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hi there

Im brand spanking new to this hobby and last week i purchased the fluval 1200 aquarium set, which is 48 uk gallons and Its been up and running since i bought it. My question is that in the set, there was a green x phosphate remover. like everything else i chucked it in but now im worried if it will affect my fishless cycle. Also i was wondering if anyone could give me an educated guess to how long my tanks going to take to cycle.

if it matters ive got 7 Afzeli Anubias plants as well as 7 Green Cabomba all around 8 inches and 11, 9 inch tall Ambulia. I have been dosing my tank with nutrafin cycle and have added a few flake foods to feed the bacteria.

Unless you have a significant phosphate problem, it is unlikely that you would need the phosphate remover. When you clean the filter, I would take out the phosphate remover.

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"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Bobs right, phosphate removers are not something to use when dealing with plants, phosphate is an important plant nutrient.

For that matter fishless cycling is not something that has a place in planted tanks either. I'm not familiar with the nutrafin cycle or how it works. A lot of the fishless cycle products involve adding ammonia, when there are plants in the tank you usually have lights on 10-12hours a day. Light and Ammonia = algae and lots of it.

Planted tanks are difficult to cycle and sometimes they never really do. Ammonia is the preferred source of nitrogen for plant life, so they tend to snap it up before the bacteria can get to it. When plants are involved it's better just to go ahead and add the fish a few at a time.

If your cycling product has Ammonia I'd keep the lights off until the plants or bacteria get rid of it to avoid serious algae problems. If it has no ammonia I'd go ahead and add the fish slowly , the plants will really help in softening the impact of ammonia produced by consuming all or most of it.Fish should be fine, just don't overload the system by adding too many at one time.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

thanks then, cheers all!