Do plants actually take up ammonia?

[Fishingforfish]

There's soo many mixed answers on this that I can't come to a conclusion. I've always thought plants only used up nitrate.

I never let my ammonia levels go higher than .25ppm though. However, It would be nice to know, considering the fact that I am getting into planted tanks.

Thoughts?

 

[brybell]

There's soo many mixed answers on this that I can't come to a conclusion. I've always thought plants only used up nitrate.

I never let my ammonia levels go higher than .25ppm though. However, It would be nice to know, considering the fact that I am getting into planted tanks.

Thoughts?

I do not think plants absorb or use ammonia in any way. It is true they can use up nitrate.

If anything, if you have decaying plants, they will turn into ammonia. I have a fairly planted tank and it has had no effect on the ammonia in my tank and i just finished fishless cycling.

 

[Mebbid]

Plants do take up ammonia. In fact, a lot of non aquarium fertilizers add ammonia compounds to the fertilizers just because of this fact.

There is also a technique for cycling an aquarium called a "silent cycle" It involves adding a bunch of fast growing stem plants to an aquarium to absorb any ammonia produced by the fish to make a safe cycle.


Take a look at this link for details on it.
Cycling a Planted Tank | Rex's Guide to Planted Tanks

 

[brybell]

Plants do take up ammonia. In fact, a lot of non aquarium fertilizers add ammonia compounds to the fertilizers just because of this fact.

There is also a technique for cycling an aquarium called a "silent cycle" It involves adding a bunch of fast growing stem plants to an aquarium to absorb any ammonia produced by the fish to make a safe cycle.

Take a look at this link for details on it.
Cycling a Planted Tank | Rex's Guide to Planted Tanks

oh well thanks for teaching me too lol

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Here's a more technical discussion on the topic (input from the Dr. "plantbrain" too ):

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=128150

 

[Fishingforfish]

Plants do take up ammonia. In fact, a lot of non aquarium fertilizers add ammonia compounds to the fertilizers just because of this fact.

There is also a technique for cycling an aquarium called a "silent cycle" It involves adding a bunch of fast growing stem plants to an aquarium to absorb any ammonia produced by the fish to make a safe cycle.

Take a look at this link for details on it.
Cycling a Planted Tank | Rex's Guide to Planted Tanks

Ah, if only I read this before I got my tank cycled..nevertheless, I'm still adding plants in.

Thanks for the link!

 

[Fishingforfish]

Here's a more technical discussion on the topic (input from the Dr. "plantbrain" too ):

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=128150

Thanks for the link also! I just have to catch up on all the pages now lol

 

[aqua_chem]

There have been a series of papers published recently demonstrating that many plants will preferentially uptake ammonia/ium if both ammonia and nitrate is presence using model organisms. The one that immediately comes to mind is duckweed. But it makes sense as plants would first need to reduce nitrogen to ammonia to use it in amino acids, so it's energetically preferred.

Also, that thread makes my head throb. The first few pages about NH3/NH4 are so confusing, and there seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding about equilibrium.

 

[Mebbid]

There have been a series of papers published recently demonstrating that many plants will preferentially uptake ammonia/ium if both ammonia and nitrate is presence using model organisms. The one that immediately comes to mind is duckweed. But it makes sense as plants would first need to reduce nitrogen to ammonia to use it in amino acids, so it's energetically preferred.

Also, that thread makes my head throb. The first few pages about NH3/NH4 are so confusing, and there seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding about equilibrium.

That would actually explain a lot in my tank. I just recently added a large school of praecox rainbows and while I never got an ammonia reading above .25 after adding them my plants stopped consuming as much nitrate as they usually do.

 

[Fishingforfish]

There have been a series of papers published recently demonstrating that many plants will preferentially uptake ammonia/ium if both ammonia and nitrate is presence using model organisms. The one that immediately comes to mind is duckweed. But it makes sense as plants would first need to reduce nitrogen to ammonia to use it in amino acids, so it's energetically preferred.

Also, that thread makes my head throb. The first few pages about NH3/NH4 are so confusing, and there seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding about equilibrium.

I know! I kinda lost it at the 2nd page..it was like trying to read numbers..

This question does make me wonder, more than I should. I know that plants in aquariums use nitrates, but ammonia?! It would be nice to get someone to set the record straight, haha

 

[Fishingforfish]

That would actually explain a lot in my tank. I just recently added a large school of praecox rainbows and while I never got an ammonia reading above .25 after adding them my plants stopped consuming as much nitrate as they usually do.

Nitrates don't really interfere with my tank. It's always 20ppm or less. What I worry about the most in my tank has to be ammonia.
Its funny you mention adding new fish, I am going to add cories soon (5) and I have been worrying about the rise of ammonia. I will have a planted tank then, though. Hopefully nothing bad happens.

 

[Mebbid]

Well what Aqua_chem said about plants consuming ammonia before nitrates makes sense from what I saw in my tank. The addition of a school of 9 2" long fish to a 55g aquarium should have caused a big ammonia spike however I never really saw one. I also didn't adjust my fert dosing and that caused my nitrates to skyrocket because the plants were feeding off of the ammonia before the nitrates.

 

[jetajockey]

From what I understand, plants uptake ammonium (nh4+) rather than ammonia (nh3). Both make up the total ammonia(this is what the API kit reads in) in the tank and the amounts of each depend on the temperature and pH. It's splitting hairs since as long as there's any ammonia present it's going to have a certain amount of nh3 and nh4+, but yeah.

 

[cfrank]

Goodness I thought I escaped Organic Chemistry. It's also worth noting that ammonia/ammonium exist in equilibrium. While that equilibrium changes according to the pH, if the pH is constant, so will the equilibrium. So if you had 3 parts ammonia to 1 part ammonium and that 1 part ammonium is taken up by the plants, then enough of the ammonia will be converted to ammonium to ensure that it stays in the 3:1 ratio (numbers purely hypothetical. I have no clue what the actual ratio is).