Water conditioners and Plants

[Waricks]

I have a 29 gallon planted tank. Everything seems to be moving along pretty good. I am struggling a bit with getting my nitrates up to around 30. 
Are water conditioners making this hard for me?  I usually use Prime but my question is - Is the Prime keeping me from getting my nitrates up so the plants can benefit from them?  Or is it just that my plants are sucking them out faster than I can raise them using Easy Green?

I am thinking about switching to a different conditioner. 
 

 

[Nicohorse318]

@Waricks you read my mind - I was going to make a post about this too, as I have been experiencing the same "issue" with one of my tanks.

Definitely following along, as I am interested to see what others have to say. I suspect my plants are just sucking up nitrates - I do have a LOT of pothos in there...

[Waricks]

I am happy to hear that I am not the only one thinking this way. I am sure someone  will come along and give us the information we are looking for!!

[Katherine]

I've never had a problem getting nitrates up using easy green and prime.

[Kurt Brutting]

I cannot speak on the water conditioners, but 2 of my aquariums I have I just dose and dose and they always stay around 10ppm. Finally one of the 2 aquariums is finally starting to rise in nitrates.  I think maybe I was changing to much water during weekly water changes or that the aquarium is balancing out because it is kinda new. 

 

[Greg Stewart]

Prime should not impact nitrate availability to plants. But, i question the use of Prime as a daily water conditioner unless you have ammonia and nitrites in your source water. I like to lean toward the "fewer chemicals are better" end of the spectrum.

How heavily planted are your tanks? Are you plants just consuming the nitrates faster than you supply them? Are you removing them with water changes? Do you use Purigen in your filter?

I would think there might be other reasons why nitrates are tough to keep up while dosing.

[Waricks]

On 5/3/2022 at 6:13 PM, Greg Stewart said:

Prime should not impact nitrate availability to plants. But, i question the use of Prime as a daily water conditioner unless you have ammonia and nitrites in your source water. I like to lean toward the "fewer chemicals are better" end of the spectrum.

How heavily planted are your tanks? Are you plants just consuming the nitrates faster than you supply them? Are you removing them with water changes? Do you use Purigen in your filter?

I would think there might be other reasons why nitrates are tough to keep up while dosing.

Thanks for the reply. I have also been questioning why I use prime. I don’t have any ammonia or nitrite in my water source. I was told to use prime when I was cycling my tank and I just never stopped. I stopped doing water changes about 3 weeks ago and have just been adding water due to evaporation. Each time I add water I use Prime except for yesterday when I used Top Fin conditioner. My water chemistry seems to be fine except I have what I would consider low nitrates at between 0 and 5 ppm.  I agree with your fewer chemicals theory. 
 

As a side note I was using Purigen to keep the tannin coloration out of the tank but I took that out about 3 weeks ago and decided to just not use it anymore. 
 

I have about 18 plants in the 29 gallon tank at the moment.  
 

 

[Greg Stewart]

On 5/3/2022 at 10:50 PM, Waricks said:

Thanks for the reply. I have also been questioning why I use prime. I don’t have any ammonia or nitrite in my water source. I was told to use prime when I was cycling my tank and I just never stopped. I stopped doing water changes about 3 weeks ago and have just been adding water due to evaporation. Each time I add water I use Prime except for yesterday when I used Top Fin conditioner. My water chemistry seems to be fine except I have what I would consider low nitrates at between 0 and 5 ppm.  I agree with your fewer chemicals theory. 
 

As a side note I was using Purigen to keep the tannin coloration out of the tank but I took that out about 3 weeks ago and decided to just not use it anymore. 
 

I have about 18 plants in the 29 gallon tank at the moment.  
 

 

I'd suggest stopping the Prime and keeping it on hand in case you have a spike in ammonia or nitrIte. Just switch to a basic dechlorinator, unless you have zero chlorine/chloramine in your source water.

18 tiny plants? Or, 18 gargantuan plants? Fast growing stems or slow growing buces and anubias? Do you have any pothos rooted in your filter? If you have 18 large fast growers, or even a single pothos, that could be your culprit.

And, how much Easy Green are you dosing, and how frequently?

[Waricks]

On 5/3/2022 at 8:13 PM, Greg Stewart said:

I'd suggest stopping the Prime and keeping it on hand in case you have a spike in ammonia or nitrIte. Just switch to a basic dechlorinator, unless you have zero chlorine/chloramine in your source water.

18 tiny plants? Or, 18 gargantuan plants? Fast growing stems or slow growing buces and anubias? Do you have any pothos rooted in your filter? If you have 18 large fast growers, or even a single pothos, that could be your culprit.

And, how much Easy Green are you dosing, and how frequently?

