Mike Chesmer Posted April 26 Share Posted April 26 Anyone know what plant is good at absorbing nitrates? I know all plants do at some point, and some better than others. I have a 75 gal low tech planted tank, but I need more plants. I do not have enough. Mostly Java Fern and amazon sword, both of which are sprouting runners and new plants, and a few lily types that grow the pads to the surface. Java moss? Stem plants of some kind? And also, I have a couple large driftwood in the tank. Is it possible to get Java Moss to grow and spread all of the wood? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted April 26 Share Posted April 26 For nitrate reduction hornwort, guppy grass, pogostemons, and water wisteria that are fast growers work well. I also use emergent plants like lucky bamboo and pothos. Java moss I struggle to get to spread on wood and actually look good. My go to is Christmas moss. It grows fast, attaches well and always seems to look good for me. In my tanks Xmas moss is also less prone to algae. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mmiller2001 Posted April 26 Share Posted April 26 Hygrophila Polysperma. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Chesmer Posted April 26 Author Share Posted April 26 Good choices, thanks everyone! Going to try Hygrophila Polysperma and christmas moss and water wisteria. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepere Posted April 26 Share Posted April 26 If your source water is nitrate free, nothing is faster than a waterchange… Going with plants, the faster it grows the more nitrate it will consume. floating or emersed plants will have access to CO2 at over 400 ppm so will not be constrained by co2… 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sora Posted April 26 Share Posted April 26 most floating plants are great at reducing nitrates, such as water lettuce, salvinnia, duckweed and amazon frogbit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninjoma Posted April 26 Share Posted April 26 I think dwarf sag is a pretty decent carpeting option since it spreads fast and gets pretty big. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennie Posted April 26 Share Posted April 26 Def floating plants, hornwort and elodea. Crazy fast growth = sucking up nitrates while growing up 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOtrees Posted April 26 Share Posted April 26 Honestly, I couldn't choose just one as the best suggestion out of all the good ones here. House plants that tolerate roots in water are a great option, if you have the light and setup for it. Hornwort is a nitrate sucking machine, but not always the prettiest. Floaters need light, the right ventilation, and sometimes a corral. Duckweed, well... is duckweed. All these will do the job you ask, but I also like @Pepere's reality check: no amount of plants will remove nitrates as fast as a water change. Remember, just having plants doesn't mean big reduction in nitrates. The plants need to be growing. The faster the growth, ie the more biomass they put on, the faster the nitrate use. Photosynthesis operates like a diaphragm pump. Something gets sucked up the tube, something turns the mechanism, and something comes out of the tube. CO2 + H20 and nitrates go in, and sugar/starch/cellulose (molecules built from H, C & O) come out, along with oxygen and a few complex molecules that also include N (eg chlorophyll and amino acids). These are where the nitrates go. The pump is powered by light (how very modern 😂). No light, no pump. Low light, slow pump. Low CO2, pump can move but process lacks ingredients. No input = no output. Even if only one of the ingredients is missing, no output. All this means, if you want your plants to really remove lots of nitrates, you need plants that can grow fast, and you need to provide the conditions where they can do that. How much plant matter you have to remove (trim or thin) and how often is a good barometer of whether this is happening. I love pulling out loads of plants from my working tanks. It makes me feel like I'm literally netting out nitrates 🙂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepere Posted April 27 Share Posted April 27 On 4/26/2023 at 4:40 PM, TOtrees said: but I also like @Pepere's reality check: no amount of plants will remove nitrates as fast as a water change. When I started I had read Walsteds Ecology of the planted tank and my goal was to minimize water changes as much as possible…. I easily managed to export all nitrates out of the tank with plant culling alone. And I would dose with Easy Green twice a week… Then I started seeing Cory talk about other benefits to water changes beyond nitrate reduction…. Bodies of water without outlets where evaporation is the only outlet eventually become inland salt water bodies…, ie minerals build up, allelochemicals given off by plants, tannins, animal hormones etc…. and I watched George Farmer advocating significant weekly water changes to reduce organic waste in tank that can trigger algae growth… I now do weekly water changes and still export lots of plant matter from trimming… I no longer believe minimizing water changes is a worthwhile goal. I do recognize lots of people feel differently…. If the goal is to minimize water changes to reduce work involved, I would encourage investing in equipment or setup to make water changes less work… I recognize other people have different opinions, and I recognize there are many approaches that can work well… 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted April 27 Share Posted April 27 Moss does well. Floating plants like salvina. Pogostemon Stellatus octopus and hornwort as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuzzDaddy21 Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 On 4/26/2023 at 10:40 AM, Mike Chesmer said: what plant is good at absorbing nitrates Well plants aren't really needed for nitrates. I have very little plants in my 40B, and my nitrates are usually under 0.55ppm. Right now, in the 40B nitrates are 0.26ppm. In my 20T I have a bunch of guppy grass and nitrates are 0.07ppm. (This was the first reading I got was 0.02ppm and I thought it was too low.) This tells me that I have a lot of good bacteria. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepere Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 On 4/29/2023 at 1:47 PM, BuzzDaddy21 said: have very little plants in my 40B, and my nitrates are usually under 0.55ppm. Right now, in the 40B nitrates are 0.26ppm. I am sort of curious what testing method you us e that reads such small levels with the degree of precision you are mentioning and how you get nitrate levels so low. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuzzDaddy21 Posted April 30 Share Posted April 30 On 4/29/2023 at 2:38 PM, Pepere said: what testing method I switched to the Hanna checkers and find them easy to use, sort of expensive but worth it to me. On 4/29/2023 at 2:38 PM, Pepere said: how you get nitrate levels so low. Well, It's not because of plants. I`m getting to set up another 40B using kitty litter (A certain brand) and like my other tanks this will have a slow-moving plenum - I feel that this is why my nitrates are so low.) There's a 1" empty space under the plates and I also have media there. On top will be about 4 to 5" of kitty litter. Seems that good bacteria is the real answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepere Posted April 30 Share Posted April 30 On 4/30/2023 at 12:07 PM, BuzzDaddy21 said: Well, It's not because of plants. I think plants would struggle to survive with nitrate levels that low. i am curious as tohow long your tanks have been running this way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuzzDaddy21 Posted May 2 Share Posted May 2 On 4/30/2023 at 12:21 PM, Pepere said: i am curious as tohow long your tanks have been running this way Thats a good question for sure. Somewhere around 8 - 10 months. Nitrates didn`t drop until I got the plenum set up correctly. (Slow moving.) Nitrates have been dropping as the tank ages. Nitrates before this were 60ppm to over 80ppm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now