Plants to lower nitrates

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ccp2007

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
May 20, 2014
Messages
69
Location
Somewhere Down in Texas
Ok y'all, this is a 2 part question concerning plants.

Part 1: I recently bought an "aquatic combo" and bamboo from petco for my aquariums. The "aquatic combo" consists of: Dracaena, Spathiphyllum, Ophiopogon, Trichomanes and Syngonium. I have found conflicting results when researching these plants. Some saying they are aquarium plants and some saying they're not. Anyone here have success or bad experience with these in their aquarium?

Part 2: My husband is having nitrate issues in his 75. They are consistently remaining high after a week of daily wc, gravel vacuums, decor and filter cleaning. We even went to the extent of removing half the gravel and washing it under hot water and doing a bleach bath on the gravel. Today, the nitrates are still at 80ppm. We are not over feeding. We feed 2 small portions a day. Both feedings we only drop a few pellets at a time and wait for those to be eaten before dropping in more. So, question is, what's the best plants to help with nitrates? We have tried everything except using chemicals and would like to keep it that way if possible.

Also, we have a few extra hob filters, would it be beneficial to make one into a veggie filter? If so, how do you do it? Please be descriptive as I am a plant moron lol


Thank you for your time,
Crystal

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First question is those nitrates are super high, have you tested what your nitrates are from the tap to give you a baseline on what ur working with?? But great nitrate reducers are like hornwort or duckweed and giant duckweed or water lettuce. Duckweed even removes heavy metals from the water column.
 
I did test the tap and it's 0 (or just not enough to even register on API Master Test).

We recently removed 2 mbuna, clown loach and knife fish to lower the bio load.

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A few quick googles say that the "aquatic" combo is a bunch of houseplants not meant to be grown immersed.

What all do you have in the tank, fish-wise? Also, what test kit are you using?

Hornwort, Water Wisteria, and Anacharis are popular nitrate-suckers.
 
It was actually closer to 160ppm early last week. We finally got it down to 80 and can't seem to get it any lower...our other 3 tanks are about 5-10 and we're doing the same with those as we are with the 75 so we're puzzled by this. As soon as we get the 55 moved to my bedroom we'll be taking 2 jewels out of the 75 also. We aren't over stocked, not over feeding and doing regular wc...I'm stumped.

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We have a 6" Jack Dempsey, 3" Ruben red peacock, 1 1/2" Ruby Crystal peacock, 1 1/2" Ruby red peacock, 2 5" Bichirs, 6" common pleco and 2 3" jewels (jewels are about to be moved to a 30 gallon)

We're using API Master Test Kit



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Your Plants

Hello ccp...

Bamboo will do pretty well in a tank, but the leaves have to stay above water with the root system under it. The other plant names don't sound familiar to me, sorry. Those are issues with a lot of failures with aquatic plants. Either they aren't aquatic or the tank keeper doesn't know enough about lighting the tank.

The nitrates can be lowered a couple of ways. The best is to introduce Hornwort into the tank. Just drop individual stems of this floating plant into the tank. No need to plant it. It will use nitrates just as fast as the fish produce them. It can grow very quickly, so needs to be pruned regularly. There's no need to go to a lot of work to remove nitrates, just use a floating plant. Anacharis and Pennywort are other good ones.

Plan B is to use nitrate removing filter media. Research a company by the name of Acurel.

Keep pluggin'

B
 
Common plecos are huge poop factories that only get messier as they grow. It would be advisable to re-home him, they really need tanks 125 gallons or more. RIGHT after a water change, what is the nitrate reading like?
 
BBradbury, thank you for the plant info. I don't know much about plants. I just buy them and hope they work out :what:
I'll try to find the plants you've suggested asap

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Bud29, I agree about plecos. That's why I don't have any in my 30 or 55. The 75 is my husbands and the 55, 30 and 10 is mine :cool:

Anywho, I haven't ever tested it RIGHT after. I've only tested it about an hour or 2 after. I can do another wc and test right after and let you know...

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The overwhelming majority of nitrates in the water comes from unbeaten food. How much are you feeding and what are you feeding them? Also, how often are you feeding?
 
Let me start by giving y'all some info. I'm going to be very descriptive so it may be easier to help me out:

Tank Setup: 75 gallon (standard dimensions)




Filters: Aqueon HOB 55/75 & AquaClear 50
-using Ammo Carb, ceramic rings, pothos and filter pads made for each

Powerhead & Air Pump: Aqueon 1250 with air stone under to create more oxygen and also using 6" air stone disc and bubble wand

Substrate: Pea Gravel from Walmart lawn and garden section. Just switched from sand about 2 months ago +/-

Plants: "aquatic Combo" (actually house plants bought from petco), 2 lucky bamboo, pothos (2 submerged and 1 in filter)

PH 7.8
NITRITE 0ppm
AMMONIA 0ppm
NITRATE 80ppm (we've been trying to resolve this problem for over 2 weeks now. Some of you may remember my post about nitrates and plants)

What we have done to try to resolve nitrate issue:
-Daily 30%+ water changes for 2 weeks strait
-Gravel vacuum every other day with wc
-bleach bathed 1/3 of gravel and removed a portion of the gravel to thin it out some
-Completely tore apart filters to check for any decaying food, fish, waste hidden somewhere (we rinsed filter media in aquarium water so we wouldn't kill off too much bb)
-rehomed 4 fish to reduce bioload
-rinsed decor
-added pothos to tank and filter

*this was NOT all done at once, it has been done over the course of 2+ weeks so we didn't stress the fish more than we had to*

Fish:
6" Jack Dempsey
6+" common pleco
5" yellow fin (moved last night to a separate tank temporarily due to aggression)
3" Ruben Red peacock
2" Ruby red peacock
2"Ruby Crystal peacock (*sick* will go into details further into post)
2 4" mbunas (re-homed to LFS)
2 3" jewels (re-homed to our 30g)
2 5+" Bichirs

Fish diet & schedule:
Sunday- AM: NLS full spectrum PM: freeze dried krill
Monday- AM: nothing PM- Nat Geo color enhance
Tuesday- AM: NLS f spec PM- frozen krill/brine or blood worms
Wednesday- no feed day
Thursday- AM: NLS ultra red PM: frozen
Friday-AM: Hikari carnivore PM: NLS F.spec.
Saturday- Sinking veggie pellets API PM: NLS

Attachment 11191

Ruby Crystal Peacock Symptoms:
-No balance
-Breathing heavy
-Swims nose down or sometimes head down
-White-ish poop
-white fluff on top fin tip

I have qt him in a small breeder box (so he's not floating around bumping stuff), added little (2 tsp) aquarium salt over the course of 12 hours, raised temp to 82°f

Attachment 11192Attachment 11193Attachment 11194

*not only are nitrates crazy but yellow fin has been a super bully*

*all other fish are acting fine and eating fine*

Not sure where to go from here. I hope I covered enough details to get y'all help. TIA

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I tried researching pea gravel but couldn't get anything specific. By the information you're providing I'm inclined to believe that maybe your substrate is the problem.

Of course I'm assuming that the 75 is the only tank that is using pea gravel. I'm also assuming that these nitrate issues started after you switched from sand. It may be a combination of organic compounds in the gravel plus the amount of waste probably/possibly being trapped in the substrate.
 
All of our tanks have the same gravel. The 75 is the only one with nitrate issues....

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