Tropical Fish Keeping banner

Plants and NitrAtes

2285 Views 11 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  sprmankalel
At what point do plants start to consume nitrates? I asks because I had a bit of sadness today. While I have been dosing daily with Brightwell Aquatics FlourinMulti and FlourinAxis at 6 drops per day each I had been holding off of water changes. Last night I had noticed my favorite angel hiding in pants. Not abnormal but she barely came up to eat. She always comes to eat. Since I had been planning on doing a WC today I thought nothing of it. I found her sucked onto the filter intake. I quickly turned the filter off and she floated to the top. She had found herself resting in one of the crypts and I had tested the water. I came up with 0 nitrIte, .5 ammonia (tested 2 more times and both subsequent tests were 0) and 60 nitrAte. I did about 45%-50% water change. It had been 3 weeks and 1 day since the last. I know 60ppm of nitrAte is not low but it is not exactly deadly either. The reason I had extended the time between water changes is because I had been having difficulty with my plants growing and I was trying to keep as many nutrients in the tank as possible. I had since remedied that situation. I know that this could be an isolated incident as all other inhabitants seem normal. My understanding was that the plants would use the nitrAtes in the water thus lowering the concentration. Is this not true? I am very sad because my angel died and she was my favorite. I just don't want to make a mistake again. Please don't be harsh at my 3 week wait between WCs. I usually don't go more than 7-10 days.
See less See more
1 - 6 of 12 Posts
I had her for about 2 months. She was very strung and didn't gave me no reason to suspect anything.
Posted via Mobile Device
Ok.....Update.....

After last week's water change I noticed new beautiful growth on rotalas. I love these plants because the new growth looks like flowers at the top. Yay!!!
I dosed last week only the weekly suggestion of the FlourinMulti and FlourinAxis. Both are 5ml/50gallons. I stopped daily dosing though the daily dosing at the end of a week is 5ml.

I noticed stringy algae growing on my plants!!! Not happy about this. From reading I know that it'll eventually go away. Others say use Excel. I checked it out today. Excel is a bioavailable carbon source. The same as the FlourinAxis. I did not pick it up. I did small water change today but since I use an Aqueon siphon that hooks up to the sink I don't know exactly how many gallons I removed. This leads to guesstimating how much water conditioner to use. As I turn the siphon in reverse after adjusting temperature I use a syringe to drip the water conditioner into the tank before I start refilling. I hold the hose above the water and move it back and forth to mix with the conditioner while filling. I can use the siphon to remove water and a bucket and measure the conditioner per gallon and refill if a potential cause of algae is maybe using too much water conditioner.

I'm a little baffled because my research told me that this type of algae is also cause by too much nutrients. I checked before the WC and nitrates were at 10-20ppm. Since I had no plant growth in a few weeks I got some hornwort to help choke out the algae. It was also time to get some new plants.

Is this type of algae dangerous to my fish? I often catch my angles grazing on the plants. I wouldn't mind if they ate it but there's too much for them to clean it up. Are there any other ways to get rid of it? I wouldn't mind picking the stuff off but, again, there's so much and I would have to take the plants out to really get it. I think for me the easier thing is to wait it out until it goes away itself.

A quick about my tank

50 gallons
5 Angels (I got a new one)
3 Albino Cories
8 Black Neon Tetras
1 Cat Shark (Columbian Shark)
3 (but I can only see 2) Otocinclus

I feed everyday with TetraColor Tropical Crisps. I probably feed a little too much because I do let some go down for the cories and the cat shark. I feed every 3rd day 1 Aqueon bottom feeder tablet for the cories and cat shark. The angels pig out on this too. I also feed with some freeze dried bloodworms 1 a week and tubifex worms 1 a weeks or so.

Any insight would be appreciated.
See less See more
Thinking about c02. Any thoughts?
I have a considerable amount of plants. I don't have any other decorations. I love the look of live plants. I really want them to grow to be fill up the tank.
I try to do weekly 20-25% WCs. Plants seems to go through a growth spurt after a WC.
1 - 6 of 12 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top