Dan, I'm glad you addressed this issue because so many hobbyists go through this and don't understand why the nitrates level in their planted tanks are so high. You have spelled it out beautifully for everyone. My 20 gallon tank is much like your tanks. I have a buh-jillion plants in there, but they are all slow growing Anubias and Java Fern, plus the light is a stock 18" fluorescent tube. Consequently the nitrates are often sky high. One thing I think should be mentioned: many species of fish can eventually acclimate to high nitrates. If a hobbyist suddenly notices that the nitrates are through the roof then does a massive water change in an attempt to get rid of those nitrates it can shock those fish in a similar way to a big pH swing. It's best to do several moderate sized water changes rather than one whopping huge one. Great video. Should be required viewing by all freshwater fishkeepers.
I once lost a whole tank full of fish because I didn't understand how easily they could be shocked. If you have dangerously high nitrates what would be a general timeline for reducing them? Days? Weeks? Or should you just do something like 10% or 20% changes daily till they are down?
@@Kenney9120 i do 80%+ water changes every two weeks on a very highly populated 500 gallon cichlid aquarium. The nitrates max out at 20ppm and drop to zero after the water change. My water is highly buffered and the low nitrates enable the 80% water changes and the fish love it. Between my aquaponic grow bed and the large water changes the nitrates do not have an opportunity to creep up.
Started putting in 1 cap of sachem flourish in my planted tank about 4 months ago, and what a difference. I have a cheap led light and sand. My plants have all really started to look good. Yours look good as well.
@@stateniland Its a 60 gallon tank. I put 1 capful in every other day for the first week, then 1 capful 2 times a week, mon. And thur. I blasted it the first week just to get my plants going as they were not looking healthy It took about 3 weeks to really notice a difference, Its been a little over 4 months and my tank looks really good, plants all are a lush green and growing nicely.
Man I just have to say thank you so much for the info you saved my babies. I have to compliment you on your beautiful Angle fish. It's pretty cool the two at the top are putting on a display for you as you are helping us all out. Definitely let's you see the beauty of the fish.
Thankyou…the way you used plants, eating up nutrients but needing light to gain energy to do so really made me see it in a clearer way. Iv always understood we need to check levels, I understand them pooping will pollute the water then I turn cause higher levels n so forth but I have always found the more technical explanations behind the levels harder to grasp. I have several tanks but just started up a new one with loads n loads of established plants. I wanted to really quickly cycle it so I used existing sponges and water to do so. I even squeezed a used sponge into the tank but as it was nearer end of cycle it actually raised the nitrate even more than the 10pm it was at. I’m like hmm,,, thought used sponges assist in cycling…then a friend says do a water change. Ok ok…I’m now thinking hangin,,, I, told to use sponges etc that have all the yummy goods stuff in to help cycle but then I’m told to water change which will them be removing that..a lil confused now. This is where I can get stumped on some thing n just not get it. I did do a water change and so I’m assuming if I did a 40% water change then if my nitrate levels were roughly 10, now they’ll go down to roughly 6ppm. Still confused as to the water change at end of cycle, as I really thought the act of cycling was that you go thru each one raising then slowly becoming ok back to 0 as the tank water adjusts to environment and nutrients etc within it,,,, leaving you with hopefully either a 0 reading for all or atleast an acceptable reading. There’s some things in life no matter how much they’re explained I still seem a lil puzzled with parts…..lol
An old video ,,,,,, with so much information , .. Well said Dan , as always you keep it real , this is a must watch video for all embarking in this hobby and wanting to know the real deal .. clear information, worth a repost for 2020 ..
Love watching your clown loaches (favorite fish) while listening to your excellent videos. 30+ year aquarist and learning even more from you. Thanks and keep up the great work!
Good explanation. I use water lettuce in my sumps and certain aquariums. Double in size/quantity in less than a week and they have unlimited CO2 from the atmosphere. Limiting factor becomes size of sump and lighting. From 2 sumps and 3 aquariums I harvest half a 5 gallon bucket of water lettuce every 10 days.
Im trying to full surface my 300L with amazon frogbit , aparently its very nitrate hungry . need to get my water changes back to once weekly before a holiday away next year. only got 2 axolotls in there !
Another thing to keep in mind is that adding plants typically goes hand in hand with dosing fertilizers. The primary ingredient in most fertilizers is nitrogen aka nitrate.
Hi, thanks for your input. I have added pothos that dangles outside the tank and roots grow inside the tank. It is a low light plant and the roots feed off the nitrates. I will see if it helps
The kind of plants you have and how much plants and bio load you have determine how much nitrates produced in your tank. You have to plant lots and lots of varieties in order to balance your tank's nitrate.
