Wow, never knew some plants didn’t use up nitrates. I thought they all did. Had high nitrates, dying plants and algae for years. Gives me hope. Thanks!
Alex this is one of the best videos I've seen on this subject. Most videos are oral presentation or maybe animated, this one was done extremely well. I figured this out my first year of getting back into aquariums and I found my best plants for quickly controlling the Ammonia and Nitrates/ites. I use African Frogbit and some Duckweed. To help keep the aquarium lit, I stretch plastic air line between two bayonet suction cups and then stick them it to the ends so the hose makes its own weir or surface dam to hold the plants on the back half of the tank. This way the lights get through to the plants and still shine on the floaters. I skin off the excess floaters and throw them into the blender for shrimp food.
This is really helpful! These nuances are so important but easily overlooked. I have a well established tank that is my biggest nitrate producer and I was always stumped as to why until it occurred to me that my light sucked and it was full of slow growing anubias.
Well thanks l, and nice work! Youre quite clever to have figured that out. No one really informs new keepers or any of this stuff early on. Thanks for tuning in
Just had a scare recently about my nitrates being so out of wack (thankfully the amonia and nitrites were fine), I thought my plants had been handling the nitrates but realized I was wrong and for the exact reason this video points out - I had a severe lack of faster growing plants! (Suffice to say I've sinced purchased some stems and floaters to go along with my ferns, haha!) This video really nicely explains everything and helped to support what I suspected was occuring, especially about keeping the mulm in our gravel substrate tank. Thanks for putting it together!
Sure thing! Im glad you sorted out the issue... its one that took me a decade of planted tank keeping to even understand, so you must be far more observant and sharp than i am haha. Glad you found the video of some use though! Cheers
This has been super helpful just in understanding what we need to do once we get our fish in our 75 gallon tank. The main issue we're having though is that the water we're putting in is testing at 0 nitrate, and then within 20 minutes of going in is testing at 20/40. The odd part though - it's empty. All that's in there is the substrate and the few plants. We have lucky bamboo, pothos, anubias, and java ferns. There are all those different plants, but it's still very sparse so I could definitely see it being helpful for us to put more in. I'm just confused as to where the nitrates are coming from at this point without any waste from fish to drive it.
Could be from substrate leaching it...could be in the tap water...could be food and or plant debris, those are kinda the only options beyond fertz and fish. Best of luck!
I don't do plants in my tanks , but I was told I have high nitrates from my hard well water , even from my tap with a water softener ! Some of my fish I've had for 25 years ? ? But when I got some green spotted puffers - all hell broke loose ! ?
This is the video I have been searching for you literally answered all of my questions and more. Especially helpful because im trying to run a natural tank which is hard to find videos on here thank you
Alex, thanks. I hope you feel better. It’s unimaginable to have a tank without plenty of plants. It helps fish as well. I think you may have forgotten two of the most important causes for high nitrates: - tab water - over filtration. I have checked the tab water of acquaintances. They wanted Otocinclus. Problem: their nitrates in the tab water was way too high. Solution: osmosis. Another one complained about algae everywhere and he bought a lot of stuff against it. I had a look at his filter. Problem was he filtered about 10times the tank volume per hour. Water was good. But the water couldn’t stay long enough in the filter (material) to build important bacteria.
Definitely true. ( and I think you mean "tap" water right? Speech to txt or autocorrect messes that up for me too.) The nitrates or ammonia in tap water is pretty rare in most the usa. But certainly does occur sometimes! Well water seems to be the culprit in most folks I've encountered that with (organic debris or leaves break down in their well or water table as organic particulates). Hopefully a Dechlorinator will handle the nitrates or ammonia from that, but yes- nitrates often need RO/(DI) filtration of some sort.
@@Fishtory father fish has stated that it's impossible for nitrates to even be at high enough level, naturally, to harm anything in the water, it's one of his videos where he had a biologist he was interviewing. Basically saying it would have to be an insanely high number to be harmful.
@secert history living in your aquarium. Another top notch video mate. I switched to gravel from sand.Its a 5" deep substrate now,using root tabs,all in 1 fertiliser too,also just invested in a co2 system.Ive purposely not vac'd the gravel since I changed from sand 6 weeks go.plants are hydrophylla taiwan,ludwigia super red,echinodorus ozelot green,echinodorus bleherae,hygrophila guanensis,African fern,various anubias,crypts petchii & balansae. Nitrates usually 10/20ppm.Hope my fluval aquasky can be powerful enough.Keep up the great info video's mate.👌👌👌👍👍👍🇬🇧🇬🇧
Sounds like things will work out. Especially over time as your deep bed substrate matures...it'll turn into an actual filter and giant root tab hehe. Cheers mate. Thanks for writing, have a top notch, sunday!
Dude im only 30 seconds in & u described my tank... Tons of plants. My plants are potted in glass & acrylic. Substrate is sand & 1/3 is glass pebbles. Tank will not cycle!! Nitrites have been the worst 😢 Love the pencilfish! I want to add some but need to get back cycled 1st
I may be any over feeder abit. My hob is double the strength needed. I use seachem filter media, prime, & stability. No lie.. daily water changes forever now 😢 maybe I'm over cleaning? I might be taking too much out like u state 20g long 6 julii corys 5 pygmy corys 4 glass catfish 2 shrimp 2 otos 2 guppy, 4 endlers
As always, so choc full of great information! It makes one re-think the whole plant set-up and aquascaping ideas. Thank you Alex, and hope your recovery is going well 🥰
Thank you, super helpful. I have tank that's been doing this, I can do water changes and still have off-the-charts nitrate readings. So high it's affecting my Ph. I will try these suggestions.
@@Fishtory Thank you, that is very helpful to me as well. All of my plants are on the slow nitrate absorption list, except duckweed. I'm copying the list down now. Glad to be a new subscriber.
I'm reasonably new to fish keeping, and have had the newest setup running for 8 weeks built a plenum, 3 inch deep gravel and replace the carbon/zeolite filter cartridge with a bag of mixed zeolite and laterite, and modified the filter cartridge to hold the carbon. Last weekend the nitrates dropped from 10ppm to 0 overnight, its now just above 0ppm, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 5-10% water change yesterday (vacuuming the substrate) by sounds of things maybe shouldn't have. Have 8 tetra, 1 Siamese algae eater, 4 Panda Cory, feed minimal flakes 2 times a day and every 2nd night I put 1 pellet of sinking pellet in tank, bout a quarter of tank is planted, has a big piece of bogwood which takes up the bottom of tank, ph is 6, tank is 2ft by 1ft , 15-17 gallon. I heard/read that too low of ph lv and beneficial bacteria will not establish, is this true and is bacteria not able to produce due to zeolite removing some ammonia? Very confused as can't find my answer to why nitrates dropped from 10ppm to 0ppm overnight. All info I can find says that tank is either very new and/or not cycled. Any ideas as to why this happens, is this good or bad?
So you set yourself up a very "hi-tech" tank for a beginner! There's a lot of science (some of which is argued over by 2 camps, as you seem to be grappling with.) So under 6.4 ph or so, the beneficial nitrifying bacteria species that are ubiquitous around the world (Nitrobacter?) (Nitrobacsillus?) Do in fact die. However, there are yeasts at around 5.5-6.2 ph that are able to use Sulphur, iron to metabolize ammonia and there are bacteria that can turn nitrogen into various ammonia compounds that are stable and under the soil cap if they are in zero oxygen environments. Diatomaceous earth, zeolite, and various clays all also have some cool properties of capturing ammonia and or nitrogen related molecules, also ...but the details are very specific to the environmental details and some of it- particularly the yeast that ferments using nitrogen is cutting edge science that I don't know the details of well enough to speak on more than suggesting you Google some scholarly articles on whatever specifics you are interested in. Sorry I'm not more help. But I don't want to lead you astray.. Dr. Novak and his aquarium channel may be of more help also!
@@Fishtory Some very informative info which makes it my duty to follow up on. Very helpful! You're a blessing to fishkeepers worldwide! Honestly! Thanks!
Thanks... I know I don't do a ton of basic hobby theory or science stuff, but it's been 4 years or more since I posted Cycling info or some or this type stuff and wanted to cover the info in another way than the first old videos did. Thanks for tuning in!
i had an aquarium for 9 months without a water change, i only tested the water. however, I got a little tired of looking at gubbi grass and hornroot, but the aquarium was healthy and the fish were fine and healthy
Yeah haha there's a balance. Some folks like different plants, and doing water changes every few days...I like water top offs and a change every month if I can help it
Hey Alex, Just discovered your channel...wow, I'm hooked!!! In this video you talk about having a strong enough light. I have a Fluval Flex 15 gal aquarium. I'm not sure how powerful the light is compared to yours, but my here's my question: Does light DURATION make up for a weaker light? Will it help my plants to leave my light on for 12-16 hours a day (instead of only 8)?
