Controling Nitrate using plants??

[parade2k]

Hi,

I am having a hard time controling nitrate levels in my 2 year old 50 gallon tank. I have vacumed 3 times this week and done 2 25% water change this week and used Nitrate-zorb ?

my reading are as followed

Sat, 4th June 2005 (introduces nitra-zorb, vacumed, 25% water change)
Nitrate 60
Nitrite 0.10
PH 6.8
Ammonia 0.25


Mon, 6th June 2005
Nitrate 60
Nitrite 0.0
PH 6.8
Ammonia 0.0

The tank contains

3 x Clownfish
2 x Neons
1 x Wild Angel
1 x Pink Kisser
Plastic plants, drift wood, marble stone.

I'm thinking of changin the plastic plants with the real thing and using a diy co2 setup (initially). Would the plants help solve my problem?

any help is much appreciated..

 

[Sime]

ive had the same problem, and to be honest i found the nitra-zorb a waste of time.

i'd change about 30% of the water every two or three days for about a week then change once a week and see if that lowers it.

do you know what your tap water NO3 is?

more fast growing plants will help to a degree but i found lots of water changes were the only way to get mine down.

Simon.

 

[kingkano]

check the tap water nitrate. if your tap water nitrate is 50 (like mine is) your fighting a losing battle. Plants will do it, but your talking good lighting, co2 injection etc. Its a lifestyle not an easy change Moderate planting will certainly help equal it out....

Another option... do you use an external filter?? There is a fantastic product from JBL called Bio NitratEX. This is a biological filter bag (well 4 bags in a box) that works just like a denitrator - removing nitrate from the system. It works fast once its established (3-4wks), reduces nitrate to 0 and keeps it there - and the bags are only a food source for nitrate consuming bacteria so it lasts 12mths maybe more (mine is into the more on one tank).

HTH

 

[Sime]

my nitrates used to be 100 - they've been running at 20 / 25 for a long time now so the water changes definatly helped. fast growers like Hygro and some floating plants will help.

i've heard about NitratEX and it looked very good, but my filter is internal. this link will help you: http/www.jbl.de/uk/aqua/uk_62537.html

if you do change to real plants, you want a bit higher than 0 as this can trigger algae.

 

[kingkano]

nope wrong one lol They had that out for ages, its just nitrazorb but slightly better. you want the BIO nitratex, let me see if I can dig up the same page for it....

yep here ya go... clicky linky lol

The difference is the one you posted just absorbs upto 9000mg nitrate, this BIO one doesnt absorb, and hence doesnt have a limit I aint tried it with an internal filter yet, the instructions say external, but I am definitely going to be trying it....

defo if you wanna grow plants, you dont really want zero. BUT. somehow, my 2 tanks grow, and tick over nicely. With nitratex and rowaphos (thereby removing nitrate and phos) in the filters. I cant say it works for everyone else, I aint 100% why it works for me!

My theories are that between fishpoo and fishfood, the plants are extracting enough nutrients before the filter products remove it all, to keep them going. I do feed pretty well and carry a decent stock level. Probably water changes weekly with nitrate 50 phos 5 helps too lol

Anyhoo hope the info is helpful to someone....

 

[Nospherith]

It's good to know the nitrate concentration of your tap; however, I think it's probably really high already judging by the low bioload and the comparitively high nitrate level. Live plants would do well in this situation.

If the goal is to simply lower nitrates to an accceptable level, then I would suggest a setup of 2wpg. At least 5 bunches of a fast growing plants not limited to Hygrophelia polysperma, Rotala species, and Vallis species. These will grow in time so that the added biomass will help with nutrient absorption. I think that duckweed is good for this purpose as well. (It's best to start with a variety of plant species then figure out which grows best in your tank.)

It's dubious to use DIY CO2 with 2wpg but it wouldn't do much in a 50g. Then again if it's just nitrate absorption you're going for then a healthy fast-growing plant biomass will do the trick anytime. My tap is at about 15ppm NO3 and it's soon down to unreadable levels within days which is why I actually have to dose KNO3 to keep the plants healthy. hth

 

[Dubby]

parade2k:

Have you figured out what caused the nitrite & ammonia spike on 4th?