WHAT SHOULD I DO AND/OR NOT DO? 3.5 gallon established and balanced tank and I keep getting PRIMODIAL SLIME MOLD on tank decoration and airhose. BUT FIRST, 10K LIKES FROM ME! GREAT JOB explaining how plants process ammonia and nitrites and why plants omay not use a lot of nitrates. BEST EXPLANATION EVER. ... people need to hear this from someone who truly understands (and can explain ) the intricacies of how the tank cycle is affected by plants, light, livestock, load, and NUTRIENT AVAILABILITY !!! You just made it all make sense to a novice fishkeeper. NOW, WHAT SHOULD I DO ABOUT "PRIMODIAL SLIM MOLD"? It started on a plastic (roman columns) tank decoration 2nd week of a new tank and rapidly spread to my morissimo moss ball! I washed out the decor and moss balls in tap (per store recommendation ) but it grew back in just 2 days. I got rid of that decor, and literally waited many weeks, then finally got a new decoration ... the white fuzzy mould growing on thank in 2 days! and is now gotten thick on a clear plastic air line to the bubbler. I have never used medicine. I have used dechlorination only once ( as a precaution) when I started the tank from store bought filtered spring water. I also added bacteria-starter a couple of times (initially & when I had to do a large waterchange at an ammonia spike during the early cycling). fed fish flakes initially and switched to thawed blood worms at week-3 when it became clear the emaciated betta wouldn't eat flakes. After switching to blood worms, and adding more plants, the fish is eating and my tank cycle stabilized ... 8-9 weeks total. Now I bought another tank decoration and in 2 days the slim mold was back! ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED! (It's for my kids school science project)
Thanks for the videos. I've been at this about three months and in the last month and a half I went to live low tech plants. I was surprised that I was still struggling with nitrates. I'm still learning, but this helps. Thanks.
Wish i would have seen this video 6-7weeks ago. lmao.. i set up a planted tank and have been putting all in one ferts in since day one. My plants were struggling so i bought a test. my nitrates were in the 200ppm range. Guess 20% water change a week and fert wasnt cutting it. I rinsed my filter in tank water and changed 30% water yesterday and 30% today. im down to 40ppm. I have red root floaters on the way and will do another 30% water change tomorrow. Guess i shouldnt fertilize until i get those nitrates used up or deminished... Im learning!!! thank you!
great vid- your tanks really all look good :) we recently found something that floored me- driftwood can spike ammonia/nitrite/nitrate. i'd had no clue. we found some old store bought woods in a box and added it to established tanks. some rocks out to a new tank, added wood to these established ones. things seemed fine for a bit, once adjusted to the change the fish were enjoying things as far as we could see. i was looking forward to having something easier in there to attach plants to. then fish started looking slightly off mid week and i tested the water- wow. no ammonia but suddenly i had nitrite in established tanks- what the? nitrate was skyrocketed in a way it hadn't before too. wracked my brain. only thing changed? the wood. primed, added airstone, fish distress gone. okay. so we do some water changes and pulled the wood. dropped it in a bin of water. thinking i have to be wrong. rule it out. so i re rinsed and re-soaked the wood in tap water. daily wood water changed for a week. only slight tannins. tested the water- woa. tested the tap water, after using the prime to dechlor, and tested it again after 12, 24, 48 and 36 hours. nothing. ran fresh water, and dechlor, and in went all those pieces of wood. holy smokes- at 12 hours i could register ammonia and nitrite and after 24 and 48 it was scary. separated out the pieces. rinsed all again one by one, and gave each it's own bucket/container. dechlored water in. after 12, 24, 48 and 36hours, some were giving off ammonia, some nitrite, some both, some nitrate- some nothing! SOME of this wood had been in tanks before being stored and some had been unused- but that didn't seem to matter. 2 new pieces did give off ammonia and nitrite and 3 did not, of used/stored ones, about half did and half didn't. 3 had been in the same old tank and 2 gave off everything- one did not! the ones giving off nothing are back in tanks and all seems well- and the plecos are happy. i don't keep wood eaters but these (common/bristlenose/gold spot) seem to like grazing wood a bit too. or the life on the wood. whatever. i want a bit in every tank! so i busted up some of the safe ones. i'm pretty flabbergasted. we lucked out that the biofilters kept up with the ammonia the wood gave off, nitrite seems slower to convert for some reason, perhaps my water hardness? i have no clue. it makes sense that wood used in tanks could have absorbed some ammonia/nitrite in the past and especially nitrate, but the ones i never used? fish store bought? it really surprises me. it's something i never guessed at in the past and i wouldn't have figured out conclusively without actually testing the wood in pails of water just like i add to my tanks. no more spikes with only the pieces that didn't give off anything in pails in the tanks. kinda mad- some REALLY neat pieces here that i don't dare use.... maby summer outside and more soaks will clean them of it, we'll see. thought you/your audience might like to know. i'll be testing all pieces i use from now on. i don't EVER want my fish to look off like that again!
i guess! seeing a nitrite spike like that from 'safe' driftwood though... :( i'm going to try apple wood from my trees. i figure ~shrugs~ can't be TOO much worse than bought wood- if it's worse at all!
i guess i was taken by surprise- wood essentially adding to bioload? some pieces didn't give off a thing in the pails. i'm sure our plecos eating it would be adding, that much we'd expect. the amount some of these gave off was terrifying- and all but one didn't seem to be breaking down, one we could rub some loose bits off of. some seemed totally solid, yet turned my test water so stinking green and purple! i'm guessing amount vs water volume and filtration would need to possibly be taken into consideration? you know Dan as a gardener who composts- i'm somewhat aware of decomp doing things, i just never noticed ammonia odor in say my compost pile- i suppose it must just be very little. it can smell, but not what i think of as ammonia. another thing i find interesting- i know we're never to use softwoods in our tanks. yet for my rodents- ground up softwood pellets are exactly what is best to absorb ammonia. granted that's dry- but only till they urinate on it. it keeps absorbing ammonia till saturated. so i Kinda thought wood=ammonia absorbing? whoops? just so confused- especially about the pieces that were new buys. i do NOT panic about nitrate levels, but i don't want em sky high nor wood adding to bioload if i can avoid it. none of my plecos are the 'must have wood' types but we always noted they ALL enjoy scraping it and you can see by droppings color some goes through their digestive tract- the bristlenose, gold spot high fin, and both commons all have some 'driftwood droppings'. it was the first thing they went to when added to the tanks! like the pet store had 'deprived' them! :) ah fishkeeping, such an enjoyable art and science and yet sometimes a confusing worry!