I definitely also like that method, however I know it's pretty foreign to many folks, and I wanted to cover basic fishkeeping / some fundamentals or intro stuff ...but I do have videos on anaerobic and anoxic bacteria, plenum, under gravel filters / reverse flow versions and also ionic nitrogen containment or mitigation. BSB mini baskets also seem to work fairly well too
Excellent video. I hate duckweed, but I have it everywhere. I think of it as my insurance policy for when I'm overworked and not able to water change as frequently as I would like. I like the look of stem plants, but I hate the maintenance. So I've settled for hornwort and floating plants.
I am having the opposite problem; I have a 2 inch sand substrate over dirt with a high plant load. My nitrates will not rise above 20 to 30ppm even with daily fertilizer and feeding fish daily. When the nitrates drop even lower my water column plants stop growing.. I guess I need more fish lol. BTW I am not siphoning or "gravel" vacuming.
Yeah, or just a daily fertilizer with nitrates (some of my tanks do that also hehe if you aren't using co2 and EI Dosing for high light plants, and wanting bright reds, purples, pinks and yellows- like a lush green tank...then nitrates up to 30 to 50 ppm are a good thing for plants (as long as you figure out what they require and it doesn't just keep building up every week)
@@Fishtory Thank you, love your videos by the way. No CO2, some algae but plants are finally growing. Yes, I add a little fertilizer about every second to third day.
Just starting out saying that I liked this video. It has a lot of good information. But dude...you have exceptional skill at turning a 5 minute video into a 20 minute video
if you use a sulfur denitrification generator you can pull the nitrates down to 0 . Plants are great too but I have yet to see them keep up with the nitrates even using powerful grow lights , co2 and other additives to make them grow faster. The down side is it takes several months to get the bacteria built up in a generator.
True! I didn't want to get into deep Sulphur/ carbon and iron laced beds or anything with ionic capture in this basics video, though. But I keep nitrates undetechtable in a number of my tanks, using strong light and a ton of plants/usually soil substrate. I do understand that I have a plant addiction lol
@@Fishtorysame! I just keep a bit load of plants, and emersed plants and tbh my plants are struggling from a nitrogen deficiency, and I have to dose phosphate regularly as well..
Oof. I'm looking at my new 80 gallon, in which I've made a little bogwood island with anubias, java ferns and java moss - the slow growers you mentioned. I'm at day 15 of cycle with 14 tetras in it and high nitrites. I think I mentally endowed my liquid quick start bacteria with superpowers and counted on the plants to do the rest. I did have a hygrophilia that melted and there are some floating plants and a couple of pothos starts out the top of the tank, but since it's 8x bigger than the tank I used to have I just wanted it to magically cycle faster. I'm curious whether I'm better off or worse off for being light on gravel. I only bought the smallest bag of the fish store coated kind for a little color and was counting on my canister filter to do the heavy lifting. The fish aren't showing outward signs of stress and I'm feeding lightly/skipping days feeding. I've changed water and added more liquid bacteria but I fear these fish will fall victim to my haste. I appreciate your lists of slow/fast growing plants.
Yeah when the nitrite falls to 0 youll be fully cycled.... then nitrAte will rise and over time you should slowly reduce that with water changes, or plants. Keep up water changes and just add a little Dechlorinator with each change to make the ammonia less toxic...and you should be in the clear soon
Hi, thanks for all your knowledge on fish and aquarium. My question is I have a newly cycled 90 gallon tank which I cycled with some Dano’s. I moved them to a community tank because I’ll be putting African cichlids in this tank. For the past few days I had 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites and 5 nitrates. Today I put 6-7 Anubis in there. Just tested water now and still 0 ammonia but nitrites are now 25. Please help me understand what I need to do so I can get my fish in there. Thank you so much.
Just like with Ammonia and nitrites, my nitrates struggle to reach even 5 ppm.....The plants are doing their job perfectly, unlike what a man made filter is capable of.
Thats good. It means your bacteria is scaling up when its needed... but im guessing excess food or debris from plants is your culprit...or a dead fish perhaps... or liquid fertalizers can do that also
Alex, thank you for all of your great content, you rock! Do you have any suggestions for a fast growing carpeting plant to help suck up nitrates? I was looking into dwarf sagitaria but I’m not sure if there is a better option. I currently have hornwort and golden pothos growing in a 20 gallon guppy tank am trying to add some ground cover.
Thanks. And that is a great question! Hmmm... I'd say perhaps a Japanese money /penny wart... star grass, or perhaps Corkscrew val. Those are the ones I'd try out, and which like that neutral to harder water (like the guppies also enjoy)
Hi Alex, amazing video as always! Learning so much from you by watching your content. I was wondering if a mulm layer can develop under a sand layer as it does with gravel. I'd really like that mulm layer below my sand substrate for my plants to tap into but I am concerned about cleanliness for my new cories as they've been hit with fin rot (it's gotten a lot better with erythromycin).
Yes it can develop below or above it and will work either way. The only thing I would caution against ,allowing too many organics to build up...dead leaves and plant material. It can cause cyanobacteria or parasitic disease and such.
Excellent stuff. However what do you mean the plants are full of nitrated once grown and remove them. What if you trim and replant them. A bit confused here, but I love your channel and info. Australia
Oh so what I mean, is the plants use ammonia, nitrates and nitrites "food"... along with the carbon from co2, and fertilizers/minerals and elements in the water and substrate. So when you trim them, you literally are removing a rearranged form of those nitrogen atoms and it can't die and return as ammonia or nitrogen (same with any nutrients in that plants too... as opposed to leaving it, when it's rotting.)
@@regularguy8592 Do you have it still running? I have had it set up for just under a year, didn't see a change until the 6 month mark. I use to have @ 40 ppm nitrates, tested water this morning and Nitrates were at @ 5ppm. Getting to the point where I'll need to add Nitrogen to balance the Nitrogen/ Phosphorous balance.
Yeah it took me a good year to see an impact...and I like the idea as another way to heavily stock tanks and or save water - however they sometimes can be a bit touchy with clogging and isn't super responsive to big swings like a dead fish...so I like to use redundant systems in all my filtered tanks.
HELP! STUMPED. I have a three month old planted tank. Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 160+. It has no fish. Occasionally, I will see a wilted leaf and remove it, but most of the plants are growing. My floaters have multiplied so much that they would cover the entire surface it I didn’t corral them. The lights are on 15 hours a day. There is not a spec of algae in the tank. The substrate is gravel. There is no organic material in the tank except the plants. Tap water has minimal nitrates. I do not fertilize the tank, except I broke one root tab in half and buried in under two rooted plants. I can’t figure out where all the nitrates are coming from. Advice? Love your videos 😄
I would assume it has to be root tabs or perhaps the light being on so long is causing the plants to enter their fruiting and flowering growth modes...and if the light was less than 10 hours a day the growth would be vegetative and that's when plants need to use the nitrites, and nutrients to grow and store energy. Also I'd try grabbing a bucket of tap water and bucket of that tanks water....then test both...then let them sit 3 says to a week...and test again...sometimes some cities use chloramine instead of chlorine and it can deteriorate over time into various organic compounds ... but that is fairly unlikely. I hope these suggestions may help a bit! Best of luck to you and have a great weekend
Thank you for this video. Very informative. I have a question about the floating plants. It looks like the water surface in one of your tanks is practically covered with duckweed. Is it okay to do that, to have the entire water surface covered with floating plants? I am not worried about the plants under the water, as I have quite strong light and the underwater plants can grow under low lights. I read somewhere that if the entire surface covered by floating plants, it will be harmful for the fish, because it will limit the oxygen exchange, lower the dissolved oxygen in the water. I don’t have duckweed, but I have red root floaters in one tank, another tank has frogbits. They grow so fast, I have to remove some of them every other day, to limit their population to only about 50% of the water surface. I have been worried what if I need to not be at home for two weeks, so no one remove the floating plants and they grow covering the entire surface of my fish tanks :( Please advise 🙏🏻
Yes. So it totally depends on your filtration and your fish species. It's fine if they don't mind low oxygenated water...Stillwater or flooded jungle species- however rainbow fish and some tetras can have a lot of trouble with low o2. Using water lettuce is a better choice if keeping species that like moving water and high o2 content, most definitely! For filtration you either need a filter that splashes water at the surface (even a few inches of open surface area is often enough) otherwise you need a hang off the back, where the swirling of the filter and spillway oxygenates the water by breaking surface tension. Sponge filters are a bad choice (if used alone) when a tank is covered in plants
You touched on the fact that too many snails could cause the high nitrate levels. I rehomed a tremendous amount of the snails and now the ammonia an d nitrites are under control and nitrate levels are steady at about 5-10 ppm. Btw I also have many, many guppies in the tank with 1 Java fern and lots of guppy grass. Do you think I’m doing this right or do I need more different plants? Was doing water changes every few days, but now I’m back to 1 per week. Confused, yeah me too!
Great info! I'm somewhat new to planted tanks. Can I put floating plants in if I use a glass lid? Many videos I watch don't have lids. My 2 year old requires me to have a lid 😁
Yeah you can but they need some air exchange and a bit of room so Condensation doesn't rot or cause mold on certain things like water lettuce or red root floaters.
