Dying Plants Affect Water Parameters???

[volcomstone]

New to planted tanks and had a question which I'm sure many can answer....If there are any signs of plants dying due to whatever obvious reasons (insufficient lighting, not enough CO2, etc...) would that in any way affect your water parameters ie. ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, etc??? I just wanted to know if there is anything bad when it comes to dying plants other than the fact that your plants are dying.

 

[SmokingRay]

Yes, not as bad as dead fish or over feeding but will affect all water parameeters.

 

[BettaFishMommy]

yes, rotting plants will provide a source of 'food' for the nitrifying bacteria in your tank. rotting things are decomposing, and decomposition will release ammonia into the water. as SmokingRay said, it will not be as bad as a dead fish/extra food, but it is still not good for the tank or inhabitants.

this is why it is always a good idea to remove dead and dying plants and to trim up the leaves on healthy plants that look like they are dying off.

another advantage to keeping the dead plant matter out of the tank and trimmed off the healthy plants is that the healthy part of plants can more effectively go through photosynthesis, etc and be a more 'happy' plant, to put it in extreme layman's terms, lol.

 

[Luvbugz]

Decaying plant matter can cause ammonia spikes.

 

[volcomstone]

That's what I figured....Thanks everybody for your replies. I need to watch out for this.

 

[BettaFishMommy]

a tip for plant trimming, just get in there up to your elbows with the kitchen scissors, lol, that's what i do, works great! just make sure ya rinse the scissors off and put them back before your significant other catches you.......hahahaha!

 

[fishorama]

You can also sometimes get nitrate spikes if you remove too much (live) plant mass at 1 time.