Hi Dan, thank you for sharing this info. I am dealing with high nitrates in one of mine. I do weekly 30% water change. This week I have done a 10% daily water Change. I have changed the substrate a few weeks ago. So after watching this, I purchased a new bulb and a fast growing plant. All mine are slow growers ( which grow alot actually). So I hope this helps. Any more advice you can give will be appreciated. Thanks 😊
Am I supposed to turn off my filter when I do my water change? I'm still trying to get my tank to cycle. My ammonia is always @ .25 never .0 should I change the water at that level? Thanks for your help
You don't have to turn your filter off. And your ammonia should be at zero. if it's a newer tank, you may have to wait til it finishes cycling. I'd do a water change if the ammonia gets to .25 if I were you.
for 15inLenghtX12in Height X10in width how much light should i use to contol other parameters in my walstad method tank....including algae tobe control
My 130 liter mainly has anubias and some hygrophilia. I struggle keeping nitrate and phosphate up. My light is finnex 24x7 v2. My nitrate is always virtually 0. I been dosing soo much nitrate atm 1ppm a day and its still 0. Gr lol
Hey Dan My Nitrates Have been high have been doing weekly water changes and more, cleaned my FX4 filter for a 90 gallon tank but still Nitrates about 60plus ,I do use thrive plant food 3 times a week can that make the Nitrates go up all my other parameters are fine, my plants are slow growing also low tech tank I use LED lights
I hardly ever get nitrates in my 450 litres tank. I don't have CO2 but I have good lightning, some fertilization and plenty of fast growing plants, namely Vallisneria, Dwarf Ambulia and Duckweed. I do weekly water changes around 20-25% of total water though.
Thanks for making this video. I was on the fence about adding Anubis and java fern to my tank for the benefits of having live plants. I know now it won't be that helpful. Sticking with silk plants.
Quick question... I have a fresh water tank for which I never bought a light. It gets its light from a nearby window, but my window panes block UV light, as far as I know. Do plants need UV or just light from a closed window is fine? The plant has been alive 3 years or more, but I don't know if I stunted its growth, etc. It's a small tank (20 gallons) and I only added a plant (java fern) just to give it some ambiance.
Have a read of Diana Walstad's Ecology of the Planted Aquarium. It's very informative and interesting on the allelopathy between plants in an aquarium. I was having problems with certain plants "melting" and dying off in my tank. She certainly helped me think more about how different variables in tank affect each other and how to spot warning signs earlier on than I would have in the past. She gets a 5 out of 5 from me!
I subbed, and I'm buying my first tank tomorrow, 65G. I'll be commenting often going forward. I'd like to focus on the Fish that I catch from my local lakes, but I'd like to know about water lillies.
Thanks for this, the correlation between light intensity and nitrate uptake never occurred to me. If I get a stronger light and there is not other plant “food” missing I might be able to lower my nitrates. That’s worth investigating further, thanks again!
Hi Dan, Thank for the beautiful explanation. Can I bother you with a quick question, I just check my tank where in i did a water change this weekend almost 50% as i was bringing new fish. My Ammonia is 0 and Nitrite is 0, but Nitrate came close to 80ppm it an 10 Gallon Tank. should i do a small water change and control feeding my parrot fish?
A Parrot fish in a ten gallon? I assume its a baby. Check your tap (source) water to see if it has nitrates first. If not, then feed less and do more frequent, med/small water changes.
great video. that's why you need to do water changes, since plants consume ammonia first, water changes will drop the nitrite and nitrates, as well as dropping ammonia
I've been trying Lower my Phosphates 10 & Nitrates they are 160 but nothing seems to lower them. Thank is 65 gal, heavily, healthy planted fish tank. Every body is happen. I have no problems except the dreaded BBA on tubing and ornaments and plants. I add Fertilizer after a 10-14 days water change of 25% . I'm trying to keep that down and much as I can do. I keep the plants trimmed and clear. So in your opinion do you think I should stop fertilizer for a while and only add trace elements? I have three light fixtures all LED they are run at different times & intensity through out the 9 hr. day. Matching that with my pressurized CO2. My tank is 15 years old. Renovated 3 yrs ago.
Since you inject CO2, I'm not sure about the ferts. The CO2 will make them grow fast, so they may need the food. I'd try stopping or cutting back for a while and seeing what happens. How heavily stocked is the tank? That sounds like a lot of nitrates for a planted tank with CO2.
Amonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 3-5, ph 7.4 , plants going brown, low tech tank. Started king brit plant food, they are recovering well, seems if constant supply of trace elements aren't there, the plans use internal resources and once depleted, they start to die. duly noted, some pet shops buy in plants, they look good for a few weeks but the damage has been done . Am I correct? 55 gallon tank looks a mess now. No C02 plant food is vital not carbo stuff.