With gravel base would you still recommend vacuum during water change or just hover above the gravel . It is a mix plants in the tank stems and slow growing plants. Thanks in advance.
I'm a fan of hovering above it ...you may need to do more water changes the first few months or weeks...but eventually it'll help make it all stable and reduce the maintenance quite a bit
I’m so confused. I have three goldfish in a 40 gallon with three Amazon swords and two Anubias and I’ve had nothing but problems. My poor goldfish is turning black.
Check your ammonia and nitrates... and ph (you may have an acidity rise or may have built up too much nitrate in the water and the plants aren't eating it fast enough. ) best of luck...water changes are almost always a good plan, also
Alexander, My main issue on my 5 gallon nano tank is the nitrate doesn’t seem go down. I don’t have issues with ammonia and nitrite. After watching this video, can you write some plants (that are fast growing and consuming water columns) in the video description that you recommend for consuming nitrates? Right now I only have dwarf grass, 6 or 7 frogbits, one wisteria, two driftwood with Java Moss around (for the shrimps). I have 4 endlers, 2 zebra danios and 2 otos. Please PM me and would like to talk more. The video just comes in time. I was about to pull my hair out since I started my first tank 4 months ago.
Sure my friend...I'll add some more plants and write out the ones I mentioned in the video. Equally important is the strength of your light though, to grow those plants. Also, you don't need 0 nitrates... I like most my tanks low (under 20ppm) but some like my guppy tanks can thrive at 50 to 100ppm of nitrates (not ammonia or nitrites however.) So don't aim for perfection- just happy healthy fish and plants :)
@@Fishtory got it. I think my nitrate is around 40 ppm but sometimes spike! (Yikes!). I don't have ammonia and nitrites which are good. I guess time to buy more fast growing plants and light!!! Thanks for passing the knowledge! Keep up the good work! Hope you have recovered your back completely!
I'm going to use regular potted plant soil and white sand on top of it. The sand substrate will be thick to create bacteria cultures to keep the cycle going. The potted plant soil will be to grow a lot of waterplants I will try to go with 1 water change per 6 months / 12 months. Do you have any advice?
@C Sharpe A barrier like put the soil in bags or using gravel as a middle layer? I bought a sift to sift out the floating rough parts of the soil if that helps
I think that'll work, you may want to cap the potted plants with some sand too, just so they get the ammonia and nitrates locked in the soil and not the water column
Thank you so much! This video explains why I have been chasing my tail for the last 4 years. I have a question concerning the gravel substrate. If I discontinue the gravel vacuuming, will there eventually be enough fertilizer in the substrate for me to not have to substitute with root tabs? A second question seems a little off topic but is concerning plants and snails. I have an assortment of snails but am certain the spixie snails are devouring some of my plants, including the frogbit floating plants. Have you known this to be a problem and can you suggest a better choice of floating plant that may not be as vulnerable to the snails? Thanks so much!
So 1. Yes! The gravel will become one giant root tab as long as you feed your fish foods with all the minerals they need. 2. I've found water lettuce and duckweed to be most resistant to snails, they simply can hold onto duckweed hehe. But it can easily take over the tank and be frustrating on its own accord too. Best of luck to you though!
Running an experiment right now in which I have a lightly planted tank with slight excess of nitrates. I am attempting to reduce nitrates and/or ammonia (should have same results) by adding potassium to incourage nitrate and ammonia uptake rather than adding more plants. Any thoughts?
Adding any ionized salts should offset the toxicity prior to sodium or potassium or magnesium levels are dangers. A 1979 study i found mentioned that as a " fact" as well. So good thinking
@@Fishtory it's been 4 days since I originally added the potassium chloride (ill save you from the details and specs). The aquarium is planted primarily with Christmas moss. I had a good bit of brown (dormant) that has woken and sprouted a quarter to half inch frowns all over. Nitrates and nitrites are 0. Ammonia has consistently grown and Ill have to manual by tomorrow. I assume this is that the nitrifying bacteria can't keep up. I was hoping the moss itself would provide the needed surface area . other than increasing the surface area I'm not sure what else I can do. I'm kind of looking to peak performances so to speak. . Also, do you think it is possible or likely that the solution could have had a negative impact on the bacteria?
A normal filter will never be able to deal with nitrates. Ever. What needs to be understood is that the bacteria that feed on ammonia and nitrites are aerobic. There are bacteria that feed on nitrates - but they only survive and work in an anaerobic environment. A normal filter has a regular flow of oxygenated water running through it - so only aerobic bacteria can survive in there. Nitrate removal is only possible via the other methods discussed here. Don't expect your filter to help at all. It is always very useful to actually measure the nitrate levels in your tap water if you're using that for aquarium maintenance and top-ups... My tap water has 20ppm nitrate! So it really doesn't matter how huge my water changes are - even if it's a full 100% - the nitrate level is still only going to drop to 20ppm.
I have a 4 month old, planted soil base, deep sand substrate tank, never do water changes and the nitrates sit at 0-25ppm and never go higher. There's 75 fish some nerites and neocaradina, 307 canister, is this enough to keep the plants healthy as their growth has slowed down over the past month? I don't want to add root tabs, should i just wait it out? Thanks so much Alexander 👍
With all this and the lights, how long do you leave your lights on? My lights use to grow algae on the lids bc they were on too long, I use a timer now and I split btw 4 on and 3 off to 4 on then off for the rest of the night. Any suggestions
I tend to turn up my lights full power 6 hours and 50% for the last hour and first. But the stronger the light, and the more fertilizers and or co2 , the more light you can use because the plants will always use the energy before algae... the biggest trick is getting things totally dark when lights are off...because even a 60w incandescent bulb in a room is enough for algae to bloom despite the lights being off
G'day Alex I have Paratya australiensis that actually breed in freshwater. I caught them from my mountain river 50 miles from the coast. Do you think it's worth breeding them I have baby's already. Thanks mate they are very cool shrimp they look a bit like pinochio shrimp but Australian.
@@Fishtory I will let you know mate some have copper colour markings some have a steel blue colour might be interesting in a year or so. Thanks Alex ✌💚🍄
Ive only been cycling the tank for a week my ammonia disappears quite quickly i have slower growing plants looking to add some fast growing plants asap but my nitrites are quite high It seems that ammonia goes quite quickly I'm doing a fishless cycle any advice on what to do ? Be patient continue treatment or should i still go for water changes ?
I quit fitting against nitrates because my fish are healthy and live long lives with no Side effects. I do my water changes 15% every 2 days consistently and I feed mostly live or frozen foods . Nitrates are what beneficial bacteria can’t break down anymore, what if the live quality food you feed produces less of what bacteria can’t break down. Has anyone thought about that?
Thats a whole lot or water changes and im sure that will keep the fish and tank very happy. People have definitely mentioned that nitrates thought here. Plants like eating ammonia more than nitrates if they have the option In their water column. As for more nitrates in the water, as long as you have appropriate filtration surface area the bacterial colonies will reproduce and grow within 2 to 5 days of spikes in ammonia, nitrites or nitrates. In the substrate there are bacteria that turn nitrates into ammonia/ammonium again as well...so any deep substrate tanks with plants really enjoy that whole process
How about nitrates to nitrogen gas by facultative bacteria? Plants prefer ammonium. Plants will need more energy to convert nitrates to ammonium at their roots zones.
Does Lucky bamboo remove ammonia fast. I just have the roots dipped in the water, the bulk of the plants (5 stocks) are out of water attached to my filter intake tube with an elastic band. The roots seem to be growing really fast but I don't know if that is as good as the plant growing really fast. Seems like a slow grower to me.
It does work pretty fast, but depends on how much light the bamboo leaves get. Where as pothos vines or prayer plants/peace Lilies can do the same job in low indoor light... it may be worth looking into. Best of luck!
That's just it plants just store the Nitrates they don't remove it. They don't change it or exchange for something else. If the plants die the nitrates are released and plants do just die or get to a point, they can't absorb and more nitrates. It's all about exchange and you can see that with Ammonia being exchanged to Nitrite, then the nitrite is exchanged into Nitrate. The problem with aquariums is the Nitrates are not being exchanged but manually removed or stored in plants. When I say Manually removed, I mean water changes or physically removing the plants. The final exchange to remove Nitrates and be left with Nitrogen Gas that will float up and exit the tank isn't happening. If you are making that exchange it isn't enough or fast enough to keep up with the nitrate generation. What we need is the bacteria that only exists in low or no oxygen environments. That is where Nitrates are converted/exchanged to Nitrogen gas and can break the surface of the tank and actually leave the aquarium. This is what is missing in most aquariums because we strive to keep the water highly oxygenated. So, there are very few zones in the tank that can achieve these conditions.
