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Hello all;

I'm just throwing this out there to see what everyone thinks - I came across this online article which states that a new tank does not require cycling if it's a planted tank.

http://rexgrigg.com/./cycle.htm

The reasoning makes sense to me, anyone else have any thoughts?

PS I'm not planning on trying it anytime soon.

In theory, if your plants are using as much or more N from the wasate of your fish, then no detectable cycle will take place. Unless you know what you are doing I would still plan on a cycle, only introducing hardy species first and only a few to begin with.

For example, if you have a 30G tank with 50+ percent of the substrate planted with fast growing plants, high light, and CO2, you probably won't test any ammonia or nitrite if you add just a few small tetras or somesuch. In this example, for your plant's sake, it would probably be important to add plenty of kno3 as a source for their N needs.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Although most literature talks about the need for nitrates for plants, plants will use ammonia and nitrites to sustain their growth at surprisingly large uptake levels. The problem becomes establishing the plants to make use of nutrients while providing nutrients and....

You know this could the whole chicken and egg thing...

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

lol - chicken and egg - that's exactly what I was thinking!
It would be one heck of a balancing act, wouldn't it?