a 7.4 consistently so far.

So I am a little concerned now.  The cycle went really fast, much much faster then I expected from everything I researched.  Did the plants just suck up the Nitrates that fast?  I do have some Water Sprite, Hornwort and Frogbit in the tank, could they be eating up the Nitrates that well?  All my plants are doing fine, with only one of the Crypts melting.

I have been using Easy Green once a week, with the dosage listed on the bottle, should I use more?  I am worried my Anubias and Buce may not be getting enough nutrients now too.

Even if it may be safe, I am still going to hold off for now on fish, it just seems to have been completed way to fast.  Maybe I am just being overly cautious here.

 

[lefty o]

plants do a lot of good for a new tank, and juicing the tank with bottled bacteria helped it along too. with plants, and a source of bacteria tanks can "cycle" nearly instantly. id plunk a few fish in there.

[Patrick_G]

How heavy is the planting? I’m guessing the plants are doing their job and using up all the sources of Nitrogen. They also brought in a bunch of beneficial bacteria that has helped move the cycle along quickly. 

[Averus]

I planted very heavily.  I wanted to try a lot of different kinds plants to see what would work for me, I didn't expect most of them to do this well.  most have had some kind of new growth on them too, admittedly this has been really spectacular on the water sprite and frogtbit, but everything is showing signs of it.  Even one of my crypts has popped up a ton of new leaves, along with the old ones it came with looking pretty perky now.

This has happened so fast I still haven't even narrowed down what to get for my first fish!

[Patrick_G]

@Averus, I like to do the same thing. If I try enough different plants I’ll eventually narrow down the ones that grow well for me.