So for that you need the deep substrate and a plenum or pvc pipe with a hole. Regardless of what mr. Novak says, the exisiting published papers say 6 to 8 inches is the minimal cap depth that it will occur at. So if you have sulphur and elemental iron rich substrate, and somehow osmosis diffusion lets enough gas out as ammonia, you can off gas the nitrate based compounds. The problem is plant roots enjoy ammonia even more than nitrates of nitrites and their roots always bring O2 with them into substrates...as do snail etc. But after a year to 2 years finally it will off gas as nitrous oxide according to studies lookong at German sewer plants (the only peer reviewed scientific research done on aquarium sized tanks). Sadly we need data and replicatable experiments to know if it is possible and or meaningful amounts
@@Fishtory So what you are saying is we can't cultivate that type of bacteria. Because we can't create the conditions and it takes too long to make that exchange to Nitrous gas to be useful. I would be interested in a test not based on sewer treatment. How is this happening in a pond or lake? That is what we need to understand and try to recreate. Lakes and ponds can go months without new water being introduced or old water removed. Next thing I would like to question is all the "Natural" aquariums that owners claim has had NO water changes with just top off for a year or more on TH-cam. Is it because we are actually over filtering and generating nitrates? I'm in the starting phase of setting up a 55g and have an idea of how I want to set up my tank. I'm in no hurry to add fish but I'm thinking I can run an experiment creating ammonia once the tank is cycled and see if my theory works. Keep in mind I have no intention of using live plants because I don't like dealing with live plants, I'm not an Aqua farmer and have no interest in going down that rabbit whole. If I can create ammonia and exchange it to nitrates and keep it low or zero without water changes, I'm doing something right. I'm pretty sure that there is something right about Novak's ideas because people are reporting various reduced levels of nitrates using those methods. I'm not saying he is 100% correct but he is on to something. Check out GV Aquariums Australia he tried the BCB baskets and has had a reduction in need for water changes. It's not zero but he is seeing a reduction and that is something to take note of.
Hello Alex. I need your help: I setup a 25litres nanocube by Aqual for shrimps, with floating plants (Salvinia, pystia..), crypts, lot of moss... Some root tabs on sand substrate.. I fill it with Ro and some tap water up to 6.5ph and 4kh. I want neocaridine.. So I need nitrites to zero.. But 2month after I have no2 0.25. So I decide to change the sponge filter provided by aquael together with the tank with a more efficient hob filter (niagara 190)... 1month and a week after, guess how much nitrites I find? 0.25!!!!!! What should I do? I try to raise kh and ph to 7? Could it be a key? What else? I need your expertise and your brain 😢
Well thanks for writing and it sounds like you are on the right track! (Also, I love Italy....when I went to the north of Italy I almost stayed there permanently hahaha. So I'm guessing you may just be reading the test a bit off? Unless it reads 0 when you use the r/o water. But if I were you, I'd pour the RO water into a bucket in the same room... and just let it sit 24 to 48 hours and check what the ph and nitrates are doing. If it's stable...then it's not the water (sometimes r/o water or the remineralizers can cause a bump in nitrates due to free carbon and nutrients that algae or other micro organisms use...and when they die it rises...so you could also try a new remineralizer brand if the water seems fine and 0 nitrates. If that isn't it.... then perhaps adding more light would help, and I assume you change the water by removing a few liters and then adding new RO? Because some people just add more water to what evaporated and then never remove the nitrates.... Oh you know what! I bet the root tabs are doing it! In small tanks they often cause a rise or ammonia/nitrates or nitrites...so you could remove em and do a water change...OR add faster growing hornwart/naja grass/pearl weed/or water lettuce /floating plants and a stronger light to help the plants use up nitrates faster. I bet it's the root tabs if not the water it's self! You could crush a root tab in some Normal water in a bowl or vase and then see a few hours after it dissolves if it caused the nitrates to rise (or ammonia/ammonium or nitrites) Let me know how things are going after you investigate a bit. Best of luck my friend! Have a great Sunday and week ahead. -Alex.
@@Fishtory so I changed 30% water with tap after 24h standing. Hope hardening the water (lowering pH) will help. Aldo try syphoning the sand close ti crypts roots where i put root tabs. I think the tank has enogh bio filtering plants (also didnot mention echynidorus) but I add naja too, as you suggest. Lightning Is 8h. Next update in 1 or 2 weeks. Thanks maestro. 😊👍
Have the opposite issue. Should I just add more fish maybe or am I not using enough fertilizer? Or is it not a problem at all? I have lots of stem plants and crypts. Anyone?
If the plants aren't turning yellow or brown it is not a problem (it's a good thing and a well balanced tank!)... but if the plants are being stunted or getting thin leaves/ holes and blotches then root tabs or a liquid all in one, would be a good idea. 👍
I hate this most utubers say to keep crashing is feed ur fish every day. Once a tank cycles once a week is all u have to feed. To cycle is Manny ways once u get nitrate building then target feeding the fish u have if u have fish that feed flakes feed them first then target bottom fish
Yeah with many species that's totally true. I keep quite a few Nanos and if they don't have a well established tank, they need food every 2 or 3 days at least for their fast little metabolisms... but many of the plecos and cichlids go 10 or 15 days without anything more than what is in the tank in biofilm or algae.
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Hands up if you were expecting the rest of the band members of Queen popping up on the screen and start singing Bohemian Rhapsody
Oh man...i wish
Wow, never knew some plants didn’t use up nitrates. I thought they all did. Had high nitrates, dying plants and algae for years. Gives me hope. Thanks!
Thank you for this. This was probably the best explanation for managing plants, I've heard/seen.
So nice of you. Glad it was useful!
Alex is such a great person.
That's kind of you to say. I try my best heh. Thanks for tuning in
Alex this is one of the best videos I've seen on this subject. Most videos are oral presentation or maybe animated, this one was done extremely well.
I figured this out my first year of getting back into aquariums and I found my best plants for quickly controlling the Ammonia and Nitrates/ites.
I use African Frogbit and some Duckweed. To help keep the aquarium lit, I stretch plastic air line between two bayonet suction cups and then stick them it to the ends so the hose makes its own weir or surface dam to hold the plants on the back half of the tank. This way the lights get through to the plants and still shine on the floaters. I skin off the excess floaters and throw them into the blender for shrimp food.
Great idea, I will copy that! Thanks!
Yes...great tip Kerry! Thanks!
Shrimp food?? Please elaborate ☺️
This is really helpful! These nuances are so important but easily overlooked. I have a well established tank that is my biggest nitrate producer and I was always stumped as to why until it occurred to me that my light sucked and it was full of slow growing anubias.
Well thanks l, and nice work! Youre quite clever to have figured that out. No one really informs new keepers or any of this stuff early on. Thanks for tuning in
Fantastic post Alexander! I enjoy them very much🙂👍🏻💯
Thanks for your input :)
Just had a scare recently about my nitrates being so out of wack (thankfully the amonia and nitrites were fine), I thought my plants had been handling the nitrates but realized I was wrong and for the exact reason this video points out - I had a severe lack of faster growing plants! (Suffice to say I've sinced purchased some stems and floaters to go along with my ferns, haha!)
This video really nicely explains everything and helped to support what I suspected was occuring, especially about keeping the mulm in our gravel substrate tank.
Thanks for putting it together!
Sure thing! Im glad you sorted out the issue... its one that took me a decade of planted tank keeping to even understand, so you must be far more observant and sharp than i am haha. Glad you found the video of some use though! Cheers
This has been super helpful just in understanding what we need to do once we get our fish in our 75 gallon tank. The main issue we're having though is that the water we're putting in is testing at 0 nitrate, and then within 20 minutes of going in is testing at
20/40. The odd part though - it's empty. All that's in there is the substrate and the few plants. We have lucky bamboo, pothos, anubias, and java ferns. There are all those different plants, but it's still very sparse so I could definitely see it being helpful for us to put more in. I'm just confused as to where the nitrates are coming from at this point without any waste from fish to drive it.
Could be from substrate leaching it...could be in the tap water...could be food and or plant debris, those are kinda the only options beyond fertz and fish. Best of luck!
I don't do plants in my tanks , but I was told I have high nitrates from my hard well water , even from my tap with a water softener ! Some of my fish I've had for 25 years ? ? But when I got some green spotted puffers - all hell broke loose ! ?
Great video! My turkey baster is my most used tool 🇦🇺❤️
Haha me tooooo
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! Keep it up! - Little Bobby
Thanks brother!
Explained very well Alex as usual great thanks love the angel planted 🪴 tank thanks for the info very well done 👍
Thabks!
Your tanks are awesome and u seem to know what your talking about vary inspiring. Keep up your game and thanks for the info.
Thank you. And welcome to the channel
Thanks to you answering questions an taking the time to help 🙂
Of course! If I can help, I'm always for than happy to
Excellent explanation of the full life cycle living in our aquarium. 🐸
Thankya
Thanks for the video that was the best explanation I've seen on nitrates, plants etc 🇬🇧
Glad you enjoyed it, mate. Cheers!
Wow! So much great information here… Will have to watch again to make a plants list… thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and your tanks!
So nice of you. Thank you
Yes the fluval 3.0 is my favorite too
Price meets quality just at, or slightly above what I think is ideal :)
This is the video I have been searching for you literally answered all of my questions and more. Especially helpful because im trying to run a natural tank which is hard to find videos on here thank you
Alex, thanks. I hope you feel better.