Hey buddy, I kept changing my water and had super low ph, for months, now I'm adding backing soda, low cheaper than oh up n easy to use, half a tea spoon for 10 gallons of water, I have pathos plants, spider plant n a peacelilly on top wit a grow light they suck the extra nitrate us or 8 ft long, I have a lot of Corry fish, they had babies, the bottom says clean. How long r your lights on have it super brute 8 hours n lite for 6 ?
Dan Hiteshew I was thinking otos are perfect because they don't get too big. Then I read that some angelfish have died trying to eat them because of their spine
sorry for being newbee, so what levels of nitrate and phosphate should I target on low tech, led custom built fixture, 150g, moderately stocked. I been dosing micro and macro and find nitrates over 80ppm and phosphates 3ppm. thanks
I'd try to keep them a little lower. Phosphates don't matter as much. Try to keep your nitrates below 50, but don't worry too much if they climb a little between water changes.
As always so informative.The tank looks great since you added the Java fern. I can't believe how big that CAE got. It seems like he got big rather fast. How big is he? Is he done growing? So a question about plants. What kind of plant grows faster than the Anubis and the Java fern but doesn't require really expensive lighting?
Temple Plant, Water Sprite, or Water Wisteria are all good. Java moss is good too. It's about 7 inches and it's growth has slowed, but fish are "indeterminate growers" so it's never stop completely. They can get up to 11 inches, but I don't think it'll get that big. It went from tiny to about 5 inches in the first year or so. It's about 4 y/o now.
This has been my experience as well. Ton of plants. No ammonia or nitrite ever. Because sump and plants. Nitrates stay non 0. If I use an all in one fert, nitrates go up and stay up. Time to learn ei.
Hey Dan, ive had my figure 8 puffer for a week and he is doing great, but im having an extemely hard time trying to get him to eat snails, any ideas to try to get him to eat them, they are ramshorn snails, and they around about the size of his eye
Maybe let it get a little hungry and it'll eat them. Butterbean is picky too. He'll turn his nose up at snails sometimes, hoping for something better. lol He eats them eventually if he doesn't get any shrimp.
a question, if you have lots of slow growing plants could you supplement by adding floating plants or letting pothos grow in the tank? Would that help control nitrates? Or would the Pothos outcompete all the submerged plants?
Super late response but may help others; my local fish store has an unimaginably thick forest of pothos growing over 3 large walls of fish tanks, but they still have plants like Val, wisterai, anubias, so on...growing just as thick! The key is to control the nasties through different layers of the water column, photos would basically take care of the top layer of tank.
Hummmm. Liked your video. You very clear and understandable. Makes it easy to listen to and apply. I have a 75g planted high tech. Lots of lights, lots of plants, medium bio load. In recent days I have experienced an increase in nitrates. I got up to 80 ppm. Did a huge water change (40g) and lowered it to 40ppm. I also saw your video on phosphates. Mine is off the scale. Was 10. after the water change down to 5. For over a year I ran at nearly no nitrates and very low phosphates. Was wondering what may have happened? Why the increase in a few short weeks? I do 20 to 25 gallon water changes once a week. I try not to over feed and stopped using frozen foods. What are your thoughts?
Great vid! How many fish and what type do you have in your Angel tank 55gallon? Just trying to get a rough idea how many I can put in my 55gallon. Thanks.
I have no idea what was in there in the video, but as of now, I've got a Angelfish, A pleco (about 8 inches) about a dozen diamond Tetras, a few Hatchetfish, and a Synodontis Lucipinnis.
It is always worth checking the nitrate level of your tap water if you're declorinating it and using it for water changes in your aquarium... My tapwater has about 20mg/l nitrate... so if my aquarium has 50mg/l nitrate and I want to get it down to 25mg/l... a 50% water change would not be anywhere near enough! A long, long time ago, when I started in this hobby, I was frustrated because a 30% water change wasn't making any difference at all to the aquarium nitrate levels! It wasn't until I eventually thought to test the tapwater and realised how high the tapwater nitrate levels were - meaning 30% water changes were useless in reducing an aquarium's nitrate level. The 'legally acceptable' nitrate levels in drinking water vary a lot from country to country: the EU and UK acceptable levels are 50mg/l - I believe that in the USA, acceptable levels may be much lower: as low as 5 mg. A lot of literature quotes 10mg/l nitrate as the maximum safe limit for human consumption - making my tapwater unsafe to drink 😬 (and using a domestic water filter DOESN'T remove nitrate - you need something like a Reverse Osmosis system)! So... don't only test your aquarium water... test your tapwater as well! It may explain why your aquarium nitrate levels remain high, despite regular maintenance.
I have my stock little led light strip and feed 4-5 times daily ( guppy’s ) my nitrates are zero if I don’t add fertilizers. I’d say it all depends on the tank and what plants you have
Your tanks are beautiful and so are the fish! I am interested to know why you do not use ferts? I consider my humble 46gal to be low tech, as well; no CO2, Eco-Complete substrate, Finnex 24/7 Planted LED. All pretty basic. But I love my ferts! Plants are healthier, fuller and my red plants are red. I see strong sturdy growth in all the different species and I do not get algae, either. My fish are healthy and long lived; and seemingly content. The only con I can fathom is the cost. Do you have another reason for not using ferts, or can you refer me to video that you have discussed this topic in? Thank you!
