Newbies: Starting a tank? Plants actually help!

Ms.Bubbles

Ms.Bubbles

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Sep 26, 2005
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Hi everyone,
I just wanted to let other aquarium "newbies" know of my good experience with putting lots of plants in a new uncycled tank. I put some fast-growing anacharis & valisnaria in at the very beginning when I added the fish, and so far (3 weeks later) my ammonia levels are still barely registering with 25% weekly water changes.

For those who have to 'cycle' a tank with fish, adding plants seems to really help! There is a little pruning involved, and the adding of fertilizer to the water changes, but the effort seems well worth it, if it reduces fish stress. :)
 
Right now, I'm testing only for ammonia...from what I understand, nitrite (and later nitrate) doesn't arrive until after ammonia-eating bacteria arrive, so I figure as long as there's still ammonia, I 'm not ready to test for nitrite...
 
Can you explain the reasoning behind testing for nitrite at this point? I'm not sure I understand...
 
Yes, I agree that nitrites may be starting to take hold, but do you think that they could actually be at toxic levels (worth measuring) as long as their is still measurable amounts of ammonia present?
 
Ms.Bubbles said:
Yes, I agree that nitrites may be starting to take hold, but do you think that they could actually be at toxic levels (worth measuring) as long as their is still measurable amounts of ammonia present?
Click to expand...

Absolutely. Nitrite is acutely toxic to fish; it takes very little to harm/kill them. The presence of any nitrite in your water decreases the efficiency of fish respiration by compromising hemoglobin. Sublethal levels of nitrite can also increase the susceptibility of your fish to bacterial diseases.
 
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