It’s unimaginable to have a tank without plenty of plants. It helps fish as well.
I think you may have forgotten two of the most important causes for high nitrates:
- tab water
- over filtration.
I have checked the tab water of acquaintances. They wanted Otocinclus. Problem: their nitrates in the tab water was way too high. Solution: osmosis.
Another one complained about algae everywhere and he bought a lot of stuff against it. I had a look at his filter. Problem was he filtered about 10times the tank volume per hour. Water was good. But the water couldn’t stay long enough in the filter (material) to build important bacteria.
It hurts my eyes to see an unplanted tank, unless it has inhabitants that don't allow for plants.
Definitely true. ( and I think you mean "tap" water right? Speech to txt or autocorrect messes that up for me too.) The nitrates or ammonia in tap water is pretty rare in most the usa. But certainly does occur sometimes!
Well water seems to be the culprit in most folks I've encountered that with (organic debris or leaves break down in their well or water table as organic particulates). Hopefully a Dechlorinator will handle the nitrates or ammonia from that, but yes- nitrates often need RO/(DI) filtration of some sort.
@@Fishtory father fish has stated that it's impossible for nitrates to even be at high enough level, naturally, to harm anything in the water, it's one of his videos where he had a biologist he was interviewing. Basically saying it would have to be an insanely high number to be harmful.
Best explained video yet. Thank you
Glad it was helpful! Have a great week
@secert history living in your aquarium. Another top notch video mate. I switched to gravel from sand.Its a 5" deep substrate now,using root tabs,all in 1 fertiliser too,also just invested in a co2 system.Ive purposely not vac'd the gravel since I changed from sand 6 weeks go.plants are hydrophylla taiwan,ludwigia super red,echinodorus ozelot green,echinodorus bleherae,hygrophila guanensis,African fern,various anubias,crypts petchii & balansae. Nitrates usually 10/20ppm.Hope my fluval aquasky can be powerful enough.Keep up the great info video's mate.👌👌👌👍👍👍🇬🇧🇬🇧
Sounds like things will work out. Especially over time as your deep bed substrate matures...it'll turn into an actual filter and giant root tab hehe. Cheers mate. Thanks for writing, have a top notch, sunday!
Thank You SOOO Very MUCH For this Video,It is gonna help me Greatly,Keep on Rockin brother
Good to hear it brotha!
Dude im only 30 seconds in & u described my tank...
Tons of plants. My plants are potted in glass & acrylic. Substrate is sand & 1/3 is glass pebbles.
Tank will not cycle!! Nitrites have been the worst 😢
Love the pencilfish! I want to add some but need to get back cycled 1st
I may be any over feeder abit. My hob is double the strength needed. I use seachem filter media, prime, & stability. No lie.. daily water changes forever now 😢 maybe I'm over cleaning? I might be taking too much out like u state
20g long
6 julii corys
5 pygmy corys
4 glass catfish
2 shrimp
2 otos
2 guppy, 4 endlers
Try not feeding for 3 or 4 days
@Fishtory thank you!! Will do!!
I will feel bad but I understand why 😆 thanks again any tips are appreciated for sure!!
Another great video! Thank you for all the great information!! Hope you are recovering well!! 🇨🇦
Bev that is so kind of you. Thank you
As always, so choc full of great information! It makes one re-think the whole plant set-up and aquascaping ideas. Thank you Alex, and hope your recovery is going well 🥰
Thanks Jane! I'm doing well. Pain is okay...because I know it's healing haha. So mentally it's manageable. Thanks for the kindness though.
@@Fishtory Well, if hugs from afar help, sending some ❤️🩹
Like a lot. You touched on many critical points, which I didn’t mention in my other rambling post.
Haha well thanks. I'm a rambler too
Thanks again for the video, the replies, and all the good info.
What a great video that truly addresses the balance of functional aquarium systems.
LOVE that Angelfish tank!💚🩵💙💛
Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you Carole
Very good. I am new to the hobby and am setting up all of my tanks with at least a BCB basket. Love love love the video sir.
Thanks! Yeah If you have room, it's a great backup system also. I just either they sold more of it pre-built and designed for heavy use
This was so very helpful. Thank you
Glad it was helpful!
Hornwort works great, aka the savior plant.
I like that nickname lol
The Secret History Living in Your Aquarium hehe yes I come up with great names🙂👍🏻
Thank you, super helpful. I have tank that's been doing this, I can do water changes and still have off-the-charts nitrate readings. So high it's affecting my Ph. I will try these suggestions.
Glad it helped!
This was awesome!! very informative, Thx dude.
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you!
You're welcome!
I really enjoyed this, and I learned a lot. I think I need to get some faster growing plants, and maybe get some better lights. Thank you very much!
No problem, and glad to hear it! I added plant suggestions in the description, just now as well. Best of luck!
@@Fishtory Thank you, that is very helpful to me as well. All of my plants are on the slow nitrate absorption list, except duckweed. I'm copying the list down now. Glad to be a new subscriber.
I'm reasonably new to fish keeping, and have had the newest setup running for 8 weeks built a plenum, 3 inch deep gravel and replace the carbon/zeolite filter cartridge with a bag of mixed zeolite and laterite, and modified the filter cartridge to hold the carbon. Last weekend the nitrates dropped from 10ppm to 0 overnight, its now just above 0ppm, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 5-10% water change yesterday (vacuuming the substrate) by sounds of things maybe shouldn't have. Have 8 tetra, 1 Siamese algae eater, 4 Panda Cory, feed minimal flakes 2 times a day and every 2nd night I put 1 pellet of sinking pellet in tank, bout a quarter of tank is planted, has a big piece of bogwood which takes up the bottom of tank, ph is 6, tank is 2ft by 1ft , 15-17 gallon. I heard/read that too low of ph lv and beneficial bacteria will not establish, is this true and is bacteria not able to produce due to zeolite removing some ammonia? Very confused as can't find my answer to why nitrates dropped from 10ppm to 0ppm overnight. All info I can find says that tank is either very new and/or not cycled. Any ideas as to why this happens, is this good or bad?
So you set yourself up a very "hi-tech" tank for a beginner! There's a lot of science (some of which is argued over by 2 camps, as you seem to be grappling with.)
So under 6.4 ph or so, the beneficial nitrifying bacteria species that are ubiquitous around the world (Nitrobacter?) (Nitrobacsillus?) Do in fact die. However, there are yeasts at around 5.5-6.2 ph that are able to use Sulphur, iron to metabolize ammonia and there are bacteria that can turn nitrogen into various ammonia compounds that are stable and under the soil cap if they are in zero oxygen environments.
Diatomaceous earth, zeolite, and various clays all also have some cool properties of capturing ammonia and or nitrogen related molecules, also ...but the details are very specific to the environmental details and some of it- particularly the yeast that ferments using nitrogen is cutting edge science that I don't know the details of well enough to speak on more than suggesting you Google some scholarly articles on whatever specifics you are interested in.
Sorry I'm not more help. But I don't want to lead you astray.. Dr. Novak and his aquarium channel may be of more help also!
@@Fishtory Some very informative info which makes it my duty to follow up on. Very helpful! You're a blessing to fishkeepers worldwide! Honestly! Thanks!
Great information, Thank You for the video !👍
No problem! Thanks for tuning in and dropping a line!
Very good topic. Good Video.
Thanks... I know I don't do a ton of basic hobby theory or science stuff, but it's been 4 years or more since I posted Cycling info or some or this type stuff and wanted to cover the info in another way than the first old videos did.
Thanks for tuning in!
For unplanted tank - I use wavemaker to blow gently towards the substrate so that all debris can move towards filter intakes.
Definitely an intelligent build!
Thanks
i had an aquarium for 9 months without a water change, i only tested the water. however, I got a little tired of looking at gubbi grass and hornroot, but the aquarium was healthy and the fish were fine and healthy
Yeah haha there's a balance. Some folks like different plants, and doing water changes every few days...I like water top offs and a change every month if I can help it
Hey Alex, Just discovered your channel...wow, I'm hooked!!! In this video you talk about having a strong enough light. I have a Fluval Flex 15 gal aquarium. I'm not sure how powerful the light is compared to yours, but my here's my question: Does light DURATION make up for a weaker light? Will it help my plants to leave my light on for 12-16 hours a day (instead of only 8)?
Best thing to take nitrates out is a slow moving red clay plenem bcbs in a canister
I definitely also like that method, however I know it's pretty foreign to many folks, and I wanted to cover basic fishkeeping / some fundamentals or intro stuff ...but I do have videos on anaerobic and anoxic bacteria, plenum, under gravel filters / reverse flow versions and also ionic nitrogen containment or mitigation.
BSB mini baskets also seem to work fairly well too
Excellent video. I hate duckweed, but I have it everywhere. I think of it as my insurance policy for when I'm overworked and not able to water change as frequently as I would like. I like the look of stem plants, but I hate the maintenance. So I've settled for hornwort and floating plants.
