Enough plants to absorb nitrate
How many plants do you need to put in an aquarium to make a
significant dent in nitrates? We all know plants use nitrates as a food source, but I have 4 potted plants in my 20-long aquarium and the nitartes do not seem to be any less. Is it that I need to put a truckload of plants in there to reduce the nitrates or what? Right now only my monthly water changes do anything, and I'm not looking for a way to stop doing water changes, it's just that I don't want them getting too high because it promotes algae and is bad for fish. Frost |
Enough plants to absorb nitrate
From my (limited) experience, if you have a lot of plants it wont
necessarily remove nitrates. Think of it as a recipie, you need ALL the nutrients for plant growth for the plants to use the nitrates. In other words, if you dont have enough of one nutrient then the plants wont look at the other ones cos they need them all. Kind of like a nutrient bottleneck I think for any noticable nitrate reduction due to plants you need some really fast growing plants. Ive got some plants in my tank that seem to be growing an inch every day or so. I use co2, 11 hours of light a day, trace element fertiliser and potassium. Check out the krib website for fast growing plants and a way to do a nifty little co2 system for a few dollars/pounds Mark "Paul" wrote in message om... How many plants do you need to put in an aquarium to make a significant dent in nitrates? We all know plants use nitrates as a food source, but I have 4 potted plants in my 20-long aquarium and the nitartes do not seem to be any less. Is it that I need to put a truckload of plants in there to reduce the nitrates or what? Right now only my monthly water changes do anything, and I'm not looking for a way to stop doing water changes, it's just that I don't want them getting too high because it promotes algae and is bad for fish. Frost |
Enough plants to absorb nitrate
Is it that plants absorb ammonia faster so you end up getting less nitrates?
I have about 70% plant mass in my tank and notice a difference. I don't think 4 potted plants would do anything, IMHO. Maybe add floating plants like frogbite, don't have to worry about algae and they take up nutrients fast. "Paul" wrote in message om... How many plants do you need to put in an aquarium to make a significant dent in nitrates? We all know plants use nitrates as a food source, but I have 4 potted plants in my 20-long aquarium and the nitartes do not seem to be any less. Is it that I need to put a truckload of plants in there to reduce the nitrates or what? Right now only my monthly water changes do anything, and I'm not looking for a way to stop doing water changes, it's just that I don't want them getting too high because it promotes algae and is bad for fish. Frost |
Enough plants to absorb nitrate
Mark Trueman wrote:
From my (limited) experience, if you have a lot of plants it wont necessarily remove nitrates. Of course there are many variables, but I have 71 community fish in my 72 gallon, heavily planted tank, and Nitrates still measure well under 10ppm. I have to ADD 0.5 ppm nitrates per day to keep Nitrates in the 5-10 ppm range, otherwise plant growth slows and Nitrate measures under 5ppm. Once plants get well established, all forms of Nitrogen are history! |
Enough plants to absorb nitrate
On Sun, 29 Sep 2002 12:58:43 -0700, "Greg" wrote:
Is it that plants absorb ammonia faster so you end up getting less nitrates? Partially. Plants will use ammonia, and also nitrate. Both forms of nitrogen are used by the plants. Chuck Gadd http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua |
I think that any significant reduction of nitrate to plants because you need some really fast growing plants. I am doing some plants in my tank seems to be growing about an inch a day. I use carbon dioxide, 11 hours a day, light, trace elements and potassium fertilizers. Check out the krib rapid growth of the plant site and do a nice little way of CO2 system a few dollars / pounds
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this is done with fast growing stem plants aswell as heavy root feeding adsorbing neutrients from the substrate and oxygenating the substrate preventing too much matter rotting within the substrate. she also freely admits that it dosent always look that pretty, especialy when the watter becomes full of tannins released from breaking down plant matter. I have known several people who have tried this "natural approach" and failed drastically losing entire fish and plant stocks. In reality there are 3 ways to deal with the nitrate cycle in a fish tank. 1) low fish stock, highlevels of filtration, daily fertilisation, a neutrient rich substrate. and heavily planted. The highlevels of filtration mean more ammonia is processed by the filter bacteria than is adsorbed by plants meaning that when you test for nitrate when fertilising you get an accurate measure. and can ajust your fert routine according to the levels of niterate existing in the water column. 2) Denitrification equipment, There are various systems available some chemical some utilise bacteria. when i had a marine tank I successfully built a denitifyer that kept nitrates at 0. i had a 6ft long length of drain pipe capped at each end. I carefully coiled many many many meteres of 6mm air hose around the indise of the pipe leaving a gap up the middle. this was then filled with bioballs before the end was sealed. the principle was that bacteria would adsorb all oxygen from the water on its way down the air tube and then denitryfying bacteria would take over and produce nitrogen gases thusly removing all nitrate from the water column. 3) Regular water changes and cleaning debris from your tank. Prevents nitrates building up and is the most simple and cost effective way to deal with the tank. I do mine weekly |
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