Nitrates

IceH2O

IceH2O

Bazinga
Nov 26, 2005
1,682
60
51
Rock Hill,South Carolina
Real Name
Ice
I have a question that probably has a simple answer but baffles me..

Plants use Nitrates right?

So why would you want a planted tanks nitrates to be 10 and a tank with no plants to be 20?

Seems like it should be the opposite.
 
In a planted tank where the plants are growing well, nitrates will tend to fall to 0, at that point the plants stop growing and algae may step in to use up the remaining nutrients in the tank.

In a fish only tank, nitrates will tend to rise and after it gets to 20 or 40 ppm the fish will begin to suffer. So, we do water changes to keep the level down, between 10 and 20 ppm ideally, maybe higher if you are lazy and the fish are hardy.
 
so if nitrates somehow stayed at a constant 10ppm in a planted tank...would you ever need to change the water?
 
anonapersona said:
In a planted tank where the plants are growing well, nitrates will tend to fall to 0, at that point the plants stop growing and algae may step in to use up the remaining nutrients in the tank.
Click to expand...


If Nitrates fall to 0 the alage grows,right?

So if you keep a planted tank at 20 ppm there are more nutrients for the plants,less chance at algae and better growing conditions for plants.Right?

Why would I want to lessen the buffer between plants and algae? Its already been stated that 20 ppm is fine for fish,so why not also benefit the plants?Not to mention the extra benefits fish get from the plants.
 
IceH2O said:
If Nitrates fall to 0 the alage grows,right?
Click to expand...

Basically yes, but there is still a tiny amount of NO3 left, enough for algae.

So if you keep a planted tank at 20 ppm there are more nutrients for the plants,less chance at algae and better growing conditions for plants.Right?
Click to expand...

Yes.

Why would I want to lessen the buffer between plants and algae? Its already been stated that 20 ppm is fine for fish,so why not also benefit the plants?Not to mention the extra benefits fish get from the plants.
Click to expand...

There is nothing wrong with 10 vs 20ppm NO3.

If you get up into the 40-75ppm range, some fish seem weird.
But hitting 10-30ppm is pretty easy.

Note, what I and RTR are suggesting is for a CO2 or a Excel enriched tank.

You can go lower with non Carbon enriched methods and also not do water changes for months. Different trade offs(10x slower growth than CO2 gas) and other issues, but certainly the laziest method out there.
Balancing the Fish waste and plant uptake basically. As you increase growth rates, you need more inorganic KNO3 etc to be added, NH4(fish waste) will cause algae if you keep adding more in a high light CO2 tank, so that is why we cannot put more and more fish to add the N for the plants, NO3 is relatively benign.

Regards, Tom Barr

www.BarrReport.com
 
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