Same here! 😆 🤣 oi vey...
It's just so useful...but so annoying too
embrace your enemies to become friends, and you will love each other later.
I am having the opposite problem; I have a 2 inch sand substrate over dirt with a high plant load. My nitrates will not rise above 20 to 30ppm even with daily fertilizer and feeding fish daily. When the nitrates drop even lower my water column plants stop growing.. I guess I need more fish lol. BTW I am not siphoning or "gravel" vacuming.
Yeah, or just a daily fertilizer with nitrates (some of my tanks do that also hehe if you aren't using co2 and EI Dosing for high light plants, and wanting bright reds, purples, pinks and yellows- like a lush green tank...then nitrates up to 30 to 50 ppm are a good thing for plants (as long as you figure out what they require and it doesn't just keep building up every week)
@@Fishtory Thank you, love your videos by the way. No CO2, some algae but plants are finally growing. Yes, I add a little fertilizer about every second to third day.
Great video Alex!! What are some fast growing plants for unheated/cold water tanks? Rotola and bacoba are growing slow at 67-70 F.
Honestly 70 or 72 is the sweet spot for fast growth without high light... but guppy grass, hornwart, anachris, millfoil, and val all grow fast.
Any advice on keeping a thriving african dwarf 🐸 aquarium, healthy and maintaining a low nitrates environment.✌️
Great vid
Thanks
Just starting out saying that I liked this video. It has a lot of good information. But dude...you have exceptional skill at turning a 5 minute video into a 20 minute video
Lol yes I'm sorry lol
@@Fishtory it's not hate, your vids are super helpful, just a tad long
Thenx osem video
Sure thing
if you use a sulfur denitrification generator you can pull the nitrates down to 0 . Plants are great too but I have yet to see them keep up with the nitrates even using powerful grow lights , co2 and other additives to make them grow faster. The down side is it takes several months to get the bacteria built up in a generator.
True! I didn't want to get into deep Sulphur/ carbon and iron laced beds or anything with ionic capture in this basics video, though.
But I keep nitrates undetechtable in a number of my tanks, using strong light and a ton of plants/usually soil substrate. I do understand that I have a plant addiction lol
@@Fishtorysame! I just keep a bit load of plants, and emersed plants and tbh my plants are struggling from a nitrogen deficiency, and I have to dose phosphate regularly as well..
Cool info 🤘
Thanks
Oof. I'm looking at my new 80 gallon, in which I've made a little bogwood island with anubias, java ferns and java moss - the slow growers you mentioned. I'm at day 15 of cycle with 14 tetras in it and high nitrites. I think I mentally endowed my liquid quick start bacteria with superpowers and counted on the plants to do the rest. I did have a hygrophilia that melted and there are some floating plants and a couple of pothos starts out the top of the tank, but since it's 8x bigger than the tank I used to have I just wanted it to magically cycle faster. I'm curious whether I'm better off or worse off for being light on gravel. I only bought the smallest bag of the fish store coated kind for a little color and was counting on my canister filter to do the heavy lifting. The fish aren't showing outward signs of stress and I'm feeding lightly/skipping days feeding. I've changed water and added more liquid bacteria but I fear these fish will fall victim to my haste. I appreciate your lists of slow/fast growing plants.
Yeah when the nitrite falls to 0 youll be fully cycled.... then nitrAte will rise and over time you should slowly reduce that with water changes, or plants. Keep up water changes and just add a little Dechlorinator with each change to make the ammonia less toxic...and you should be in the clear soon
What was that red fish in the large aquarium at the end. Cool looking fish!
Oh the turkana jewel cichlid? Or thicklip gourami perhaps?
Another great video! Can i ask which of your videos talks about how much you can stock a planted tank? Thanks again.
I believe there's one called "is the inch per gallon rule true" that I go overr
Hi, thanks for all your knowledge on fish and aquarium. My question is I have a newly cycled 90 gallon tank which I cycled with some Dano’s. I moved them to a community tank because I’ll be putting African cichlids in this tank. For the past few days I had 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites and 5 nitrates. Today I put 6-7 Anubis in there. Just tested water now and still 0 ammonia but nitrites are now 25. Please help me understand what I need to do so I can get my fish in there. Thank you so much.
Just like with Ammonia and nitrites, my nitrates struggle to reach even 5 ppm.....The plants are doing their job perfectly, unlike what a man made filter is capable of.
I keep getting nitrate spikes, yet no ammonia I’m so confused
Thats good. It means your bacteria is scaling up when its needed... but im guessing excess food or debris from plants is your culprit...or a dead fish perhaps... or liquid fertalizers can do that also
Love your beard!
Haha thanks! 😄 that makes 2 people in the world hehe
Alex, thank you for all of your great content, you rock! Do you have any suggestions for a fast growing carpeting plant to help suck up nitrates? I was looking into dwarf sagitaria but I’m not sure if there is a better option. I currently have hornwort and golden pothos growing in a 20 gallon guppy tank am trying to add some ground cover.
Thanks. And that is a great question! Hmmm... I'd say perhaps a Japanese money /penny wart... star grass, or perhaps Corkscrew val. Those are the ones I'd try out, and which like that neutral to harder water (like the guppies also enjoy)
@@Fishtory I picked up penny wort and some corkscrew val and got them planted today, can’t wait to see them grow! Thanks again for the help!
Hi Alex, amazing video as always! Learning so much from you by watching your content.
I was wondering if a mulm layer can develop under a sand layer as it does with gravel. I'd really like that mulm layer below my sand substrate for my plants to tap into but I am concerned about cleanliness for my new cories as they've been hit with fin rot (it's gotten a lot better with erythromycin).
Yes it can develop below or above it and will work either way. The only thing I would caution against ,allowing too many organics to build up...dead leaves and plant material. It can cause cyanobacteria or parasitic disease and such.
Excellent stuff. However what do you mean the plants are full of nitrated once grown and remove them. What if you trim and replant them. A bit confused here, but I love your channel and info. Australia
Oh so what I mean, is the plants use ammonia, nitrates and nitrites "food"... along with the carbon from co2, and fertilizers/minerals and elements in the water and substrate.
So when you trim them, you literally are removing a rearranged form of those nitrogen atoms and it can't die and return as ammonia or nitrogen (same with any nutrients in that plants too... as opposed to leaving it, when it's rotting.)
@@Fishtory Got it, shanks
Have you ever tried the Anoxic filtration system, BCB baskets by Kevin Novak?
I have tried that method but not seen any results from it yet
@@regularguy8592 Do you have it still running? I have had it set up for just under a year, didn't see a change until the 6 month mark. I use to have @ 40 ppm nitrates, tested water this morning and Nitrates were at @ 5ppm. Getting to the point where I'll need to add Nitrogen to balance the Nitrogen/ Phosphorous balance.
@@toddslingerland6110 I do but mine have only been running a couple months so Im waiting to see
@@regularguy8592 Yeah, give it a little more time
Yeah it took me a good year to see an impact...and I like the idea as another way to heavily stock tanks and or save water - however they sometimes can be a bit touchy with clogging and isn't super responsive to big swings like a dead fish...so I like to use redundant systems in all my filtered tanks.
HELP! STUMPED. I have a three month old planted tank. Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 160+. It has no fish. Occasionally, I will see a wilted leaf and remove it, but most of the plants are growing. My floaters have multiplied so much that they would cover the entire surface it I didn’t corral them. The lights are on 15 hours a day. There is not a spec of algae in the tank. The substrate is gravel. There is no organic material in the tank except the plants. Tap water has minimal nitrates. I do not fertilize the tank, except I broke one root tab in half and buried in under two rooted plants. I can’t figure out where all the nitrates are coming from. Advice?
Love your videos 😄
I would assume it has to be root tabs or perhaps the light being on so long is causing the plants to enter their fruiting and flowering growth modes...and if the light was less than 10 hours a day the growth would be vegetative and that's when plants need to use the nitrites, and nutrients to grow and store energy.
Also I'd try grabbing a bucket of tap water and bucket of that tanks water....then test both...then let them sit 3 says to a week...and test again...sometimes some cities use chloramine instead of chlorine and it can deteriorate over time into various organic compounds ... but that is fairly unlikely.
I hope these suggestions may help a bit! Best of luck to you and have a great weekend
Thank you for this video. Very informative. I have a question about the floating plants. It looks like the water surface in one of your tanks is practically covered with duckweed. Is it okay to do that, to have the entire water surface covered with floating plants? I am not worried about the plants under the water, as I have quite strong light and the underwater plants can grow under low lights. I read somewhere that if the entire surface covered by floating plants, it will be harmful for the fish, because it will limit the oxygen exchange, lower the dissolved oxygen in the water. I don’t have duckweed, but I have red root floaters in one tank, another tank has frogbits. They grow so fast, I have to remove some of them every other day, to limit their population to only about 50% of the water surface. I have been worried what if I need to not be at home for two weeks, so no one remove the floating plants and they grow covering the entire surface of my fish tanks :( Please advise 🙏🏻
Yes. So it totally depends on your filtration and your fish species. It's fine if they don't mind low oxygenated water...Stillwater or flooded jungle species- however rainbow fish and some tetras can have a lot of trouble with low o2. Using water lettuce is a better choice if keeping species that like moving water and high o2 content, most definitely!
