plants in ammonia?

[Mengo]

im cycling a new tank and it currently has 1ppm of ammonia. my plants are coming in later today but some sources say that ammonia is toxic to plants? should i do a water change? Thanks!

 

[Guppysnail]

Your plants should be fine and eat the ammonia like candy unless it gets to high. I’m not certain what the to high mark is though. Most aquarium fertilizer use ammonia for the nitrogen source. 

[lefty o]

i agree, low levels of ammonia are fine for plants.

[Seattle_Aquarist]

On 7/6/2022 at 6:47 AM, Mengo said:

im cycling a new tank and it currently has 1ppm of ammonia. my plants are coming in later today but some sources say that ammonia is toxic to plants? should i do a water change? Thanks!

 

Hi @Mengo

@Guppysnailis correct that your plants will likely be OK, if the plants start to show distress and tissue breakdown do water changes to lower the amount of ammonia....it will not effect the nitrogen cycle in your newer tank.  Ammonia is not a typical ingredient in aquarium fertilizers.  Why?  Because even at low concentrations it can be toxic to aquarium fish.  Some aquarium fertilizers do use a percentage of Urea which has a completely different chemical formula than ammonia.  However most aquarium fertilizers use various forms of nitrogen salts (potassium nitrate, calcium nitrate, etc) as the source of nitrogen in their formulations.  -Roy

Edited July 6, 2022 by Seattle_Aquarist
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[Guppysnail]

On 7/6/2022 at 11:34 AM, Seattle_Aquarist said:

Hi @Mengo

@Guppysnailis correct that your plants will likely be OK, if the plants start to show distress and tissue breakdown do water changes to lower the amount of ammonia....it will not effect the nitrogen cycle in your newer tank.  Ammonia is not a typical ingredient in aquarium fertilizers.  Why?  Because even at low concentrations it can be toxic to aquarium fish.  Some aquarium fertilizers do use a percentage of Urea which has a completely different chemical formula than ammonia however most aquarium fertilizers use various forms of nitrogen salts (potassium nitrate, calcium nitrate, etc) as the source of nitrogen in there formulations.  -Roy

Hey thanks. Whenever I’ve added different fertilizer  to water to test they always showed ammonia so I don’t use them. I had no clue it was differs 😁

[NathJK]

The plants will love 1ppm ammonia. I wouldn't even think about it, no matter how high the ammonia goes.