Adding Plants For High Nitrates

[adpgt]

If I were to add live plants with my high nitrate levels (160-180), would they be affected anyway? I heard that adding live plants with high nitrates will decay the plant.

 

[creeker]

Why not just do more frequent or larger water changes to bring the nitrate level down?

 

[DrRob]

Reading both of your posts together, I suspect that a lot of your nitrate is being driven by organic matter breaking down in your gravel.

In answer, hopefully to both of your questions, leaving the water to settle and then throwing the mulm from the bottom will work, as will replacing with fresh, but you can also get gravel cleaners that are battery powered that will do the job.

As for plants, any fast growing stem plants that suit your water conditions will eat up nitrates, but will then run out of other nutrients and may become part of the problem if not then maintained.

Overall, I'd give that gravel a good scrub over time and clear out a fair amount of water to replace with fresh. A few 50-75% water changes will give your tank a fresh sparkle hopefully that'll give you a chance to get the gravel a lot cleaner.

 

[phishyphil]

As DrRob says. You need to up your tank maintenance!

How oftern are you feeding your fish? and How much are you feeding them?

How often do you carry out water changes?

Floating plants such as sylvania natans and frog bit absob a lot of nitrates. as to does java fern and duckweed, however these are not a viable solution to your issue, you need to address whay your nitrates are so high and rectify it

PC

 

[adpgt]

What's a durable plant that will take in a lot of the nitrates and won't die or decay due to having too many nitrates?

I just changed another 50% of the water and cleaned the gravel. crud comes out every time I clean the gravel. I could clean one spot about 4 to 5 times and stuff will still come out.

I should of taken proper care of the tank over the past couple years.

 

[JenCliBee]

What's a durable plant that will take in a lot of the nitrates and won't die or decay due to having too many nitrates?

I just changed another 50% of the water and cleaned the gravel. crud comes out every time I clean the gravel. I could clean one spot about 4 to 5 times and stuff will still come out.

I should of taken proper care of the tank over the past couple years.

Then doing the gravel vac daily untill it's pretty much cleaned would be the better option.

No plant that i know of will suffer with high nitrate levels, they feed on it and will only use what is necessary..... however, plants need more nutrients than this to survive. If your relying on plants to deplete something then addressing the original problem is your only and main concern.

Doing larger water changes while gravel vacing would be a good start.... even a 100% water change and remove the fish to a bucket while doing so, this way you can dilute whats already in the water column and also gives a chance to do a major over haul on the substrate.... even possibly fully emptying, filling back up with treated warm water and starting the water change process again while vacing even more..... this would be a much better option than masking the problems with another potential problem.

 

[adpgt]

OK so heres what i'm doing:

First I took out all the plants and decorations from a third of the tank. Then I took out all the gravel from the left side of the tank. I then took the gravel to my bathtub and rinsed it out and then put the clean gravel back in while scrubbing the walls of the tank with a toothbrush. Then I gravel vacced the gravel that I just cleaned and nothing came out!

Is this a good method and should I repeat it for the other 2/3 of the tank?

 

[JenCliBee]

OK so heres what i'm doing:

First I took out all the plants and decorations from a third of the tank. Then I took out all the gravel from the left side of the tank. I then took the gravel to my bathtub and rinsed it out and then put the clean gravel back in while scrubbing the walls of the tank with a toothbrush. Then I gravel vacced the gravel that I just cleaned and nothing came out!

Is this a good method and should I repeat it for the other 2/3 of the tank?

Sorry for the slow reply...... Giving the substrate a good clean sounds like the perfect solution if this is initially causing the problems..... doing the other 2 thirds would make all the difference.

Just be careful to monitor the water for a week or so afterwards... bacteria can colonise within the substrate so washing will obvious wash it away but it shouldn't cause to many problems and the bacteria will re-colonise quickly enough.