Advice Plants for lowering nitrates

[William470]

I am performing a fishless cycle. For the better part of a month I have been testing my water and my levels not changed. Ammonia 4 ppm, Nitrite 0 - .12 ppm. I figured out I was doing the Nitrate test wrong. One not shaking bottle number 2 of the API Freshwater Master test kit. And also performing the test itself.

After figuring out the right way to do the Nitrate test I found out the tap water in my home is testing at 20 ppm. I feel the Nitrate level out of the tap is slowing the cycling process. I also could be wrong.

What plants are suitable to lower my nitrate level? This is my first aquarium tank. So I was not planning out putting in any plants. Is there an alternative to lowering my nitrate? I feel the nitrate level might be an issue when the cycle is done and when I have fish in my tanks.

Any advice will be helpful.

William

 

[timwag2001]

nitrate is good for plants. you dont want to run out. when you run out of nutrients ina tank you get algae.

another issue is that test kits are very rarely accurate. read this for calibrating your test kit for accuracy. Calibrating Test Kits - for non-Chemists

nitrates are important in a planted aquarium. if your tap has nitrates in it, embrace it. it will save you money in fertilizers

 

[jsoong]

Nitrates will not slow down cycling, at least not in the 20's. It is a matter of time & patience . There are ways to speed up cycle - seeding & higher temp for example.

Once you have done a bunch of tests without shaking the #2 bottle, you whole kit is prob shot. When you are doing the test incorrectly, you are basically taking the water out of the bottle, without the reagent, so the bottle now has reagents that is far more concentrated that it should. Your results won't be accurate any more. You should calibrate the kit before trusting the result. In other words, don't get all stressed out on your NO3 result at this point!

If you are not planning a planted tank, then there is no way of removing nitrates from your tap water short of a R/O system or a denitrating coil or some thing fancy. 20 isn't really bad, you might just learn to live with it. otherwise, hornwort is a good nitrate sponge.

 

[BigJim]

I like anacharis better than hornwort. It's less messy.