0 nitrate

[Matty24]

Evening all was doing some research on why my dwarf hairgrass is kind if brownish and growing slowly, I'm using a seachem el dosing schedule and using co2 maybe im being abit impatient but the grass has been in the tank around month and a half and i keep adding more but what i saw tonight was and the same things kept popping up about this issue being having 0 nitrate in the tank (starving your plants with 0 nitrates) so I thought I'd test my nitrate has I've not really tested it since cycling the tank around 3 months ago and strangely enough i had 0 nitrate whats are peoples thoughts on this as from my previous posts I am new to the hobby and I am learning and willing to take any info people are willing to give me, I will add a picture or to off the tank so people can just get an idea of what's growing in there.

Cheers
Matty

 

[Byron]

For the good of all fish, nitrate should be as close to zero as possible, so all is well. Aquatic plants take up ammonia/ammonium as their source of nitrogen, not nitrate, but they will turn to nitrate if ammonia/ammonium is insufficient in balance with everything else.

 

[Matty24]

Yes I didnt think about that at all not one of the sources I was reading from mentioned fish at all should of picked up on that I will always read something then come onto this forum based of the knowledge the members here have and get a fast reply

 

[Colin_T]

Hair grass is a marsh plant and struggles in most aquariums. If yours is growing that's great. If it's struggling, it can be lack of light or it just isn't going to do well in the tank.

 

[Matty24]

It's growing upwards I'm trimming it once a week to keep it short and trying to get it to spread more than anything