Need To Know Nitrate Reducing Plants

Hi. I have ammonia 1ppm in my tap. When I do a 20% water change I dose the whole volume of the tank with prime so far so good. But the ammonia by the next day is gone but my nitrates are slowly creeping up. I am at 40ppm. I need plants that will soak up nitrates. Have a little wisteria floating but that does not seem to grow much and has little affect or I think it has little affect. Am I fighting a losing battle. Advice please. Not interested in using RO water. I have a 3rd tankiam ready to start and if I can't solve this I will just close all of them down. Willing to do the water changes that are needed but I don't know what else to do.

 

All plants take up nitrates if they preform cellular respiration’. Get some hornwort and anacharis there fast growing and soak it up

 

I'd look for floating surface plants. Frogbit, water lettuce, salvinia, even duckweed if you don't mind living with it forever. Being closer to the light and having access to atmospheric CO2 makes them very fast growers, so they'll use up nitrogen compounds a little more efficiently.

If you can't find any (or they're illegal in your state, some floating plants are very invasive) you can grow some pothos out of your tank. It a super easy to find house plant that doesn't need much more than water and low light to grow, and it loves nitrates.

 

I'd look for floating surface plants. Frogbit, water lettuce, salvinia, even duckweed if you don't mind living with it forever. Being closer to the light and having access to atmospheric CO2 makes them very fast growers, so they'll use up nitrogen compounds a little more efficiently.

If you can't find any (or they're illegal in your state, some floating plants are very invasive) you can grow some pothos out of your tank. It a super easy to find house plant that doesn't need much more than water and low light to grow, and it loves nitrates.

This is also a choice, just make sure you want it. Once you have it it never leaves. And it’ll block light from bottom

 

You can also let pothos grow out of a hanging basket or your hob if you have one. It is supposedly a nitrate consuming machine.

For inside the tank fast growing plants are best. Wisteria being my personal favorite because I can't seem to kill it. Anacharis is also a great choice if your tank isn't above 77f.

Eta: briggs beat me to it!

 

If you changed 50% of the water to get the tank down to 20 ppm, or changed 75% to get it to 10 ppm, then it might be manageable with regular 20% changes going forward. But 20% just brings it to 32 ppm which will soon be back at 40, so it's not really putting a dent into the problem.

 

Interestingly, the plants will most likely prefer the ammonia. Plant choice can be anything. Faster growing plants require more nutrients, so the faster the plants grow the more ammonia/nitrate they will take up

 

Interestingly, the plants will most likely prefer the ammonia. Plant choice can be anything. Faster growing plants require more nutrients, so the faster the plants grow the more ammonia/nitrate they will take up

Eh. Some will, some wont. Ammonium nitrate is a popular fertilizer for a reason other than hme.

 

It really doesn't matter how large of a water change I do. I am removing nitrates with the water change but I am adding nitrates by the ammonia I am adding performing the water change. At around 22% WC my tank water has .22 ppm. That ammonia is turned into nitrites and then nitrates. I may be adding more nitratesby doing a WC. I am not sure how much nitrates are produced by the ammonia. A 50% WC would bring my tank water to .50 ppm ammonia. So are the WC taking out more nitrates than what the ammonia is producing.

 

If you need a quick fix before you can get plants going, you can look into things like nitrazorb. I wouldnt use it long term, but it will buy you some expensive time.

 

Smaller more frequent water changes could be the answer.

in a well cycled tank, that added ammonia should skip the nitrite stage. And if you are doing smaller more frequent water changes, you are adding less ammonia at one time.

I am just speculating. I feel like it would make a difference.

I have .5 ammonia in my tap. But with smaller more frequent water changes, I don't typically have overly high nitrates.

Also, I could totally be wrong about this, but I was under the impression that the tank would have to be pretty heavily planted in order to make much of a dent in nitrates.

 

What's expensive and how does it work. Expensive is all my fish dead.

I am thinking of buying some anacharis. 6 stems planted. 6 stems floating. My planted wisteria seems to be dead or close to it.

 

What's expensive and how does it work. Expensive is all my fish dead.

Seachem purigen

JBL BioNitratEx

The other seachem product that I misnamed would take too long to establish. But is a long term helper as well. Its designed to do all the conversions to nitrate and then also remove nitrate via bacteria. It needs to be used in a slower moving water, possibly a reactor. Its called de*nitrate

Sorry, just realized I skipped the how does it work. The first two strip the nitrate down chemically. I don't know about jbl products, but purigen is rechargeable. The other product does it via bb. You could look up a denitrate tower/reactor if you want to go that way

 

It really doesn't matter how large of a water change I do. I am removing nitrates with the water change but I am adding nitrates by the ammonia I am adding performing the water change. At around 22% WC my tank water has .22 ppm. That ammonia is turned into nitrites and then nitrates. I may be adding more nitratesby doing a WC. I am not sure how much nitrates are produced by the ammonia. A 50% WC would bring my tank water to .50 ppm ammonia. So are the WC taking out more nitrates than what the ammonia is producing.

