My favorite way to cycle a fish tank 🌱

"Aquarium cycling" refers to having enough biological filtration — like live plants or beneficial bacteria — that are able to consume the toxic chemicals from your fish's waste and purify the water, making it safe for animals to live in your fish tank. Learn why we like to use live plants to cycle our aquariums.

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Cory McElroy is employed by Aquarium Co-Op LLC. He also owns Aquarium Co-Op LLC. Therefore, all content is sponsored by Aquarium Co-Op.

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[elizabethbulhoes]

As a newbie i added a plant directly into my tank, later couldnt figure out why my fish tails were eaten off, turns out there was a crayfish hitch hiker! I caught it and sold it to an enthusiast

[clarewhite]

Last time I cycled a tank, I'd been out of the hobby for several years, so I asked the friend who was selling me a betta from her last brood to send some plants and dirty filter media a couple weeks ahead. That sucker was cycled in under a week! Back when I was keeping multiple tanks, I would stick a sponge filter in my hang-on-back filter so I'd always have a preloaded sponge filter to insta-cycle hospital and quarantine tanks. For new display tanks, I'd take the dirty filter floss from a mature tank and put it in the new filter. As long as I started with a light bioload, it was ready to stock!

[fabriglas]

Dont forget the hitch hikers in the plants

[robinred]

That's exactly what I do to.
Before I take of the rockwool I leave a new plant about a week in that basket and than plant it normal in the substrate.
Another great advantage also is you can see if the plant looks nice on the spot you put it. Don't you like it just take the plant, still in its basket, and put it on another spot.
From Czechia 🇨🇿

[YouBetterCallSaul]

Instructions unclear I now have thousands of snails

[garg]

I personally would recommend using filter media from an established tank to introduce bacteria, add live plants to consume nitrates, and still wait for the tank to mature so the bacteria colonies are well-established and tank’s environment will be stable

[ferfzero]

I would strongly suggest not leaving rock wool in your tank long term- if you’re setting up a new tank, just carefully remove the plant roots from the rock wool, then squeeze the excess water into your tank if you need to seed with bacteria.

My experience has been plants left in rock wool get root bound or melt then die- I suspect many pots with rock wool are grown hydroponically with the foliage out of the water so when you submerge them they aren’t getting enough CO2/light and die.

[sangun]

did this on a whim, i took my plant out of the rockwell but i figured there was probably some good bacteria in it so i threw a chunk of it in the back of my tank, hopefully it helps kickstart the cycling

[FishRfun]

Yeah I have amazon frogbit covering 75% of the surface in my 15g white cloud, male betta and pygmy corys tank. It's a very mature tank as well, so even an aquarium that small can go a lot longer time without doing a water change

[Noobish_Camper]

Patience is the best way to cycle an aquarium

[Darnss]

Beware of adding the whole cup to ur tanks! I’m not sure about your guys’s fish store, however my fish stores aquarium plants tank is COMPLETELY INFESTED by scuds. If you have any shrimp or tiny bottom dwellers beware of them they are your worst enemy. It’s safer to just take the plant out, wash it (super thoroughly), leave it in a bowl filled with water for around 30 min then check if there r any scuds or any other unwanted hitch hikers! Better to be safe than sorry!

[j.d.]

Interesting ive always heard that you want to remove as much as possible because the excessive nutrients from the nursery

[pilchard]

Isn't rockwool normally soaked in ferts?

[sparkplugpeggy]

and if you leave them in their baskets they are easier to move around and clean around. you don't have to worry about sucking up the roots when you're cleaning house

[Jerrybaker]

Rockwoll is made from lava rock they melt it and spin it like cotton candy.

[cleffle]

I considered putting them right into the tank but I eventually got rid of those wools to prevent snails or other living organisms I might not be aware of.
Funny cuz what I found was a spider😮

[lewischasen]

Yeah not something I would suggest doing with the rock wool. It could bring in unwanted stuff

[Lizardboy-]

Man I really wanna make a coffee table fish tank full of live plants and fish 😊

[edder]

Bad side- for the same reason you don’t pour water from the fish bag the your new fish came in from the store, you really shouldn’t use the planter media from the store. Introducing unknowns into your tank can be very dangerous. It also takes a lot more time and space to bury that media inside your substrate.

[mc]

I never thought of leaving a plant in the pot with the wool. When the roots start growing out the pot then just cut the pot away? Can the entire pot be planted or would it eventually choke the plant? The pots aren’t exactly attractive sitting in the tank.