AverageWhiteBloke
Member
Generally fast growing stems or floaters are the best at sucking nitrate out of the water, hygrophilia springs to mind. They can be as small as you can be bothered trimming them.
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RO vs Nitrate removal filter
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Well the point that I'm trying to make is that it is a waste of time to be concerned about nitrate levels in the tank water. Worrying about getting the right plants just so that they can "suck up the nitrate" is a fruitless and irrelevant objective. It has been already explained that high inorganic nitrate levels are not a health concern in a tank. Of course eutrophication is a very different story in the natural bodies of water because it affects the balance of species in that system and changes the dynamics. Again, this is irrelevant in a tank because tanks have nothing to do with nature. So if nitrate is not a toxic agent and if it is good for a planted tank, why worry about the levels? You're not doing yourself any favors by looking for a solution to this problem. You should embrace it and simply carry on. The people who worry about nitrate are the ones who continually have the most problems.
Just have a look at these George Farmer threads. George lives in an area with high nitrate and phosphate levels in the municipal water supply and has no trouble keeping an amazing variety of fish. No health concerns and he doesn't have to buy much fertilizer, so this is saving you money.
viewtopic.php?f=35&t=5761
viewtopic.php?f=49&t=15933&p=164884
viewtopic.php?f=35&t=10501
Cheers,
Just have a look at these George Farmer threads. George lives in an area with high nitrate and phosphate levels in the municipal water supply and has no trouble keeping an amazing variety of fish. No health concerns and he doesn't have to buy much fertilizer, so this is saving you money.
viewtopic.php?f=35&t=5761
viewtopic.php?f=49&t=15933&p=164884
viewtopic.php?f=35&t=10501
Cheers,
AverageWhiteBloke
Member
Its no bad thing that you would want to reduce the nitrate levels in your tank. Who knows there may be enough in your tap water to keep your plants healthy. Its just to point out that it shouldn't affect anything else you do as it is no harm to your fish and beneficial to your plants. No real point in looking for plants that use up most nitrate just get the ones you like mate. The tap water should come second to what a you're trying to achieve its so insignificant. If you want and it makes you feel more comfortable and saves some money what you could do is like I did with phosphate which is a similar situation as yours.I find the easiest way is to mix the fert with cooled boiled water and Dose the nitrate Ei values for a month or so. Then the next bottle you make dose same amount but less a gram of nitrate until at some point you see a negative effect on the plants. Problem here is you might get an algae issue before the plants show deficiency and as the plants grow and spread the nitrate levels may need to be upped. That is probably the reason most would say don't worry about it as you can get on with your tank without worrying if you have enough nitrate or not.
AverageWhiteBloke
Member
Should that not be phobia? Philia is a like of I think. I like a joke as much as the next man as long as its grammaticaly correct. !) only joking. Nice one 
Thanks AWB - you've really helped my atychiphobia...
(Google it u b*****r!)
Just out of curiousity...there is a Glossophobia!
In fact, You've inspired me - I'm going to start a new thread for planted tank phobias...real and real sounding!
http://www.ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=24361
(Google it u b*****r!)
Just out of curiousity...there is a Glossophobia!
In fact, You've inspired me - I'm going to start a new thread for planted tank phobias...real and real sounding!
http://www.ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=24361
AverageWhiteBloke
Member
Glad you managed to sort out your phobias 
I'll send you my bill!
Really though, a couple of scenarios that may make you feel at ease. I went through a similar situation as your self. Test kits shown that my tap water had no nitrates but extremely high levels of po4, well over 3mgl the highest reading on the test kit. Due to me using the manufacturers data sheet my tank held 165ltrs of water so off I went dosing kno3 at E.I and no po4. I also didn't do 50% weekly water changes partly to laziness and partly to my work schedule. Recently I set the same tank up again and had the opportunity to see exactly how much water it took to fill it with give or take the same amount of hardscape and plants in. Turns out that my tank holds roughly 130ltrs so I have over dosed kno3 for about 2 year, not changed enough water and suffered no problems with my fish. I would imagine a fair bit would have accumulated in the tank over that period.
