Plants during cycling process?

[chris13115]

My Fluval C2 magically started to spit water out a few minutes ago, and is running smooth. Im getting a shipment of very nice Vanuatu live rock. I want to add my plant (Maidens hair plant) because it is a breeding ground for pods and makes a good hitch for seahorses. I heard it slows down the cycling process, but im not too sure. thoughts?

 

[Trex]

My memory is failing me a bit, but there was an article about using chaeto during the cycle, in one of the magazines -- sorry that I don't recall which one.

It seemed that in the end it was a good thing, and didn't really slow down the process. Granted, this was chaeto and not Maidens hair, so that might be a factor.

BTW -- I always run my tanks as fully running systems during the cycle -- macro, skimmer, water changes -- and really didn't notice the cycle being all that long, and I preserved a great deal of the life on the live rock I paid good money. I like to limit the ammonia spike as much as possible.

 

[chris13115]

i just got my filter to work, so i may hold off from the plant when ammonia is around 5
.

 

[Trex]

If you are getting a shipment of quality live rock, I would do a series of water changes to bring that ammonia down -- if the ammonia is at 5 you are going to lose a lot of life on that rock.