Too Little Nitrates?

rainbowcharmer

rainbowcharmer

AC Members
Jul 30, 2007
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East Coast, USA
In a planted tank, is there such a thing as not enough nitrates for the plants?

I'm still working out how much to actually feed this tank since I've never had this many fish in one setup before. I'm aiming for feeding what they can consume in about 1 minute, but so far they have been hogs and the only thing that lasts more than 20 or 30 seconds are the sinking algae wafers, which take most of the evening to be eaten. I think this is due to the fact that they need to soften before my cories or mollies can get anything off of them.

Anyhow, I test my nitrates fairly regularly and I've never had them above 5. Is this going to cause issues? The plants are extremely slow growing, but it's also a low wattage setup (less than 2 WPG), and they are all low-light plants, so I'm not terribly concerned about fast growth, but want to be sure I'm not going to kill off the plants I spent all my $$ on. :)

I've got hornwort, crypts, guppy grass, java moss, java fern (which has some brown tips on some of the leaves), dwarf sag (which sometimes seems to die off and then come back), and something else that at the moment i cannot remember the name of (and which isn't looking terribly healthy). I'll go back and hunt for my thread when I bought these and see if I can't locate the name of it.

It's a 75 gal setup with pool filter sand as a substrate, and a variety of quartz rocks for decor in addition to the plants. I don't have any other "fake" decor or anything in it. I'm trying to do the "natural" look in this tank.

I've got 7 adult mollies, and a few molly fry, 15 red-eye tetras and 12 julii cories. I probably could fit more fish, but I'm happy with the amount that I've got, and don't want to overcrowd them. I like that they have room to swim and enjoy themselves. :)

Anyhow - if I should be worried about the nitrate being so low, is there anything I can so to help it out? The tank is almost fully stocked. I have one more fish to add (red spot gold severum) and then I'm done adding fish.
 
Ok the plant I couldn't think of is Bolbitis heudelotii. And I also have watersprite which doesn't seem terribly happy either. I stuck it in a hole in the driftwood (the hole goes all the way through the driftwood so the bottom of the watersprite sticks out the bottom of the hole and is a few inches above the substrate, so it's not "buried" or anything. it's just held down by the driftwood so that it doesn't float around the tank.
 
I aim to keep my nitrates at 10ppm for my planted tanks. If your plants are doing well, then they're likely getting enough nitrogen with your current bioload. If they're having issues and your nitrates are low/undetectable then I would dose nitrogen or increase your bioload.
 
1) Yes, there can be low nitrates. I need to add nitrates to my tanks.
2)With low lights (and low light-requireing plants) you "may not" need to add nitrates.
3)If you have only one small tank you can buy from LFS some liquid nitrates--Or dry one in bulk.
4) Water sprite can either be floated or planted--have never heard of it stuck to driftwood.
 
Adding Nitrates, huh? Not something I've ever done before. I'll have to see if the pet stores carry any around here. Maybe once I add the severum, that will bring the nitrates up a bit. I also haven't tested since the Julii cories were added (or rather, I haven't tested since the day they were added - last Wednesday). So perhaps they have upped it a bit for me. I'd rather do the nitrates naturally than have to remember to add chemicals to the tank. But we'll see how it goes once the tank is (my version of) fully stocked. If it comes down to it, maybe I will beef up my tetra school. I don't want more mollies at this point (and with the ones I've got, I'm sure at least a few fry will survive into adulthood, so that will add to the nitrates down the road).

What are the signs that the nitrates are too low for the plants? Do they just brown up? What do I need to be on the lookout for?

Thanks.
 
diatoms are a sign of low nitrates. but also occur in new tank set ups, they go away as nitrate levels rise in the tank.I have a 29, and a 36 and I sometimes have to dose nitrogen, I use seachem flourish nitrogen. It's a liquid.
 
With nitrates never testing above 5ppm then your plants are most likely suffering from deficiency. Nitrogen deficiency usually displays itself by browning and death of the lower (older) leaves of the plants. This browning usually starts at the tip of the leaf and then continues toward the base.

Your tank sounds like it has quite a few plants in it and very few fish. The waste from the fish is not going to give you the beautiful plants that you want. For a 75 gallon tank you definitely want to order dry ferts. The cost of using the liquid ferts from the petstore is going to be prohibitive. You can order dry fets online quite cheaply.

www.aquariumfertilizer.com
 
Thanks for the info. I'll check into the dry ferts. Ideally how many fish should I have to keep the nitrates where they need to be? I know my fish (currently) are small, but very active, so I didn't want to have so many that they were over-crowded. Once I add the severum (it will be a juvenile, so won't be full grown for some time), I'll see where the nitrates stay, and then go from there. Is there any concern with the ferts and the fish? Anything I should be aware of when dosing nitrate fertilizers in a community tank?

Thanks.
 
What if in this setup I topped off every other week instead of a weekly 40% w/c? I'd do the 40% w/c on the opposite weekend. Would that be detrimental, or perhaps beneficial to help the nitrates get a little higher without added chemicals? Just a thought.
 
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