I have…

 6 Water Sprite (1 is floating)

2 Amazon Sword

2 Monte Carlo ground cover

1 Java Fern Windelov

1 Dwarf Lilly

2 Red Flame Sword

2 Cryptocoryne Lutea

1 Pogostemon Stalletus Octopus

1 Bacopa Carolinian

I will take your advice on not using the Prime  

 

 

[Greg Stewart]

On 5/3/2022 at 11:21 PM, Waricks said:

6 Water Sprite (1 is floating)

...

1 Bacopa Carolinian

One bacopa caroliana/monnieri won't consume that much nitrate that quickly, and even for 6 water sprites that would be a shocker. But, if they're growing fast and huge, maybe it's possible. But, those are the two fastest plants you've got.

[Waricks]

On 5/3/2022 at 8:34 PM, Greg Stewart said:

One bacopa caroliana/monnieri won't consume that much nitrate that quickly, and even for 6 water sprites that would be a shocker. But, if they're growing fast and huge, maybe it's possible. But, those are the two fastest plants you've got.

Thanks for all your help and info. It’s definitely helping me learn. 
 

I forgot to tell you I am dosing 3 squirts of easy green every other day. (29 gallon tank). 

[Greg Stewart]

On 5/3/2022 at 11:44 PM, Waricks said:

I forgot to tell you I am dosing 3 squirts of easy green every other day. (29 gallon tank). 

That's baffling, 'cuz you might only have about 20 gallons of water in that system with all the substrate and other hardscape. 3ml would be over dosing for EG. Something is eating it up.

[Widgets]

My Pogostemon Stalletus Octopus grows way faster than my Bacopa Carolinian. If I don't trim my PSO at least every other week it will fill the entire tank.

[Waricks]

On 5/3/2022 at 8:48 PM, Greg Stewart said:

That's baffling, 'cuz you might only have about 20 gallons of water in that system with all the substrate and other hardscape. 3ml would be over dosing for EG. Something is eating it up.

Yes I agree. That’s why I am asking what is going on. Tomorrow morning I will test again with my API master kit and see where we are at. 

On 5/3/2022 at 8:56 PM, Widgets said:

My Pogostemon Stalletus Octopus grows way faster than my Bacopa Carolinian. If I don't trim my PSO at least every other week it will fill the entire tank.

My PSO is also my fastest growing plant. The Bacopa doesn’t do much of anything. 

[Greg Stewart]

On 5/4/2022 at 5:55 AM, Waricks said:

My PSO is also my fastest growing plant. The Bacopa doesn’t do much of anything. 

It's the freakin' Twilight Zone in that tank. 😉

[Mmiller2001]

Do you shake bottle 2 for at least 30 seconds and have you ever forgotten to shake bottle 2? I would calibrate that tester before assuming your reading is correct.

Why are you trying to keep 30ppm NO3, that's unnecessarily too high. I'd drop to 20ppm.

Edited May 4, 2022 by Mmiller2001

[Matt_AKA_Poth-O-Carry]

On 5/3/2022 at 2:45 PM, Nicohorse318 said:

@Waricks you read my mind - I was going to make a post about this too, as I have been experiencing the same "issue" with one of my tanks.

Definitely following along, as I am interested to see what others have to say. I suspect my plants are just sucking up nitrates - I do have a LOT of pothos in there...

They are good for that... 😄 I finally got my pothos to start snaking out after adding more light.  But I digress.

[Jeff]

Water conditioners are almost a must. If they have an effect, it's not enough to re-think conditioners.

I use API Stress Zyme and Stress Coat: never a problem with these + Easy Green.

Edited May 4, 2022 by Jeff

[AndreaW]

I have two planted tanks that I use Prime for water changes and dose EG. One has almost no nitrates, and the other has pretty constant 30-40ppm Nitrates, so I don't think the Prime is the culprit of the low Nitrates.

My tank with almost 0ppm Nitrates (10G) only has a Betta and three Nerites and tons of plants, and the plants seem to be consuming the Nitrates faster than the inhabitants and EG provide.

My tank that usually sits around 30-40ppm Nitrates (46G heavily stocked) gets EG for the other micronutrients they need, because Nitrates alone aren't enough. This larger tank also get water changes more often, because of its stocking, so it gets Prime dosed more often. If Prime were the culprit, then I think I would have noticed a drop in the usual Nitrates. As it is, I haven't noticed any change in Nitrates in this tank since I began using Prime instead of the water conditioner I was using before.

[Waricks]

I just wanted to come back and say that I am happy with the progress in my tank. It is up to 20ppm for nitrates!  The plants have really started to take off. This is really coming together!!

Thank you all for your advice and help. 
 

 

[Scapexghost]

Prime's claim to "detoxify nitrate" is suspect at best, but even if it does, you would still be able to detect the nitrate. Detoxify does not mean remove. Ideally, it temporarily converts nitrate into a less toxic form. If you don't have enough nitrates, it means you are doing too many water changes.