Thanks Dan awesome video (great explanation!) After a 15 year break from fish tanks my building ponds for people and myself I wanted to ask you what's your thoughts on adding salt to your tank? I'm starting up a couple new tanks and know that adding salt helps the fish when they're sick or stressed is a good thing, BUT.in my ponds over the years anytime I added salt to help the fish it seemed to hurt the plants and stop them from blooming how much is too much salt in an aquarium if I want to keep a lot of plants or do I want to stay away from salt all together? Thanks again for what you do and the awesome video 👊
The rule of thumb for salting an aquarium (NaCl) is one teaspoon per gallon. (most fish can tolerate much more than that, but even very softwater fish can stand 1 tsp/gl) As far as plants go, they should be able to handle 1tsp/gl too. How much were you salting the ponds? Plants don't do well in hard water or pH over 7.6.
Thank you for the quick reply sir 👊 as per the instructions on the bag when I added salt to my ponds. I could have possibly had a salt built up due to the fact in my ponds I'd rarely do water changes and just let mother nature/rain do its thing. Living outside of Nashville TN, we get ample rain. But it always seemed after I added the salt it stunted plant growth and killed the algae blooms we get every spring as it heats up. So if I'm hearing you correctly? Going by the instructions on the aquarium salt box, it should not stunt the growth of my plants? (As long as I keep the pH Down?) Thanks in advance for all you do! and your help in the matter.
Great explanation and good video as well I guess I am not a fan of youtuber keep showing their face in front of camera and try to explain abunch of stuff . I rather look at the tank and what's being work on . So yeah this is just my kind of video
I broke through to zero nitrates with dosing fertilizer, CO2 and having giant Amazon swords and water sprite in my 200 gallon. I have to trim back the swords and water sprite at least every two weeks and fill a medium size bucket with trimmings.
Everything I have read and learned about the 'nitrogen cycle' over more than 3 decades says that ammonia is produced in the tank from decaying fish waste, uneaten food, decaying plant material etc. Two types of bacteria colonise the filter - the first converts the ammonia to nitrite and the second then convert the nitrite to nitrate. Nitrates are then used by the plants as food or alternatively they have to be removed by water changes. You seem to be suggesting that plants in some way convert the nitrates back into ammonia. I have never heard of this and surely if that were the case nobody would put plants in their tanks since it would be counterproductive and rather than get rid of nitrates would actually increase the ammonia level, the very thing you are trying to eliminate in the first instance..
andy stokes exactly. I thought the same thing. Plants DO NOT convert nitrate back into ammonia. It's called a cycle for a reason and it never just suddenly stops and goes back in reverse. Nitrate either stays a nitrate, or it becomes nitrogen. It's this kind of misinformation, presented as fact that causes people to make poor decisions with fish keeping, and then wonder what went wrong.
Living, growing plants doesn't produce ammonia. Plants that is eaten by fishes and decaying plant material produce ammonia. I don't know if that's what is refered to in the video. It's the only thing I can think of that make sense.
Plants utilise ammonium as their favoured food source primarily via leaf uptake. They do not utilise nitrate as its a costly energy sapping process for them to convert it back to ammonium within the leaves, unless forced to. I have found this out by reading articles written by those who have carried out scientific studies into the subject.
If your nitrates are high in a planted tank it can be because your tap water contains nitrates. Nitrates are a by-product of the breakdown of ammonia and nitrite, and you should not be concerned by high nitrates. Companies have made people in the hobby scared of nitrates so they can sell them 'nitrate lowering' products. Don't fall for it. The longer I am in this hobby, the less products I buy, because I realise I don't require them.
You're not just a fish keeper you are a blOOdy scientist!!! LOL Years ago I kept 3 gold fish and a "be-whiskered" loach in quite a big tank...NO heaters, NO plants, (only plastic ones) NO light and just a filter running. They swam for the best part of 14 years. We knew nothing about nitrites, nitrates and ammonia, we just did a full tank clean up once a month. How times and chemistry knowledge has changed.
Dan, I'm glad you addressed this issue because so many hobbyists go through this and don't understand why the nitrates level in their planted tanks are so high. You have spelled it out beautifully for everyone. My 20 gallon tank is much like your tanks. I have a buh-jillion plants in there, but they are all slow growing Anubias and Java Fern, plus the light is a stock 18" fluorescent tube. Consequently the nitrates are often sky high. One thing I think should be mentioned: many species of fish can eventually acclimate to high nitrates. If a hobbyist suddenly notices that the nitrates are through the roof then does a massive water change in an attempt to get rid of those nitrates it can shock those fish in a similar way to a big pH swing. It's best to do several moderate sized water changes rather than one whopping huge one.
Great video. Should be required viewing by all freshwater fishkeepers.
I once lost a whole tank full of fish because I didn't understand how easily they could be shocked. If you have dangerously high nitrates what would be a general timeline for reducing them? Days? Weeks? Or should you just do something like 10% or 20% changes daily till they are down?
@@Kenney9120 i do 80%+ water changes every two weeks on a very highly populated 500 gallon cichlid aquarium. The nitrates max out at 20ppm and drop to zero after the water change. My water is highly buffered and the low nitrates enable the 80% water changes and the fish love it. Between my aquaponic grow bed and the large water changes the nitrates do not have an opportunity to creep up.