For filtration you either need a filter that splashes water at the surface (even a few inches of open surface area is often enough) otherwise you need a hang off the back, where the swirling of the filter and spillway oxygenates the water by breaking surface tension. Sponge filters are a bad choice (if used alone) when a tank is covered in plants
@@Fishtory Noted! Thank you. I will look into water lettuce. My red root floaters and frogbits do not like lots of water movement.
You touched on the fact that too many snails could cause the high nitrate levels. I rehomed a tremendous amount of the snails and now the ammonia an d nitrites are under control and nitrate levels are steady at about 5-10 ppm. Btw I also have many, many guppies in the tank with 1 Java fern and lots of guppy grass. Do you think I’m doing this right or do I need more different plants? Was doing water changes every few days, but now I’m back to 1 per week.
Confused, yeah me too!
You're doing it right now if your down to one water change a week. The guppy grass is what is eating all the nitrates too :)
Great info! I'm somewhat new to planted tanks. Can I put floating plants in if I use a glass lid? Many videos I watch don't have lids. My 2 year old requires me to have a lid 😁
Yeah you can but they need some air exchange and a bit of room so Condensation doesn't rot or cause mold on certain things like water lettuce or red root floaters.
@@Fishtory
That makes sense. Thanks!
Oksy
With gravel base would you still recommend vacuum during water change or just hover above the gravel . It is a mix plants in the tank stems and slow growing plants. Thanks in advance.
I'm a fan of hovering above it ...you may need to do more water changes the first few months or weeks...but eventually it'll help make it all stable and reduce the maintenance quite a bit
I’m so confused. I have three goldfish in a 40 gallon with three Amazon swords and two Anubias and I’ve had nothing but problems. My poor goldfish is turning black.
Check your ammonia and nitrates... and ph (you may have an acidity rise or may have built up too much nitrate in the water and the plants aren't eating it fast enough. ) best of luck...water changes are almost always a good plan, also
Alexander, My main issue on my 5 gallon nano tank is the nitrate doesn’t seem go down. I don’t have issues with ammonia and nitrite. After watching this video, can you write some plants (that are fast growing and consuming water columns) in the video description that you recommend for consuming nitrates? Right now I only have dwarf grass, 6 or 7 frogbits, one wisteria, two driftwood with Java Moss around (for the shrimps). I have 4 endlers, 2 zebra danios and 2 otos. Please PM me and would like to talk more.
The video just comes in time. I was about to pull my hair out since I started my first tank 4 months ago.
Sure my friend...I'll add some more plants and write out the ones I mentioned in the video. Equally important is the strength of your light though, to grow those plants. Also, you don't need 0 nitrates... I like most my tanks low (under 20ppm) but some like my guppy tanks can thrive at 50 to 100ppm of nitrates (not ammonia or nitrites however.) So don't aim for perfection- just happy healthy fish and plants :)
@@Fishtory got it. I think my nitrate is around 40 ppm but sometimes spike! (Yikes!). I don't have ammonia and nitrites which are good. I guess time to buy more fast growing plants and light!!! Thanks for passing the knowledge! Keep up the good work! Hope you have recovered your back completely!
I'm going to use regular potted plant soil and white sand on top of it. The sand substrate will be thick to create bacteria cultures to keep the cycle going. The potted plant soil will be to grow a lot of waterplants
I will try to go with 1 water change per 6 months / 12 months.
Do you have any advice?
Put some sort sort of barrier between the soul and the sand, otherwise it'll constantly get churned up on your have mare.
@C Sharpe A barrier like put the soil in bags or using gravel as a middle layer?
I bought a sift to sift out the floating rough parts of the soil if that helps
I think that'll work, you may want to cap the potted plants with some sand too, just so they get the ammonia and nitrates locked in the soil and not the water column
Thank you so much! This video explains why I have been chasing my tail for the last 4 years. I have a question concerning the gravel substrate. If I discontinue the gravel vacuuming, will there eventually be enough fertilizer in the substrate for me to not have to substitute with root tabs? A second question seems a little off topic but is concerning plants and snails. I have an assortment of snails but am certain the spixie snails are devouring some of my plants, including the frogbit floating plants. Have you known this to be a problem and can you suggest a better choice of floating plant that may not be as vulnerable to the snails? Thanks so much!
So 1. Yes! The gravel will become one giant root tab as long as you feed your fish foods with all the minerals they need.
2. I've found water lettuce and duckweed to be most resistant to snails, they simply can hold onto duckweed hehe. But it can easily take over the tank and be frustrating on its own accord too. Best of luck to you though!
@@Fishtory Thanks so much!!
Hi Alex, Do be you still have your shrimps?
Yes I have about 9 species at the moment ...less than before, but still most of them are around...in with nano fish
What is the small floating plant you had with the red root floater it looked to be small round leaves about an 1/8 to 1/4” in diameter
Salvinia minima i would guess.
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Running an experiment right now in which I have a lightly planted tank with slight excess of nitrates. I am attempting to reduce nitrates and/or ammonia (should have same results) by adding potassium to incourage nitrate and ammonia uptake rather than adding more plants. Any thoughts?
Adding any ionized salts should offset the toxicity prior to sodium or potassium or magnesium levels are dangers. A 1979 study i found mentioned that as a " fact" as well. So good thinking
@@Fishtory it's been 4 days since I originally added the potassium chloride (ill save you from the details and specs). The aquarium is planted primarily with Christmas moss. I had a good bit of brown (dormant) that has woken and sprouted a quarter to half inch frowns all over. Nitrates and nitrites are 0. Ammonia has consistently grown and Ill have to manual by tomorrow. I assume this is that the nitrifying bacteria can't keep up. I was hoping the moss itself would provide the needed surface area . other than increasing the surface area I'm not sure what else I can do. I'm kind of looking to peak performances so to speak. . Also, do you think it is possible or likely that the solution could have had a negative impact on the bacteria?
A normal filter will never be able to deal with nitrates. Ever.
What needs to be understood is that the bacteria that feed on ammonia and nitrites are aerobic.
There are bacteria that feed on nitrates - but they only survive and work in an anaerobic environment.
A normal filter has a regular flow of oxygenated water running through it - so only aerobic bacteria can survive in there.
Nitrate removal is only possible via the other methods discussed here. Don't expect your filter to help at all.
It is always very useful to actually measure the nitrate levels in your tap water if you're using that for aquarium maintenance and top-ups... My tap water has 20ppm nitrate! So it really doesn't matter how huge my water changes are - even if it's a full 100% - the nitrate level is still only going to drop to 20ppm.
What's a fast growing plant I can have in a goldfish tank?
Duckweed, hornwart, guppy grass. Pearl weed or maybe valisanarias
I have a 4 month old, planted soil base, deep sand substrate tank, never do water changes and the nitrates sit at 0-25ppm and never go higher. There's 75 fish some nerites and neocaradina, 307 canister, is this enough to keep the plants healthy as their growth has slowed down over the past month? I don't want to add root tabs, should i just wait it out? Thanks so much Alexander 👍
Maybe I need to upgrade to a plant 3.0?
O no my nitrates are 22 what do i do. Do nothing
With all this and the lights, how long do you leave your lights on? My lights use to grow algae on the lids bc they were on too long, I use a timer now and I split btw 4 on and 3 off to 4 on then off for the rest of the night. Any suggestions
I tend to turn up my lights full power 6 hours and 50% for the last hour and first. But the stronger the light, and the more fertilizers and or co2 , the more light you can use because the plants will always use the energy before algae... the biggest trick is getting things totally dark when lights are off...because even a 60w incandescent bulb in a room is enough for algae to bloom despite the lights being off
G'day Alex I have Paratya australiensis that actually breed in freshwater. I caught them from my mountain river 50 miles from the coast. Do you think it's worth breeding them I have baby's already. Thanks mate they are very cool shrimp they look a bit like pinochio shrimp but Australian.
That's awesome! I think it's worth it...but I'm a nerd lol. It may not be profitable or anything...I don't know. Let me know what happens though!
@@Fishtory I will let you know mate some have copper colour markings some have a steel blue colour might be interesting in a year or so. Thanks Alex ✌💚🍄
Check Kijiji or Craiglist for dwarf water lettuce and duckweed y'all, people like me are ALWAYS selling it off!
What's up dude
Heyo!
Ive only been cycling the tank for a week my ammonia disappears quite quickly i have slower growing plants looking to add some fast growing plants asap but my nitrites are quite high It seems that ammonia goes quite quickly I'm doing a fishless cycle any advice on what to do ? Be patient continue treatment or should i still go for water changes ?
BINGO! More plants always works hehe. And water changes will speed it up a little also. Or you can wait.... you nailed it.
