# ammonia killing plants?



## DanCottle

Yes ammonia will kill plants if there is too much. The amount needed to do so i am not sure of.


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## cradleoffilthfan

did like a 70 percent water change to get the ammonia down, water smelled pretty bad. No fish in the tank, so that's good. Water cleared up a little. Maybe another water change tomorrow......then test again.


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## happi

i have played around with certain chemicals and their effects on plants, IME ammonia can kill the plants, so can the KNO3. but ammonia melts the plant very quickly, especially if you have a PH higher than 7. 1ppm of ammonia is enough to kill most plants, but it is less toxic in these levels if it is under PH of 7. 

i setup a test while back where kno3 was 80+ppm and many plants melted while ammonia was also high 2-3ppm, but i did another test where ammonia was around 2ppm and nitrate was 60+ppm and still some plants melted. i did the final test where plants were ok even ammonia was at 1ppm and nitrate were less than 20ppm. my end results was clear that both can melt the plants if they go excess.


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## cradleoffilthfan

That is a really cool experiment Happi. I have really been struggling to keep the ammonia down in my tank. That Amazonia II ADA soil is leaching ammonia like crazy. I do daily 50 percent water changes and still I can't keep it below .5ppm.....hopefully that is ok....But I thought Ammonia would kill plants. Mine were basically melting as well, found that my Ammonia was around 4ppm before the daily water changes......


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## Steve001

cradleoffilthfan said:


> That is a really cool experiment Happi. I have really been struggling to keep the ammonia down in my tank. That Amazonia II ADA soil is leaching ammonia like crazy. I do daily 50 percent water changes and still I can't keep it below .5ppm.....hopefully that is ok....But I thought Ammonia would kill plants. Mine were basically melting as well, found that my Ammonia was around 4ppm before the daily water changes......


Add co2 to this water and the ammonia will turn into ammonium which makes it food for plants.


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## Diana

Some plants can tolerate higher levels than others. 
You are growing plenty of the nitrifying bacteria, though. Keep the level of ammonia low enough for the plants, or else plan on planting after the cycle is complete. 
The soil will probably keep leaching ammonia for about a month. After that the nitrifying bacteria will have grown enough to deal with the little bit of ammonia that continues showing up.


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## happi

Diana said:


> Some plants can tolerate higher levels than others.
> You are growing plenty of the nitrifying bacteria, though. Keep the level of ammonia low enough for the plants, or else plan on planting after the cycle is complete.
> The soil will probably keep leaching ammonia for about a month. After that the nitrifying bacteria will have grown enough to deal with the little bit of ammonia that continues showing up.


Diana advice is good, but also dont forget that bacteria doesnt like very low PH, in my case i dont have enough bacteria due to extermely low PH, it can drop below 5 PH on my tanks.


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## happi

Steve001 said:


> Add co2 to this water and the ammonia will turn into ammonium which makes it food for plants.


ammonium also burn plant when it is excess, only few plants will suffer from this. i add almost 1ppm of ammonium through urea to my tank everyday, but not for now because i just restarted my tank again, high Nitrate 60-80ppm also melted some plants for me.


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