Why are my nitrates so low?

[DeirdreHoyle]

Success!! So I bought and used Flourish Nitrogen yesterday afternoon and while my plants haven't made a miraculous recovery, my nitrates are up. The only thing is I can't tell if I'm at at 10 or 20 ppm. I'm gonna post a picture of my test and hopefully you guys can tell me which one I'm at.

 

[Sk3lly]

The nitrate test colours are hard to distinguish

 

[DeirdreHoyle]

Here's my test. Am I at 10 or 20 ppm?

 

[Camescu]

I'd settle at 15

 

[DeirdreHoyle]

I'd settle at 15

Lol alright!

Thanks for all the help everyone! Hopefully this can save my plants

 

[DeirdreHoyle]

The nitrate test colours are hard to distinguish

I see that!

 

[Sk3lly]

Should really help your plants! Keep monitoring the levels though. You dont want to be adding it faster than the plants use it otherwise the levels will get high and become an issue for the fish

 

[DeirdreHoyle]

Should really help your plants! Keep monitoring the levels though. You dont want to be adding it faster than the plants use it otherwise the levels will get high and become an issue for the fish

Yeah I'll monitor it closely I'm just glad I figured it out. I went to my lfs and seeing all their flourishing bright green plants made me depressed lol

 

[Sk3lly]

Yeah I'll monitor it closely I'm just glad I figured it out. I went to my lfs and seeing all their flourishing bright green plants made me depressed lol

I find the plants more satisfying than the fish if im honest lol. Is that bad? Haha

 

[DeirdreHoyle]

No that's not bad, you could have a plant only display tank!

Also, my water wisteria perked up almost immediately after I raised the nitrates. Looks more green already. Yay!

 

[Fresh2o]

Yay for the nitrates. I like my plants. I consider the fish to be nitrate producers.

 

[Darkseid76]

You have pretty easy to keep plants. IMO all you need are the Comp, Leaf Zone, Excel and tabs. Save yourself some money. Make your own tabs, save even more money.

I've grown tons of different plants with just those ferts and craptastic lighting. Tabs get changed every 3-4 months or more depending on how greedy the plants are. Excel daily. Alternate Comp and LZ. My swords used to "devour" Seachem tabs quickly. I switched to DIY tabs and haven't looked back.

 

[DeirdreHoyle]

You have pretty easy to keep plants. IMO all you need are the Comp, Leaf Zone, Excel and tabs. Save yourself some money. Make your own tabs, save even more money.

I've grown tons of different plants with just those ferts and craptastic lighting. Tabs get changed every 3-4 months or more depending on how greedy the plants are. Excel daily. Alternate Comp and LZ. My swords used to "devour" Seachem tabs quickly. I switched to DIY tabs and haven't looked back.

Yeah my swords devour the Seachem tabs! The instructions say to change every 3 to 4 months but mine hardly last a month or two....How do you make your own?

Since raising the nitrates my wisteria has perked up tremendously and the swords, which were suffering the most, are looking much much better. I think all my extra fertilizers won't be necessary now since I found the real issue.

 

[Mama Karoti]

My plants were doing terrible and I finally figured out I had a nitrate and phosphate deficiency. I got each fertilizer separately in powder form online and have been dosing them conservatively for the past couple weeks trying to find the balance in my tank. It. Amazing how much better my plants looks already.