My po4 situation on the other hand. Since setting up my new tank I change over 50% of the water religiously every week, being 3x5 gallon home brew bins worth. Now with my po4 above 3mgl out the tap logic would tell you that if there was none in the tank to start with after a water change I should have at least 1.5mgl in the tank but the test kits shows no where near those levels, not even 1mgl.
So, I start adding po4.
So now my philosophy has changed from worrying about having to much po4 in my tank. The worry is is there enough and while I add it in my dosing which is one less thing to worry about if I do have any problems the fact that there also MAY be high levels in my tap water virtually guarantees I'm ok po4 wise. You could think the same way with your nitrates and see it more as a security blanket.
There are two ends of the spectrum when it comes to ferts and plant health, either enough or not enough and all the problems appear at the not enough end. If you think you have everything else in order co2 and circulation wise have a little experiment to see if you can reduce the kno3 gradually over a long period but I wouldn't get to hung up on the results of test kits. The only one's you can start graduating in mgl portions costs hundreds even thousands of pounds. Everything in a planted tank isn't exact science, test kits give false results depending on loads of things like age, temp of water, chemicals you're not testing for and even how the user perceives the colour. The drop checker results are delayed by a couple of hours and depends on it's position in the tank as well as the fluid it's in. Everything is best guess for the hobbyist.
I believe that something in my tapwater gives a false po4 reading which seems to diminish rapidly in the tank or maybe now I've got my other things in order my plants really are sucking up po4, who knows? I'm not science enough to explain it but adding it makes me sure it's not a problem.
I'll send you my bill!Really though, a couple of scenarios that may make you feel at ease. I went through a similar situation as your self. Test kits shown that my tap water had no nitrates but extremely high levels of po4, well over 3mgl the highest reading on the test kit. Due to me using the manufacturers data sheet my tank held 165ltrs of water so off I went dosing kno3 at E.I and no po4. I also didn't do 50% weekly water changes partly to laziness and partly to my work schedule. Recently I set the same tank up again and had the opportunity to see exactly how much water it took to fill it with give or take the same amount of hardscape and plants in. Turns out that my tank holds roughly 130ltrs so I have over dosed kno3 for about 2 year, not changed enough water and suffered no problems with my fish. I would imagine a fair bit would have accumulated in the tank over that period.
My po4 situation on the other hand. Since setting up my new tank I change over 50% of the water religiously every week, being 3x5 gallon home brew bins worth. Now with my po4 above 3mgl out the tap logic would tell you that if there was none in the tank to start with after a water change I should have at least 1.5mgl in the tank but the test kits shows no where near those levels, not even 1mgl.
So, I start adding po4. So now my philosophy has changed from worrying about having to much po4 in my tank. The worry is is there enough and while I add it in my dosing which is one less thing to worry about if I do have any problems the fact that there also MAY be high levels in my tap water virtually guarantees I'm ok po4 wise. You could think the same way with your nitrates and see it more as a security blanket.
There are two ends of the spectrum when it comes to ferts and plant health, either enough or not enough and all the problems appear at the not enough end. If you think you have everything else in order co2 and circulation wise have a little experiment to see if you can reduce the kno3 gradually over a long period but I wouldn't get to hung up on the results of test kits. The only one's you can start graduating in mgl portions costs hundreds even thousands of pounds. Everything in a planted tank isn't exact science, test kits give false results depending on loads of things like age, temp of water, chemicals you're not testing for and even how the user perceives the colour. The drop checker results are delayed by a couple of hours and depends on it's position in the tank as well as the fluid it's in. Everything is best guess for the hobbyist.
I believe that something in my tapwater gives a false po4 reading which seems to diminish rapidly in the tank or maybe now I've got my other things in order my plants really are sucking up po4, who knows? I'm not science enough to explain it but adding it makes me sure it's not a problem.