I understand the basics but your description makes it easier to understand. Highly recommended for beginners to watch.
Started putting in 1 cap of sachem flourish in my planted tank about 4 months ago, and what a difference. I have a cheap led light and sand. My plants have all really started to look good. Yours look good as well.
what size tank and how often are you adding the Flourish? thanks Joe
@@stateniland Its a 60 gallon tank. I put 1 capful in every other day for the first week, then 1 capful 2 times a week, mon. And thur. I blasted it the first week just to get my plants going as they were not looking healthy
It took about 3 weeks to really notice a difference, Its been a little over 4 months and my tank looks really good, plants all are a lush green and growing nicely.
@@WilliamSmith-dg5re ty and goodluck!
Thank you for this video but most of all thank you for the guys who commented or questioned
and your answers it made the issue clearer
I needed to hear this, and I didn't even know it. (Lots of slow growing plants in my tank) Thank you!
Man I just have to say thank you so much for the info you saved my babies. I have to compliment you on your beautiful Angle fish. It's pretty cool the two at the top are putting on a display for you as you are helping us all out. Definitely let's you see the beauty of the fish.
im fixing to try out pothos in my hob to see if i can lower my nitrates that way
Thankyou…the way you used plants, eating up nutrients but needing light to gain energy to do so really made me see it in a clearer way.
Iv always understood we need to check levels, I understand them pooping will pollute the water then I turn cause higher levels n so forth but I have always found the more technical explanations behind the levels harder to grasp. I have several tanks but just started up a new one with loads n loads of established plants. I wanted to really quickly cycle it so I used existing sponges and water to do so. I even squeezed a used sponge into the tank but as it was nearer end of cycle it actually raised the nitrate even more than the 10pm it was at. I’m like hmm,,, thought used sponges assist in cycling…then a friend says do a water change. Ok ok…I’m now thinking hangin,,, I, told to use sponges etc that have all the yummy goods stuff in to help cycle but then I’m told to water change which will them be removing that..a lil confused now. This is where I can get stumped on some thing n just not get it.
I did do a water change and so I’m assuming if I did a 40% water change then if my nitrate levels were roughly 10, now they’ll go down to roughly 6ppm.
Still confused as to the water change at end of cycle, as I really thought the act of cycling was that you go thru each one raising then slowly becoming ok back to 0 as the tank water adjusts to environment and nutrients etc within it,,,, leaving you with hopefully either a 0 reading for all or atleast an acceptable reading.
There’s some things in life no matter how much they’re explained I still seem a lil puzzled with parts…..lol
I love your ending words.....
It's an ecosystem!... Not a box of water with fish swimming around in it. ❣👍🙌💖
An old video ,,,,,, with so much information , .. Well said Dan , as always you keep it real , this is a must watch video for all embarking in this hobby and wanting to know the real deal .. clear information, worth a repost for 2020 ..
Best looking low tech tank I’ve ever seen.
Thanks!
great info can u recomend good books for learning this stuff u speak of
No, I'm sorry. I don't know of any book on the subject.
Love watching your clown loaches (favorite fish) while listening to your excellent videos. 30+ year aquarist and learning even more from you. Thanks and keep up the great work!
Good explanation. I use water lettuce in my sumps and certain aquariums. Double in size/quantity in less than a week and they have unlimited CO2 from the atmosphere. Limiting factor becomes size of sump and lighting. From 2 sumps and 3 aquariums I harvest half a 5 gallon bucket of water lettuce every 10 days.
Im trying to full surface my 300L with amazon frogbit , aparently its very nitrate hungry . need to get my water changes back to once weekly before a holiday away next year. only got 2 axolotls in there !
Another thing to keep in mind is that adding plants typically goes hand in hand with dosing fertilizers. The primary ingredient in most fertilizers is nitrogen aka nitrate.
Hi, thanks for your input. I have added pothos that dangles outside the tank and roots grow inside the tank. It is a low light plant and the roots feed off the nitrates. I will see if it helps
I am going to try this but the Pothos is very small atm with very little root so not put it in yet.. Has it helped your nitrate levels? Thanks.
The kind of plants you have and how much plants and bio load you have determine how much nitrates produced in your tank. You have to plant lots and lots of varieties in order to balance your tank's nitrate.
Cool explanation dude. Thanks for the info!
WHAT SHOULD I DO AND/OR NOT DO? 3.5 gallon established and balanced tank and I keep getting PRIMODIAL SLIME MOLD on tank decoration and airhose.
BUT FIRST, 10K LIKES FROM ME! GREAT JOB explaining how plants process ammonia and nitrites and why plants omay not use a lot of nitrates. BEST EXPLANATION EVER. ... people need to hear this from someone who truly understands (and can explain ) the intricacies of how the tank cycle is affected by plants, light, livestock, load, and NUTRIENT AVAILABILITY !!! You just made it all make sense to a novice fishkeeper.
