Hornwort

[Michaela30]

I brought some hornwort for my tank I was told it would reduce my nitrates however after doing a water change and adding it in 24 hours later my nitrates are higher at 40 to 80 ppm where as before they were 30 to 40 and needles keep floating everywhere what can i do why is this happening can anyone help please thank you in advance

 

[anewbie]

Aquatic plants only have marginal benefit on reducing nitrates and you certainly wouldn't notice benefit in 24 hours. Would need a lot more information about your aquarium to answer your question as to why nitrate are rising but two common reasons is over stocking and over feeding.

Also there are areas of england that have high amount of nitrate in their tap so you might measure your tap water to get a baseline.

 

[Michaela30]

Aquatic plants only have marginal benefit on reducing nitrates and you certainly wouldn't notice benefit in 24 hours. Would need a lot more information about your aquarium to answer your question as to why nitrate are rising but two common reasons is over stocking and over feeding.

Also there are areas of england that have high amount of nitrate in their tap so you might measure your tap water to get a baseline.

I measured my tap water last week and the reading was 20ppm and I tested my water after a change it was down to around 20 to 30 ppm and usually after I do a water change and test it its never this high and it hasn't been this high in a really long time I have barely any fish due to them all dying of and I only feed them a very tiny pinch so no over stocking and overfeeding

 

[anewbie]

Could be the substrate some substrates leach nitrate. The plants did not add nitrate - it is something in the aquarium causing the high nitrate. Also do you do water changes or just replace evaporated water ?

 

[Michaela30]

No I do a 50% water change including vacuuming the gravel every 4 days and it has been keeping the nitrates down but this time they sky rocketed

 

[Essjay]

Aquatic plants reduce nitrate by taking up the ammonia made by the fish and turning it into protein rather than nitrite then on to nitrate. If the plants have a plentiful supply of ammonia, they won't remove nitrate already in the water because aquatic plants have to turn nitrate into ammonia to use it.

 

[Byron]

Nitrate in the tap (source) water is one issue, and nitrates occurring within the aquarium from the biological processes is another.

Nitrate of 20 ppm in the tap water is not likely to lessen in the aquarium, so right off this is what you have to work with. There are means of dealing with tap water nitrates, you can have a read of the articles linked below from one of our members.

To the nitrates occurring within the aquarium, these can be reduced by regular substantial partial water changes, vacuuming the substrate in open areas, not overstocking, not overfeeding, and having fast growing aquarium plants. Some of these you mention doing, so that's good, but the plant aspect is often misunderstood. Plants need nitrogen, and the majority of aquatic plants we keep in an aquarium use ammonia/ammonium, and they can take up a lot of it. Unlike relying on nitrifying bacteria, nitrites are not produced, which then means less nitrates. Some will still occur, but far less than having no aquatic plants. Fast growing plants are best at this.

To your Hornwort...this is not always an easy plant to grow well. You would be better with more substantial floating plants like Water Sprite, Frogbit, Water Lettuce, or stem plants like pennywort. Floating plants are right under the light so this usually means easier to grow.

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