# Reality of plants for lowering nitrates



## DavidZ (Nov 17, 2009)

Whats the reality of plants lowering nitrates, what would you need/what kind of plants?
Let say if you want to lower by 20points - going from 30 to 10
Yes the water changes work best.
This is a research based question.


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

Nitrate is plant "food" so most will use it. The fast growing types use it quicker. One of the reasons it can become necessary to add ferts is because the growing plants can use all the normally available and we need to add more if we want the full growth. 
Kind of like having teenagers in the house. If we want full growth we have to keep the food on hand.


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## SwissCheeseHead (Dec 24, 2014)

That's like asking how much mashed potatoes people can eat at an all you can eat buffet. It depends on a lot of factors, you would have to have controls on every parameter to gain any quantitative answer.


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## DavidZ (Nov 17, 2009)

I am not looking to do another planted tank, just thinking of some floated plants.
I do know he whole system of feeding .... nitrates.
Looking for a general answer.


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## SwissCheeseHead (Dec 24, 2014)

If you're looking to do floating plants, then I would imagine that the surface area of the water would determine how many floating plants you can have, which would determine how much of a nitrate soak you can have. For example, a 20 gallon long would have a higher capacity to hold more floating plants than say a 20 gallon hex. it largely depends on your stocking levels, your water changes, your plants, high tech/low tech etc.

I guess what I'm trying to say is your question is too open ended with too many variables. You won't be able to get a good answer.


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## DavidZ (Nov 17, 2009)

I see your point, lets say a standard 55Gl with half way coverage, no CO2


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## lksdrinker (Feb 12, 2014)

very confused as to what your question actually is? Are you doubting that plants consume nitrate? Are you asking how to lower nitrates from 30 to 10 ppm? How long are you willing to wait lol? You're not going to find some magic number as to how many plants will consume how much nitrogen. Far too many variables. size of the plant, what other nutrients it can absorb, lighting, etc etc etc.


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## Fishly (Jan 8, 2010)

He's asking how much nitrate plants can remove if all other conditions are ideal. In this case, he's asking about floating plants (presumably to maximize access to light and CO2).

It's an interesting question. I myself got into live plants in the hope that they would reduce the need for water changes. I'm sure others have, too. It would be useful to know the upper limit of nitrate consumption for people who want to have lots of fish with fewer water changes.


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## AbbeysDad (Apr 13, 2016)

'How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?'

<couldn't resist>


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## darklord (Feb 22, 2015)

I got into this sometimes ago, I would say riparium style planted tank reduced water change but best is aquaponics setup - you can get away with high bio load.

But with lack of nitrate floaters will slowly disappear and you would need rich loam or root tab to sustain the rooted aquatic plants. 

Not sure whether anyone experienced the same thing. 

It's like you wanted nice green and lush aquascape and love land plants. It's a really hard balancing act, which mother Nature does it with ease. 

Sent from my HM NOTE 1LTE using Tapatalk


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

darklord said:


> I got into this sometimes ago, I would say riparium style planted tank reduced water change but best is aquaponics setup - you can get away with high bio load.
> 
> But with lack of nitrate floaters will slowly disappear and you would need rich loam or root tab to sustain the rooted aquatic plants.
> 
> ...


Mother nature does it with ease because she is quite willing to let mass numbers of plants and animals die or even go extinct which most of us are not willing/prepared to do. We try to have a grand plan of action where nature just simply lets it go and those who survive are left.


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## DavidZ (Nov 17, 2009)

Fishly is on the money, very interesting
I have seen people in a BBtank using floaters and reduce Nitrates by 10 to 20 pts with a high bio-load


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

One adult and healthy water hyacinth reduced N from 20 ppm to 《 10 ppm in 24 hours in my 12 long. That's the closest I came to a "scientific experiment". Water hyacinth is a well studied plant and there must be some info on its uptake behavior somewhere on the web.


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## lksdrinker (Feb 12, 2014)

Well I think we can all agree that plants will lower nitrates as they consume it. Putting a number on it though seems all but impossible. Unless you're talking about a single speck of duckweed or something that can be easily replicated and compared across multiple tanks. My wisteria plant (or any species) might consume 10 ppm of nitrate in 24 hours; but I couldnt use that to definitively say wisteria in general will consume 10 ppm of nitrate in 24 hours. How big is the plant; how healthy was it to begin with; how starved has it been for nitrogen and/or how "overfed" has it been recently; not to mention what factors in my tank are continuing to add to the nitrogen readings etc.


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## Saxa Tilly (Apr 7, 2015)

Saw some published research 20 years ago that said nothing beats water hyacinth at sucking out nitrates. But you will may some to lower water level a little and possibly add some light over the hyacinth. Water lettuce does an excellent job as well. Or just a quick water change.


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## Mark L (Aug 13, 2016)

According to Walstads book:"Ecology of the PLlanted Aquarium", pgs 107-111, many aquatic plants prefer ammonium to nitrate. pg 110, Q&A; "plants readily take up ammonium from aquarium water and probably grow better using ammonium. This means that biological filtration (nitrification) can be de-emphasized in aquariums that contain healthy aquatic plants. Pg 111: A; The fact that nitrates accumulate in your tank does not mean that your plants are not taking up ammonium. The plants are predictably ignoring the less desirable nitrates as they compete with the filter bacteria for the ammonium. Only by measuring ammonia levels (not nitrates) as you gradually reduce biological filtration could you determine how much nitrification is really necessary for your fish load in your tanks. 
I highly recommend her book, available for Kindle, or hardcopy. btw, she relates how she has gone 6 months without changing water, only replacing for evaporation. No additional fertilizers, no CO2. Kinda makes you go "Hmmmm."


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## DavidZ (Nov 17, 2009)

good stuff


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## Grah the great (Jul 3, 2013)

From personal experience AND research, most aquarium plants strongly prefer straight ammonia to nitrate, to the point that they may ignore nitrate even if there is 100 times more of it in an aquarium than ammonia. Apparently plants need to waste 20% of the energy gained from photosynthesis to convert nitrate to ammonia, thus limiting nitrate uptake to times when the tank is lit (plants will devour ammonia day and night). I have a heavily planted, medium tech (with ferts and CO2) 10 gallon with no fish currently that is getting 1/4th teaspoon of flakes a day and the ammonia readings are negligible, and that does not appear to be the full limit of how much they can take in...obviously plants can remove A LOT of ammonia.

EDIT: Whoops...this has already been mentioned!  Sorry about that.


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