Heavily planted tank no ammonia, nitrites, or nitrates

[Alaskaluna]

My tank is about 5 months old and pretty heavily planted with several sweet potato vines and pothos on top of my aquatic plants. Since adding the terrestrial plants a few weeks ago I notice my water has been more green and my nitrates are in between 0-.5 ppm. I only have 4 neons and my tank is 30 gallons but theres probably only 20 gallons in there. Are my plants just soaking up all the nitrates? I dose the tank with seachem ferts every day.

 

[Aiken Drum]

If you have non aquatic plants like pothos then its very possible they are taking up all the nitrate. Thats a very heavily planted tank and very low bioload, so more so.

Which seachem fertiliser are you using? Flourish doesnt contain much in the way of nitrogen or phosphate, which if your non-aquatic plants are taking them all up could cause nutrient issues elsewhere.

 

[Alaskaluna]

I have read that pothos does take up quite a bit of nutrients and I have about 5 different vines in there. I use Flourish, Flourish Advance, and flourish Excel. I dose FA every day and the other two every other day on a rotating schedule so at least 2 fertilizers are being used daily. Is it going to wreck my cycle to have 0-.5 ppms of nitrate or will it be okay?

Any idea why my water looks green/yellow? It looks like tannin water but my wood was boiled and didnt leech any tannins even in the early stages of the tank. I didn't start experiencing discoloration until recently.

 

[Aiken Drum]

II use Flourish, Flourish Advance, and flourish Excel. I dose FA every day and the other two every other day on a rotating schedule so at least 2 fertilizers are being used daily.

None of those have any appreciable nitrogen or phosphate in them. If you see any nutrient deficiencies you might want to consider either Thrive if its available in your location (eg USA) or TNC Complete if like me you live in UK where we cant get Thrive.

Is it going to wreck my cycle to have 0-.5 ppms of nitrate or will it be okay?

Having nitrate or a lack of it is irrelevant to your cycle. Having nitrate is a sign that you are cycled because it is normally the end product of the nitrogen cycle, but not having nitrate is not necessarily an issue if its absence can be explained. In your case a lightly stocked, very heavily planted tank with non-aquatic plants that are known to take up nitrate. Plant growth is part of the nitrogen cycle. They will also be taking up ammonia, which in turn leads to less nitrate. If you are seeing no ammonia or nitrite you are cycled, it doesnt matter if that zero ammonia and nitrite comes from being consumed by beneficial bacteria or taken up by plant growth.

Any idea why my water looks green/yellow? It looks like tannin water but my wood was boiled and didnt leech any tannins even in the early stages of the tank. I didn't start experiencing discoloration until recently.

Is it green water (algae)? Or tea like water (tannins)?

If its algae, what is your lighting like? Or is the tank sat in direct sunlight?

If its tannins, are you running carbon in your filter? Carbon pulls tannins from the water, but only lasts a short time before needing replacing. Perhaps it expired and you are now seeing tannins from your driftwood.

Put some new carbon in your filter, see if it clears up.

 

[Magaratz]

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/type_fertilizers/products/easy-green-all-in-one-fertilizer

This is a link to Easy Green fertilizer. It is sufficient for most of your plants. I would use some root tabs if needed. I’d ditch the of the Seacham products for Easy Green—just 3 squirts a week.

 

[Alaskaluna]

Thank you, I am going to get Thrive+ I only found out last week that I was supposed to use the entire seachem flourish line to get well rounded fertilization, but I did forget to mention I have added root tabs.

As far as water goes it looks like tea but it could be algea too. I was using 2 lights on the tank because they weren't that strong and its very deep which is another reason why I dont fill it to the top. It also occasionally gets a few minutes of filtered sunlight. However I have never had carbon in my filter I have a HOB with a sponge on the intake,Fluval prefilter, fluval biomax, and sponges. I also have a sponge filter with cermic media (The sponge filter is temporary I just put it in there until my other tank is ready to be flooded.)

Ill add some carbon and see if things clear up.