does keeping plans make it so that you do less water changes?
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echoofformless
Peat Advocate & Defender Of Snails
The cycle of a tank is over once there is nitrate - nitrate only comes about by the bacterial action on nitrite, which is of course the byproduct of bacterial action on ammonia.
As far as where plants get nitrogen, they actually prefer ammonia before they will go to nitrite, and nitrate is their least preferable means of getting nitrogen. But they surely will use it, and that is why heavily planted tanks (of course with fast growing plants) will often be nitrate free.
But keep in mind - if your plants are slow growing (anubias, java fern) then their uptake of nutrients is slow as well. That could mean that even in a very heavily planted tank consisting only of those plants, you will still get significant nitrate and have to do more frequent changes.
My experiment was with water sprite - a plant that grows so fast you literally remove buckets of the stuff every month.
As far as where plants get nitrogen, they actually prefer ammonia before they will go to nitrite, and nitrate is their least preferable means of getting nitrogen. But they surely will use it, and that is why heavily planted tanks (of course with fast growing plants) will often be nitrate free.
But keep in mind - if your plants are slow growing (anubias, java fern) then their uptake of nutrients is slow as well. That could mean that even in a very heavily planted tank consisting only of those plants, you will still get significant nitrate and have to do more frequent changes.
My experiment was with water sprite - a plant that grows so fast you literally remove buckets of the stuff every month.
Plecosterone
We don't need no stinking badges!
My 75 gallon that is heavily planted only gets 40% water changes every 2 weeks. As stated above there is more than just nitrate in the water to make water changes needed. I feel 50% weekly wc are only needed in heavily stocked tanks with gravel substrate (I use sand) with no/little plants. Since I do not have a heavy bio-load I feel this sufficient and my fish do fine. I do have to ADD nitrate every 3 days and also only do wc every 2 weeks for trace elements.
The plants will replace the ammonia eating bacteria in the cycle process, if you have enough healthy plants you don't need to cycle the tank at all. However, plants do not use nitrites so if you overstock and generate more ammonia than the plants can handle you can still see a nitrite spike.
There are methods used to reduce water changes. Diana Walstad wrote a book about one method, Tom Barr talks about a similar method at his website, and the APC forum has PPS-Pro dosing method for higher light tanks. However, each methods have their set ways and drawbacks so you'll have to determine if it's worth it to have less water changes.
Another consideration for heavily planted tanks - you can actually pitch one into a mini-cycle by trimming/removing a significant fraction of the plants as the result is a smaller sink for NH3.
well my tank will not be heavily planted at all, in fact, most likely i won't have any other plants other than a few sword plants (i don't know their proper name). but i have only one right now that grew from a bulb i planted in my first tank a while back that is still super healthy and looks a lot better than my giant val does.
Anyone have anything to say about filtration and it affects the frequency of water changes? High end filtraTion requires less water change etc.
I have a heavily overstocked 75g thats also heavily planted. EI dosing levels is 3/4 teaspoon nitrate 3X a week. Even with heavily overstocked fish load I have to dose even more than EI levels of nitrate 3 times a week and still struggle to maintain nitrate. But since I do have such a heavy fish load I change 50% water weekly. Nitrate doesnt figure in to my water changes at all.
And BTW, plants do not uptake nitrite.
Yes, filtration can extend wc intervals but unless you got something fancy (sub micron level DE filters and ozone injection) I wouldnt say it should change it very much. And yes fish can often go a very long time with inadaquate filtration or water changes. That doesnt mean its right in all instances though.
And BTW, plants do not uptake nitrite.
Yes, filtration can extend wc intervals but unless you got something fancy (sub micron level DE filters and ozone injection) I wouldnt say it should change it very much. And yes fish can often go a very long time with inadaquate filtration or water changes. That doesnt mean its right in all instances though.
AquariumNoob13
You might gain a lot from the hobby by coming to SCAPE meeting in your area on aquatic plants, they often give them away in plant swaps.
I think you might be best served with water changes, Excel dosing, and MAYBE, some sediment tabs under the plants.
Do not use that gaudy ugly blue gravel though
Use something like Seachem Black flourite.
Yes, you can get away with no water changes and have a nice dense planted tanks for years without a water change(then only after I do a big hack) and this is best served using the non CO2 approaches rather than adding CO2.
It's like driving at 20mph vs 120mph, slower plant growth is easier to manage.
So low light+ low CO2 = less plant demand for nutrients, so fish waste alone can supply most of it.
If you added more light, more CO2 to the same tank, the plant's rapid growth would strip everything out of the water and the plants would get algae and stunt, because they are starving, but algae need much less than plants to grow well+ higher light.
Likewise, you cannot keep adding more and more fish to such tanks to supply the fertilizers to CO2 enriched tanks with plant.........too much NH4 waste over loads the system and you get algae as well as less O2 available.
Regards,
Tom Barr
You might gain a lot from the hobby by coming to SCAPE meeting in your area on aquatic plants, they often give them away in plant swaps.
I think you might be best served with water changes, Excel dosing, and MAYBE, some sediment tabs under the plants.
Do not use that gaudy ugly blue gravel though
Use something like Seachem Black flourite.
Yes, you can get away with no water changes and have a nice dense planted tanks for years without a water change(then only after I do a big hack) and this is best served using the non CO2 approaches rather than adding CO2.
It's like driving at 20mph vs 120mph, slower plant growth is easier to manage.
So low light+ low CO2 = less plant demand for nutrients, so fish waste alone can supply most of it.
If you added more light, more CO2 to the same tank, the plant's rapid growth would strip everything out of the water and the plants would get algae and stunt, because they are starving, but algae need much less than plants to grow well+ higher light.
Likewise, you cannot keep adding more and more fish to such tanks to supply the fertilizers to CO2 enriched tanks with plant.........too much NH4 waste over loads the system and you get algae as well as less O2 available.
Regards,
Tom Barr