I checked and think you're correct. If 1 ppm ammonia converts to just under 4 ppm nitrate then water changes alone can't fix it.

Is cutting tap with spring water also a no go?

I second the suggestion of floating water lettuce if your tank lights can support it. They sucked so much nitrate out of my tanks that I had to add nitrogen. It's not invasive like duckweed. Also hygrophilia and hornwort.

 

I am thinking of buying some anacharis. 6 stems planted. 6 stems floating. My planted wisteria seems to be dead or close to it.

Depending on how much I have (can check tomorrow around 3) I can sell you some for a lot cheaper then you would get it online or anything. For me, anacharis dosnt really grow fast floating, but that’s because when it’s planted it uses the substrate nutrients.

And also, not a current but more long term fix, and I don’t think anyone’s mentioned, is collecting rain water. It’s a lot easier then you might think. Just put a bucket under the pipe that leads from the gutter to the ground and when it rains, it will fill up

 

All plants will feed on your nitrates. Floating plants are your best bet as they take 100% of there nutrients from the water column.

If you find the nitrates are still getting out of control with large frequent water changes and lots of plants, you may want to look into nitrate reducing media, as previously mentioned.

Another option ,but far more expensive, would be RO water.

 

RO is not an option for me. I need 30 gallons a week and live in a condo. Not enough room for the equipment. I thought about rain water but I live right on Daytona Beach and I believe the water would contain salt. You can see the salt on the windows at times or I believe it's salt. Looking to buy snail free Anacharis and just bought some wisteria. Looking to buy Nitra-Zorb. Short term I believe that's my best course of action. Frustrating how bad the water is here. Better than last month when I had nitrites and Nitrates in the water.

 

The fastest ammonia/nitrate absorbing plants in aware of are surface plants like pothos(typically sold as golden pothos) or Chinese evergreen. The more natural light these plants get the faster they grow and the more nutrients they absorb. I would not stick them in your existing hob but get new hobs for them as the roots will be taking up space and can and eventually will grow into your impeller. Slower gph filtration is the key. Multiple small hobs would be better than one large one.

If surface plants aren't your thing then like others have suggested, anacharis and other day growing weed plants are best

 

RO is not an option for me. I need 30 gallons a week and live in a condo. Not enough room for the equipment. I thought about rain water but I live right on Daytona Beach and I believe the water would contain salt. You can see the salt on the windows at times or I believe it's salt. Looking to buy snail free Anacharis and just bought some wisteria. Looking to buy Nitra-Zorb. Short term I believe that's my best course of action. Frustrating how bad the water is here. Better than last month when I had nitrites and Nitrates in the water.

Agree. I'd love to be able to breed a wider range of species, but I'm limited with my hard water. An RO system is out of the question. I think you'll be fine with nitra- zorb short term. Then your plants should keep those nitrates down quite nicely.

 

RO is not an option for me. I need 30 gallons a week and live in a condo. Not enough room for the equipment. I thought about rain water but I live right on Daytona Beach and I believe the water would contain salt. You can see the salt on the windows at times or I believe it's salt. Looking to buy snail free Anacharis and just bought some wisteria. Looking to buy Nitra-Zorb. Short term I believe that's my best course of action. Frustrating how bad the water is here. Better than last month when I had nitrites and Nitrates in the water.

I use nitrazorb because sometimes my tap has ammonia sometimes nitrates. It has lasted me a year of removing ammonia and nitrates from tap. I’ve recharged it over and over and only use when needed. It just exchanges it with a very small amount of aquarium salt ions. Put it in an hob on a bucket of treated water and it will get rid of ammonia in a couple of hours. I also use it in my tanks for vacations when I can’t change water or adding new fish.. or inheriting an unicycled tank.. always has worked for me and prevented spikes in cycle. Also sometimes once you get the nitrates really low the denitrifying bacteria catch up and keep them low for some reason.. I don’t know why everyone is so adverse to it. Great for emergency crash of tank cycle. Saves lives of fish. I wouldn’t use it constantly in the tank.

You can buy countertop nitrate filters for the kitchen which do the same as nitrazorb..

Lava rocks (Home Depot sold for grills) can help grow denitrifying bacteria (nitrates to n gas).. now I just don’t need big frequent changes and everyone healthier..and small changes are handled by my tanks microbiome..

 

A kitchen Nitrate filter will not work. The nitrates are not in my tap water. Most filters that remove nitrates are RO systems.

I will update this post once I use the nitra-zorb on Saturday or Sunday. Seems like this and plants may work.

I don't believe setting up the 75 with African Cichlids are going to work. I will probably set it up as a community tank.

 

Why won't cichlids work?

