Feeding Plants and Nitrates

[Lee Friedmann]

I have a 55 gallon tank with a wet dry filter.

For plants, there are Anubius, Dwarf Sagitaria, Java Fern & Ludwigia, 6 small sterbai coy cats, 2 hill stream loaches, 6 snails, 8 cardinal tetras, 10 rummy nose tetra, and more tetras in a hospital tank that will be moved over and plans to add dwarf gourami.

I have been feeding root tabs 1 per dwarf sagitaria monthly and easy green once per week, and have 0 amonia, 0 nitrite and 0 nitrate.

Is my wet dry so efficient that I never get an increase in nitrates?  

Are the nitrates going up and then back down so fast I never read >0?

should I feed more often or more per feeding?

Just get a lot more fish?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

 

[FrozenFins]

 How often do you do waterchanges?

If your plants are looking healthy (which they are) don't worry about nitrates. They are probably consuming it. How long has the tank been cycled, or has it been cycled?

[Lee Friedmann]

James,

My tank has been in operation for years.  It was a Cichlid tank until Dec.  I did a major tank cleaning and ran the tank foe about 4-6 weeks with no fish.  I added plants in January but lost som Anubius and Java Ferns.

I did a water change in late January and added the Java fern and Ludwigia last Friday.

With everything registering at 0 how often would you recommend doing a water change and how much.