Plants & Nitrate

[NovaFox]

Hi guys, i just happen to be in LOVE with REAL plants, so I cant stand any more fake plants.... but im trying to figure out some things... Do plants cause Nitrate to go up? If they do, why? (the plants are not dead btw)

Another question, would it be very smart to use a Nutrafin C02 in a 10 Gal? or would that make my plants go insane? Or something to that extent... LOL. Just curious, because I have my 10 Gal shrimp tank, but at the moment im only using liquid based C02 (Flourish. Excel). I mean, the plants seem to be doing great, i dont need to add anything it seems... but ok.. say i dont use it in my 10gal.. xD Should I use it in my 75 Gal? I only have a few live plants (lots of patches of Java moss, that I just added today,some java fern, and a few other random plants. I dont know if I have enough lighting... so should I think about adding the C02 thing?

 

[aaronnorth]

No, they will use some of it as fertiliser, some people dose extra NO3 (nitrate), try to aim for 20ppm, they also use NH3 (ammonia) as a nutrient but if they are rotting they will give the NH3 back off. The nutrafin would be perfect for your 10g. You can dose excell aswell as injecting CO2, In a 75g, you will need 4 or 5 and that is very expensive, in a tank that size, everyone should have pressurized in a tank bigger than 20g IMO.

 

[NovaFox]

Ah! okay awesome, now i can add the C02 to my 10Gal with no worries. As for my 75 Gal, im only going to use the liquid c02 until i can figure out something else, otherwise, if the plants do fine with no other additions, im just going to leave it... its only mainly javamoss anyway, shouldnt need too much light.