Silent cycle..How many plants?

Is there anyone here who has a filterless/silent/plant only cycle in their tank?

I'm trying to figure out about how many plants I'm going to need in my 55 to get a really nice cycle going strong. I have no problem totally stuffing the tank with lower light plants. I know higher light plants tend to be bigger ammonia eaters (thus making a pretty strong cycle), so that is one concern. But I suppose in a 55 there is plenty of room for all that good bacteria to grow. So it's probably easier than a silent cycle in my 5 gallon, huh!


Pictures would for sure help! I'm planning to buy most of my plants online (a mix of on my other betta forum and probably from here: Live Aquarium Plants ) so I'm trying to figure out how many plants to get..

Hornwort is an awesome plant to cycle with. I've never done a "silent" cycle like you want to do, but hornwort will just gobble up ammonia. Hornwort will grow slow in low light, but with decent light it explodes. The good thing about hornwort is that it floats at the top and will break up any strong light that goes down to where your axolotls are. So my tanks have decent light on them. If you have enough floating plants and enough hides, the light isn't a problem at all.

elodea/anacharis is close in the same boat. I prefer hornwort, but anacharis is a close second. It also sucks up nutrients in your tank, and can be floated too.

If you get s a bunch of floating plants for the top, then get a big ball of java moss, java ferns, or anubias for the bottom.


I recently cycled a 20 gallon long and literally just threw in a bunch of hornwort. I had to do a couple water changes during the first week, then the plants took off and I've had zero ammonia.

I forgot water wisteria. That stuff will grow like a weed in your tank is also really good at getting ammonia out.

That's kind of what I was thinking about doing. There might be some 'rays' of brighter light reaching the bottom, the axolotls gotta have a space to come up for air right?

I've never heard hornwort is a good ammonia eater! That's good, I can get hornwort and anacharis super easy!

I really like heavily planted tanks, part of my reasoning in trying one for this is that when my cycle broke and I tried to restart the cycle--all my plants interfered with the cycle! The ammonia got eaten up, but nitrites and nitrates weren't appearing! That's when I realized what was happening! It was kind of cool.

Thanks for the advice! I'm very excited to set this up! I've seen some heavily planted axolotl tanks (Like this one! http://www.freewebs.com/salasander/100_9927.jpg ) and they look SO cool! Plus I figure it would give them even more cover and privacy

Ha! I hope I have better luck with wisteria this time. Last time I bought plants online(no place to get them here..Unless I only want java ferns), the package took too long and the wisteria package opened and dried out. Tried so hard to revive it, but just no luck!

while doing a silent cycle is convenient, I wouldn't suggest it unless you have to do it. If you have time to start cycling, I'd start now. You may run into the problem of the plants not being as efficient as you expected, or them dying off for some reason, and then your stuck with an uncycled tank, and an axolotl inside it.

Huh, funny, it was this forum that most people suggested I do a silent cycle. I was told not to get a filter and just let plants and such do the work.


Okay then. Again I'll ask: what type of filter to use in a 55 gallon? Is it safe to get a 'smaller' filter that doesn't do as much work? What size sponge filter would work if that's possible for 4 axolotls in a 55

Personally, now that I've started cycling tanks with plants, I'll probably never go back to doing it the traditional fishless way. Like Carson said though, your plants could die and you will have to start over. However, I think if you stick to the plants that I listed, the chances of that happening are pretty small.

Don't worry about "rays" of bright light coming down into the deeper parts of the tank, the axolotls don't have to sit in them if they don't want to.

I run a sponge filter on all of my tanks. I like them much better than HOB filters or internal filters, You just have to do a better job siphoning out the feces and plant mulm because you won't have much mechanical filtration.

Here's two of my heavily planted tanks. I'll be converting my 55g axolotl tank after Christmas in pretty much the same fashion.

This is a 20 gallon long that holds a necturus. It has hornwort, anacharis, javamoss, water wisteria, water sprite,moss ball, and anubias in it. This tank has a sponge filter rated for 30 gallons.


Here's a 10 gallon with a noto with pretty much the same plants.The only filtration on this is a tiny sponge filter that I purchased from a department store for $5.

I wasn't trying to suggest silent cycles don't work. But there is no reason to not start your cycle now. The plants will not harm the cycle, and if you can cycle before you get an axolotl, why not?

Oh, well no I really was already going to do that! I'm not planning on getting my axolotls until much later. I was going to wait a few months, let plants grow in, measure the temps and cycle and make sure it's stable for a long while. Sorry if it sounded like I was rushing!

Ah, sorry that was a misinterpretation on my part.

That's totally cool! All to protect the lives of wonderful little axolotls! I can understand. Trust me, I don't want to mess up! That's why I'm all over these forums asking a billion and one questions hehe!

I just recently silent cycled a 36 gallon tank which will soon house a pair of axolotls. I did it pretty much accidentally. I was already planning on having a planted tank so I filled it with a lot of the plants already mentioned hornwort, anubias, java fern, some moss balls and just recently some riccia to float on top. I accumulated the plants over time planning to do an active cycle but by the time i was ready my levels were all good so I added some fish to increase the load (will remove them before moving the axies in) and the plants have no trouble keeping up.

As far as the filter I recommend the sponge filter, as most on here do. I would always suggest oversizing the sponge and getting an air pump that can be regulated. That being said i have a hang on back filter only because i got a really good deal on whole tank package, but I attached an extra piece of filter material to the outlet which drastically cuts down on the current.

What size sponge filter? In such a long tank, would two smaller filters be better, or one in the center?

This was my planned filter combo for the 55 gal i was initially looking to get.

Amazon.com: Hydro IV Sponge Pro Filter - Up to 80 gallons: Pet Supplies

Amazon.com: Tetra 26075 Whisper Air Pump, 150: Pet Supplies

But as long as you get a pump with enough flow for your tank you could certainly split the line and go with 2 smaller filters.