Wisteria, When You're Near

[Kilo]

Yeah, I know the song is Hysteria, not Wisteria.

I was wondering if this is true, for I dunno much about plant life. I was told when I bought my Hornwort, (which at the time I thought it was Wisteria), that it and all underwater plants create bacteria that fish need and remove the bacteria that's harmful for them. Just wondering if this is for real or not. I believe they do create oxygen though.

Thanks!

 

[Themuleous]

Never hear that being said, plants will remove NH3 and NO2 from the water and thus help keep a tank pollutant free, but never heard of plants actually producing beneficial bacteria

Sam

 

[nry]

Don't think they produce bacteria, but their leaves will certainly provide a decent surface for such bacteria to breed etc. Plants do take in many nutrients (which the fish may not like) when they grow so can lead to a healthier water column in most situations.

 

[Kilo]

Some of these people in PSs totally get things either backward or just way off on what is really correct. It's like one person who never worked in a PS said that plecos are aggressive even when they're small, and will kill all my other fish. Maybe they will try to when they're really big, but they're peacful now. They're about 2¾ inches now; and the PS has a tag on the tank for the eels like the one I have saying they're semi-aggressive... it never bothers anyone, and it's about 7 inches.

I don't know all about chemical characters, like NO2 and NH3. I don't have NH3 showing on my tester, so I don't know what that is, and the other shows up like this... NO;, so I have no idea what that is either. I'm gonna take a guess that NO2 is nitrite and NH3 is ammonia. Am I right or wrong?

Thanks!

 

[Themuleous]

Yep, NH3 is ammonia and NO2 is nitrite, NO3 in nitrate

Sorry I forget that not everyone is a geek like me! Just easier to write them shorthand.

Sam

 

[Kilo]

Yep, NH3 is ammonia and NO2 is nitrite, NO3 in nitrate

Sorry I forget that not everyone is a geek like me! Just easier to write them shorthand.

Sam

Thanks!

I saw another called PO4. What is that? That is so not on my tester. Is that for saltwater? Since I'm off tomorrow, (Friday & Saturday), and the only plants they sell in my city that looks identical to a tree, are the Wisterias; so I guess I'll be getting another.

It's nice to know all these things,`cos I never knew, even back in the days when my mother and nextdoor neighbors had aquariums. I found out a couple months ago that driftwood helps to get the pH levels to near what they should be, (7.0). Before I had it, the pH was from 7.8 to 8.0. Last weekend when I checked, it was 6.8.

So hopefully this one Wisteria plant alone has dropped the NH3 & NO2 down some. It's about 17 inches tall, and that's about how tall the aquarium is for 46G. Someday I hope to find an even 70G. All I can find are 72s and 75s.

 

[Themuleous]

PO4 is phosphate

You shouldn't have to worry about NH3 and NO2 as these are removed by the filter, but if the plant gets to them first it'll happily suck them up!

 

[Musho3210]

most phosphate test kits are inaccurate and unreliable.

 

[Kilo]

I'm also changing from black gravel to black sand either tomorrow or Friday—or at least I'll try to find the time to do it. I may have to buy a hand-held dustpan to scoop up all the gravel, and somehow redo all the beneficial bacteria that might already be in the gravel bed—but then there might not be much BB in the gravel bed anyway.

I may have to buy some bacteria suppliment to help boost the BB for the sand bed. I guess all this will take a couple hours. It's just that gravel shows too much gaps everywhere, and sand is more dense. Thing is, will the plecos and eel be able to feed off the sand as they do off the gravel? Since gravel are like stones—easier to eat algae off of.

If they can't seem to eat algae too well off sand, I guess I could get a couple shrimps to see if they can take care of the sand algae and just feed the plecos and eel algae wafers and whatever else they eat. I know plecos love zucchini, which will need to be weighed down to the bottom.

The sand is blacker than the gravel; and also, things I put into the sand (like the bottom of the bridge) will hide better than in the gravel, and plants will stay in better; at least in my experience, sand is better for planting than gravel.

And, what do you all think about fluoride? Since it's bad for humans, even for use in toothpaste, is fluoride hard on fish? I'm thinking they could do better without it in their water.

Thanks!

 

[Themuleous]

Plecos and eels should do fine on sand.

What makes you say fluoride is bad? Its an important ingredient in toothpaste as far as I know.

Sam

 

[Kilo]

Plecos and eels should do fine on sand.

What makes you say fluoride is bad? Its an important ingredient in toothpaste as far as I know.

Sam

I dunno if anyone would like to see a topic about fluoride and human health in a fish forum, so I dunno what to say except that fluoride is toxic, and through the years, (and in many cases through the months), fluoride lowers our immune system. That's one reason why they make faucet-filters and filters that attach beneath the sink that absorbs not only chlorine, lead, bacteria and whatever else is found in tapwater, but also fluoride.

And by the way everyone—the NO2 is in the death-zone, a 9.4 today; yet they're still alive and thriving. Could it be that they adapted to it since the NO2 rose slowly through the past couple weeks, or is this just gonna be a slow killer? I'm getting ready to do another water change, and change the filters even though I just put new ones in a week ago. All four of them got dark.