I quit fitting against nitrates because my fish are healthy and live long lives with no Side effects. I do my water changes 15% every 2 days consistently and I feed mostly live or frozen foods . Nitrates are what beneficial bacteria can’t break down anymore, what if the live quality food you feed produces less of what bacteria can’t break down. Has anyone thought about that?
Thats a whole lot or water changes and im sure that will keep the fish and tank very happy.
People have definitely mentioned that nitrates thought here. Plants like eating ammonia more than nitrates if they have the option In their water column. As for more nitrates in the water, as long as you have appropriate filtration surface area the bacterial colonies will reproduce and grow within 2 to 5 days of spikes in ammonia, nitrites or nitrates. In the substrate there are bacteria that turn nitrates into ammonia/ammonium again as well...so any deep substrate tanks with plants really enjoy that whole process
How about nitrates to nitrogen gas by facultative bacteria? Plants prefer ammonium. Plants will need more energy to convert nitrates to ammonium at their roots zones.
Yes I'm not sure how well the gas exchange is in plant roots vs outgassing from water they absorb (in solution),
@@Fishtory I think nitrates are converted to ammonium and absorbed into the plant roots.
Does Lucky bamboo remove ammonia fast. I just have the roots dipped in the water, the bulk of the plants (5 stocks) are out of water attached to my filter intake tube with an elastic band. The roots seem to be growing really fast but I don't know if that is as good as the plant growing really fast. Seems like a slow grower to me.
It does work pretty fast, but depends on how much light the bamboo leaves get. Where as pothos vines or prayer plants/peace Lilies can do the same job in low indoor light... it may be worth looking into. Best of luck!
@@Fishtory Thank you so much.
How do you know when to change the water? To test water in all your tanks will take many many time!
Yes by testing nitrates at first... then you'll just learn each tank's attributes after 6 months to a year of stable routine
Hi
Ello!
That's just it plants just store the Nitrates they don't remove it. They don't change it or exchange for something else. If the plants die the nitrates are released and plants do just die or get to a point, they can't absorb and more nitrates.
It's all about exchange and you can see that with Ammonia being exchanged to Nitrite, then the nitrite is exchanged into Nitrate. The problem with aquariums is the Nitrates are not being exchanged but manually removed or stored in plants. When I say Manually removed, I mean water changes or physically removing the plants. The final exchange to remove Nitrates and be left with Nitrogen Gas that will float up and exit the tank isn't happening. If you are making that exchange it isn't enough or fast enough to keep up with the nitrate generation.
What we need is the bacteria that only exists in low or no oxygen environments. That is where Nitrates are converted/exchanged to Nitrogen gas and can break the surface of the tank and actually leave the aquarium. This is what is missing in most aquariums because we strive to keep the water highly oxygenated. So, there are very few zones in the tank that can achieve these conditions.
So for that you need the deep substrate and a plenum or pvc pipe with a hole. Regardless of what mr. Novak says, the exisiting published papers say 6 to 8 inches is the minimal cap depth that it will occur at. So if you have sulphur and elemental iron rich substrate, and somehow osmosis diffusion lets enough gas out as ammonia, you can off gas the nitrate based compounds. The problem is plant roots enjoy ammonia even more than nitrates of nitrites and their roots always bring O2 with them into substrates...as do snail etc. But after a year to 2 years finally it will off gas as nitrous oxide according to studies lookong at German sewer plants (the only peer reviewed scientific research done on aquarium sized tanks). Sadly we need data and replicatable experiments to know if it is possible and or meaningful amounts
@@Fishtory So what you are saying is we can't cultivate that type of bacteria. Because we can't create the conditions and it takes too long to make that exchange to Nitrous gas to be useful. I would be interested in a test not based on sewer treatment. How is this happening in a pond or lake? That is what we need to understand and try to recreate. Lakes and ponds can go months without new water being introduced or old water removed. Next thing I would like to question is all the "Natural" aquariums that owners claim has had NO water changes with just top off for a year or more on TH-cam. Is it because we are actually over filtering and generating nitrates?
I'm in the starting phase of setting up a 55g and have an idea of how I want to set up my tank. I'm in no hurry to add fish but I'm thinking I can run an experiment creating ammonia once the tank is cycled and see if my theory works. Keep in mind I have no intention of using live plants because I don't like dealing with live plants, I'm not an Aqua farmer and have no interest in going down that rabbit whole. If I can create ammonia and exchange it to nitrates and keep it low or zero without water changes, I'm doing something right.
I'm pretty sure that there is something right about Novak's ideas because people are reporting various reduced levels of nitrates using those methods. I'm not saying he is 100% correct but he is on to something. Check out GV Aquariums Australia he tried the BCB baskets and has had a reduction in need for water changes. It's not zero but he is seeing a reduction and that is something to take note of.
I am overwhelmed by my Dwarf Lily. I'm constantly having to prune it so that it continues growing. Surely it's removing nitrates right?
Some... it will remove a little amount from the water, but most from the roots while forming its bulb AKA reserve energy blob.
@@Fishtory it's been 6 months since it was planted.
@@LightLegion then is should be sucking up lots o fish poop out of the substrate by now!
Hello Alex. I need your help: I setup a 25litres nanocube by Aqual for shrimps, with floating plants (Salvinia, pystia..), crypts, lot of moss... Some root tabs on sand substrate.. I fill it with Ro and some tap water up to 6.5ph and 4kh. I want neocaridine.. So I need nitrites to zero.. But 2month after I have no2 0.25. So I decide to change the sponge filter provided by aquael together with the tank with a more efficient hob filter (niagara 190)... 1month and a week after, guess how much nitrites I find? 0.25!!!!!! What should I do? I try to raise kh and ph to 7? Could it be a key? What else? I need your expertise and your brain 😢
I forgot: inside the cube there are lots of ramshorne snails sine the beginning... Please help your follower from Turin 😀
Well thanks for writing and it sounds like you are on the right track! (Also, I love Italy....when I went to the north of Italy I almost stayed there permanently hahaha.
So I'm guessing you may just be reading the test a bit off? Unless it reads 0 when you use the r/o water.
But if I were you, I'd pour the RO water into a bucket in the same room... and just let it sit 24 to 48 hours and check what the ph and nitrates are doing. If it's stable...then it's not the water (sometimes r/o water or the remineralizers can cause a bump in nitrates due to free carbon and nutrients that algae or other micro organisms use...and when they die it rises...so you could also try a new remineralizer brand if the water seems fine and 0 nitrates.
If that isn't it.... then perhaps adding more light would help, and I assume you change the water by removing a few liters and then adding new RO? Because some people just add more water to what evaporated and then never remove the nitrates....
Oh you know what! I bet the root tabs are doing it! In small tanks they often cause a rise or ammonia/nitrates or nitrites...so you could remove em and do a water change...OR add faster growing hornwart/naja grass/pearl weed/or water lettuce /floating plants and a stronger light to help the plants use up nitrates faster.
I bet it's the root tabs if not the water it's self!
You could crush a root tab in some Normal water in a bowl or vase and then see a few hours after it dissolves if it caused the nitrates to rise (or ammonia/ammonium or nitrites)
Let me know how things are going after you investigate a bit. Best of luck my friend! Have a great Sunday and week ahead.
-Alex.
@@Fishtory so I changed 30% water with tap after 24h standing. Hope hardening the water (lowering pH) will help. Aldo try syphoning the sand close ti crypts roots where i put root tabs. I think the tank has enogh bio filtering plants (also didnot mention echynidorus) but I add naja too, as you suggest. Lightning Is 8h. Next update in 1 or 2 weeks. Thanks maestro. 😊👍
Have the opposite issue. Should I just add more fish maybe or am I not using enough fertilizer? Or is it not a problem at all? I have lots of stem plants and crypts. Anyone?
If the plants aren't turning yellow or brown it is not a problem (it's a good thing and a well balanced tank!)... but if the plants are being stunted or getting thin leaves/ holes and blotches then root tabs or a liquid all in one, would be a good idea. 👍
@@Fishtory They are growing really well so I guess I’ll keep doing what I’m doing. Ty. I just kind of assumed I shouldn’t be at zero all the time.
I hate this most utubers say to keep crashing is feed ur fish every day. Once a tank cycles once a week is all u have to feed. To cycle is Manny ways once u get nitrate building then target feeding the fish u have if u have fish that feed flakes feed them first then target bottom fish
Yeah with many species that's totally true. I keep quite a few Nanos and if they don't have a well established tank, they need food every 2 or 3 days at least for their fast little metabolisms... but many of the plecos and cichlids go 10 or 15 days without anything more than what is in the tank in biofilm or algae.
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Alex, what is that wooden board that looks like it is in the water?
Lol um I'm not sure what you mean ..but I do some strange things from time to time lol...do you have a minute marker where this occurred?
@@Fishtory might just be your stand, maybe the camera angle made it look like the board was going into the tank.
what are your go to fast growing plants ?
Hornwart, wisteria, water sprite, guppy grass, and sort of mill foil grasses, cabomba, ludwigias and rotalas :)
Because you're feeding your fish too much and you haven't got enough nitrate consuming plants.