Curious About Sudden Burst Of Plant Growth

[Kyrielle]

Over the weekned, I noticed every single plant in my tank suddenly decided to sprout new leaves, when for the past month I would have only gotten 1-2 new leaves every other week (except the anubias which would have yielded only one leaf every 2 weeks). Now my java ferns have taken off with 4 or more new leaves and a few daughter plants, the anubias plants each have a new leaf starting, the wisteria (the only one whose condition I've changed--I decided to let it float) is finally perking up and growing. The tank has been in a cycle, and I'm wondering if this sudden burst of growth is there because there has finally been a turn around and there are more nitrates in the water. Keep in mind I have done nothing new to how I light and fertilise the tank other than a change of the type of water when I moved back to school.

So, I suppose to be concise: Does the end of a cycle and the sudden introduction of more nitrates result in more plant growth?

I'm not complaining but I want to know what's causing this phenomenon.

 

[Bignose]

The tank going through a cycle is probably a goos clue. The fact is, aquatic plants prefer to take up nitrogen in the form of ammonia. Almost all of the plants actually expend eneregy to change the nitrate back to ammonia for easier use. Since you had a min-cycle event, the was larger than usual amounts of ammonia in the tank. The plants probably were able to take up more ammonia than usual, and like I said, it is easier for them to use ammonia than nitrate. Your tank is probably at least patrially plant-cycled at this point. Since the plants are taking up a share of the ammonia, there is less ammonia for the bacteria, so there is less bacteria. I think that this is a great position to be in... it is almost like having two filters. The bacterial and the plant filters each working at the same time. So, if one has an issue, the other can help keep the tank cleaner than otherwise may have been.

Also, this time of year, with the sun is changing its position in the sky, maybe the tank got some natural sunlight? My plants always do better this time of year, even though they only get about an hour of real sunlight, they respond exceptionally well to the natural light.

If you want to read about how a fishkeeper converted her tanks to 100% plant-filtered, read Diana Walstad's Ecology of the Planted Aquarium. It talks about how aquatic plants prefer to take up ammonia over nitrate and many other issues if aquatic plant growth. It is a really interesting read on how to come that much closer to replicationg a little slice of nature in your house.