 

I hear that Cichlids need good water parameters and that they will rip up plants. Don't know if floating plants are an option with Cichlids. I believe I need anacharis and wisteria to soak up my nitrates. If I can make it work with Cichlids I would be thrilled. Not sure with my water problems if I can make it work. What do you think.

 

I hear that Cichlids need good water parameters and that they will rip up plants. Don't know if floating plants are an option with Cichlids. I believe I need anacharis and wisteria to soak up my nitrates. If I can make it work with Cichlids I would be thrilled. Not sure with my water problems if I can make it work. What do you think.

Land plants in hobs will keep the roots away from the cichlids. Pothos Ave Chinese evergreen are the ticket. Those would do better than anacharis

 

Amazon frogbit, dwarf water lettuce, pothos.

 

I hear that Cichlids need good water parameters and that they will rip up plants. Don't know if floating plants are an option with Cichlids. I believe I need anacharis and wisteria to soak up my nitrates. If I can make it work with Cichlids I would be thrilled. Not sure with my water problems if I can make it work. What do you think.

Larger cichlids will dig plants. As far as water quality I'm positive those nitrates can be brought down by plants. I don't have many column feeders in my overstocked tank and my nitrates barley hit 5. I have to use liquid ferts to feed them.

As far as them being sensitive, some species are but most are not. I think you will be just fine with ACs.

 

Maybe use floating plants? Floating plants are highly successful because they are above water, getting CO2 from the atmosphere, as well as being especially good at getting nitrates out of the water. I do not know how long this takes (I should look that up), but I think, I would start prepping water in advance, and have buckets of nitrate consuming plants so I could use them to pre-remove nitrates. I suppose this sort of thing could be done in a garage.

 

As stated, any plants consume nitrates (and many actually prefer ammonia) and stem plants that grow quickly will make the fastest work of them.

As for the water quality, how old is your tank and how often do you gravel vac? You may have a case of "old tank syndrome."
A 50% water change would take nitrates from 40ppm down to 20ppm and then if you add the 3.6ppm of nitrate that 1ppm of ammonia would produce, you're still down to 23.6ppm from 40.
Then again, my algebra may be wonky...lol

 

I moved recently and have the tank running 2 months. I perform a water change every10-14 days. I sand vacuum every water change. I plan on doing it every 5 days or until the nitratesare down to 5-10 ppm. I have some wisteria plantedand floating and the anacharis that I plant and float tomorrow should help. I was thinking of floating some anacharis in the Cichlid tank. And maybe some water wisteria. Have to guage how everything pans out in the 36 before I start to worry about the 75.

 

Ed
I live in Cape Canaveral and I CANNOT get my nitrates down either. Tank running since April. I just think it is the "beach" water. I have had no ammonia until just recently (.25). Typically I do about 10 - 12 gallon weekly change and gravel vac for my 55 gal. But have not for last 4 weeks and got a spike and now my plants are dying along with a fish a day. I used safe start plus now adding Prime.
Ammonia is coming down but not nitrates.
I feel your pain.

 

Yup. I am your neighbor in Daytona Beach Shores and when I moved here the Nitrate level was unbelievable. Above EPA limits. After calling the water company my nitrates are nitrites are fine but there is 1ppm of ammonia in my tap water. I didn't know how good I had it where I used to live. All zeroes. It is so frustrating. And living in a condo there is not enough room for an RO system for all the water needed.

 

Salt is not evaporated during evaporation. Sucks though it’s so nice for shrimp tanks. Or so I heard, I got well water

 

I would think that there is salt in the air with winds and rain. Not sure of this but it would worry me. Anyone confirm that there is no salt in rain when being right on the beach.

I have looked at many articles and most say that there could be salt in rain water over the ocean or beach area. They go into this scientific mumbo jumbo that I totally don't understand.

Is there a way to test the rain water I collect for any salt content.

 

I would think that there is salt in the air with winds and rain. Not sure of this but it would worry me. Anyone confirm that there is no salt in rain when being right on the beach.

I have looked at many articles and most say that there could be salt in rain water over the ocean or beach area. They go into this scientific mumbo jumbo that I totally don't understand.

Is there a way to test the rain water I collect for any salt content.

It wouldn't be hard to test! Just collect some rain water in a shallow pan wait for it to evaporate and see if there is salt in the pan when it is all gone.

 

You could put a pothos in the filtration.

 

I have some pothos and elephant ear plants in my filters, they seem to do pretty well.

 

Have you considered a small hydroponic system? You can get fresh herbs or lettuce to boot!

 

Not something I would be interested in.

 

Friday night I planted 4 stems of water wisteria and floated 1 stem. Saturday late afternoon I performed a 28% water change. Put the Nitra-Zorb size 6 into one of my 2 HOB filters. My nitrates before the water change was over
40 ppm. Will perform a total water test later Sunday afternoon.

 

Floating plants are very good for this. I do not think that the nitrate automatically "vanishes." Most nitrate removal is a water change issue.