NOW, WHAT SHOULD I DO ABOUT "PRIMODIAL SLIM MOLD"? It started on a plastic (roman columns) tank decoration 2nd week of a new tank and rapidly spread to my morissimo moss ball! I washed out the decor and moss balls in tap (per store recommendation ) but it grew back in just 2 days. I got rid of that decor, and literally waited many weeks, then finally got a new decoration ... the white fuzzy mould growing on thank in 2 days! and is now gotten thick on a clear plastic air line to the bubbler. I have never used medicine. I have used dechlorination only once ( as a precaution) when I started the tank from store bought filtered spring water. I also added bacteria-starter a couple of times (initially & when I had to do a large waterchange at an ammonia spike during the early cycling). fed fish flakes initially and switched to thawed blood worms at week-3 when it became clear the emaciated betta wouldn't eat flakes. After switching to blood worms, and adding more plants, the fish is eating and my tank cycle stabilized ... 8-9 weeks total. Now I bought another tank decoration and in 2 days the slim mold was back! ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED! (It's for my kids school science project)
I've never dealt with slime mold before, and only even seen it in one other tank, so I'm not sure what to tell you about it. Sorry.
Thanks for the videos. I've been at this about three months and in the last month and a half I went to live low tech plants. I was surprised that I was still struggling with nitrates. I'm still learning, but this helps. Thanks.
SIr you did say the best thing the more the plants grow more waste they pull as nutrient from the tank...Thanks never thought of that ever
Wish i would have seen this video 6-7weeks ago. lmao.. i set up a planted tank and have been putting all in one ferts in since day one. My plants were struggling so i bought a test. my nitrates were in the 200ppm range. Guess 20% water change a week and fert wasnt cutting it. I rinsed my filter in tank water and changed 30% water yesterday and 30% today. im down to 40ppm. I have red root floaters on the way and will do another 30% water change tomorrow. Guess i shouldnt fertilize until i get those nitrates used up or deminished... Im learning!!! thank you!
nitrates are absorbed by plant roots and are used to produce amino acids which are the basic building blocks for proteins.
Anaerobic bacteria...
great vid- your tanks really all look good :)
we recently found something that floored me- driftwood can spike ammonia/nitrite/nitrate. i'd had no clue.
we found some old store bought woods in a box and added it to established tanks. some rocks out to a new tank, added wood to these established ones. things seemed fine for a bit, once adjusted to the change the fish were enjoying things as far as we could see. i was looking forward to having something easier in there to attach plants to.
then fish started looking slightly off mid week and i tested the water- wow. no ammonia but suddenly i had nitrite in established tanks- what the? nitrate was skyrocketed in a way it hadn't before too. wracked my brain. only thing changed? the wood.
primed, added airstone, fish distress gone. okay. so we do some water changes and pulled the wood. dropped it in a bin of water. thinking i have to be wrong. rule it out.
so i re rinsed and re-soaked the wood in tap water. daily wood water changed for a week. only slight tannins. tested the water- woa.
tested the tap water, after using the prime to dechlor, and tested it again after 12, 24, 48 and 36 hours. nothing.
ran fresh water, and dechlor, and in went all those pieces of wood. holy smokes- at 12 hours i could register ammonia and nitrite and after 24 and 48 it was scary.
separated out the pieces. rinsed all again one by one, and gave each it's own bucket/container. dechlored water in. after 12, 24, 48 and 36hours, some were giving off ammonia, some nitrite, some both, some nitrate- some nothing!
SOME of this wood had been in tanks before being stored and some had been unused- but that didn't seem to matter. 2 new pieces did give off ammonia and nitrite and 3 did not, of used/stored ones, about half did and half didn't. 3 had been in the same old tank and 2 gave off everything- one did not! the ones giving off nothing are back in tanks and all seems well- and the plecos are happy. i don't keep wood eaters but these (common/bristlenose/gold spot) seem to like grazing wood a bit too. or the life on the wood. whatever. i want a bit in every tank! so i busted up some of the safe ones.
i'm pretty flabbergasted. we lucked out that the biofilters kept up with the ammonia the wood gave off, nitrite seems slower to convert for some reason, perhaps my water hardness? i have no clue. it makes sense that wood used in tanks could have absorbed some ammonia/nitrite in the past and especially nitrate, but the ones i never used? fish store bought? it really surprises me. it's something i never guessed at in the past and i wouldn't have figured out conclusively without actually testing the wood in pails of water just like i add to my tanks. no more spikes with only the pieces that didn't give off anything in pails in the tanks. kinda mad- some REALLY neat pieces here that i don't dare use.... maby summer outside and more soaks will clean them of it, we'll see.
thought you/your audience might like to know. i'll be testing all pieces i use from now on. i don't EVER want my fish to look off like that again!
Any organic matter, including wood and other vegetation, will produce ammonia as it decomposes.
i guess! seeing a nitrite spike like that from 'safe' driftwood though... :(
i'm going to try apple wood from my trees. i figure ~shrugs~ can't be TOO much worse than bought wood- if it's worse at all!
i guess i was taken by surprise- wood essentially adding to bioload? some pieces didn't give off a thing in the pails.
i'm sure our plecos eating it would be adding, that much we'd expect. the amount some of these gave off was terrifying- and all but one didn't seem to be breaking down, one we could rub some loose bits off of. some seemed totally solid, yet turned my test water so stinking green and purple!
i'm guessing amount vs water volume and filtration would need to possibly be taken into consideration?
you know Dan as a gardener who composts- i'm somewhat aware of decomp doing things, i just never noticed ammonia odor in say my compost pile- i suppose it must just be very little. it can smell, but not what i think of as ammonia.
another thing i find interesting- i know we're never to use softwoods in our tanks. yet for my rodents- ground up softwood pellets are exactly what is best to absorb ammonia. granted that's dry- but only till they urinate on it. it keeps absorbing ammonia till saturated. so i Kinda thought wood=ammonia absorbing? whoops? just so confused- especially about the pieces that were new buys. i do NOT panic about nitrate levels, but i don't want em sky high nor wood adding to bioload if i can avoid it. none of my plecos are the 'must have wood' types but we always noted they ALL enjoy scraping it and you can see by droppings color some goes through their digestive tract- the bristlenose, gold spot high fin, and both commons all have some 'driftwood droppings'. it was the first thing they went to when added to the tanks! like the pet store had 'deprived' them! :) ah fishkeeping, such an enjoyable art and science and yet sometimes a confusing worry!
Hi Dan, thank you for sharing this info. I am dealing with high nitrates in one of mine. I do weekly 30% water change. This week I have done a 10% daily water Change. I have changed the substrate a few weeks ago. So after watching this, I purchased a new bulb and a fast growing plant. All mine are slow growers ( which grow alot actually). So I hope this helps. Any more advice you can give will be appreciated. Thanks 😊
Suddenly I’m more confused about how your Serpae tetras aren’t nipping at your angels. Beautiful tank!
Am I supposed to turn off my filter when I do my water change? I'm still trying to get my tank to cycle. My ammonia is always @ .25 never .0 should I change the water at that level? Thanks for your help
You don't have to turn your filter off. And your ammonia should be at zero. if it's a newer tank, you may have to wait til it finishes cycling. I'd do a water change if the ammonia gets to .25 if I were you.
why isn't Nitrate vials and nitrite sold separate in stores for refills in API tests?
Just the vials? Here's a link to replacement vials, or you can just buy any 5ml bottle. amzn.to/2rYfoRr
for 15inLenghtX12in Height X10in width how much light should i use to contol other parameters in my walstad method tank....including algae tobe control
what is your biggest tank and whats your smallest and how many tanks do you have
My 130 liter mainly has anubias and some hygrophilia. I struggle keeping nitrate and phosphate up. My light is finnex 24x7 v2. My nitrate is always virtually 0. I been dosing soo much nitrate atm 1ppm a day and its still 0. Gr lol
Nice discussion Dan.
Hey Dan My Nitrates Have been high have been doing weekly water changes and more, cleaned my FX4 filter for a 90 gallon tank but still Nitrates about 60plus ,I do use thrive plant food 3 times a week can that make the Nitrates go up all my other parameters are fine, my plants are slow growing also low tech tank I use LED lights
Excellent explanation sir.
Thank you 👍
Whoooaa, what is that fish eating algae off the leaf on the right at 1:38
Trioptic Blaze Chinese Algae Eater. (CAE)
Dan Hiteshew - thanks 😊
Trioptic Blaze u
I hardly ever get nitrates in my 450 litres tank. I don't have CO2 but I have good lightning, some fertilization and plenty of fast growing plants, namely Vallisneria, Dwarf Ambulia and Duckweed. I do weekly water changes around 20-25% of total water though.
great video sir, i learnt a lot today, well explained ,regards from INDIA
Thanks for making this video. I was on the fence about adding Anubis and java fern to my tank for the benefits of having live plants. I know now it won't be that helpful. Sticking with silk plants.
whats the narrow fish with the stripped back?
Where can I purchase the temple plants
I've got one available now. danielhiteshew@gmail.com
Dan Hiteshew I would be interested in buying one, do you ship to TN
@@chrisscruggs4293 Yes, email me. danielhiteshew@gmail.com
Quick question... I have a fresh water tank for which I never bought a light. It gets its light from a nearby window, but my window panes block UV light, as far as I know. Do plants need UV or just light from a closed window is fine? The plant has been alive 3 years or more, but I don't know if I stunted its growth, etc. It's a small tank (20 gallons) and I only added a plant (java fern) just to give it some ambiance.
No, I've had java in tanks for years without any source of UV. It's fine.
Any website you suggest to read up and learn how to balance light co2 and nutrition for the plants?
Nor off the top of my head. Sorry.
Have a read of Diana Walstad's Ecology of the Planted Aquarium. It's very informative and interesting on the allelopathy between plants in an aquarium. I was having problems with certain plants "melting" and dying off in my tank. She certainly helped me think more about how different variables in tank affect each other and how to spot warning signs earlier on than I would have in the past. She gets a 5 out of 5 from me!
Great! Thank you very much for explaining it so well.
I subbed, and I'm buying my first tank tomorrow, 65G. I'll be commenting often going forward.
I'd like to focus on the Fish that I catch from my local lakes, but I'd like to know about water lillies.
Thanks for this, the correlation between light intensity and nitrate uptake never occurred to me. If I get a stronger light and there is not other plant “food” missing I might be able to lower my nitrates. That’s worth investigating further, thanks again!
Awsome tanks brother !
Very nice greens
what is the name of that beautiful fish in the middle of your tank at the 3:13 sec mark, i could use a fish like that :)
The little one near the bottom is a Crenicicla compressiceps (dwarf pike cichlid)
thank you, i have special ordered these through my local pet store, you rock!
Hi Dan, Thank for the beautiful explanation. Can I bother you with a quick question, I just check my tank where in i did a water change this weekend almost 50% as i was bringing new fish. My Ammonia is 0 and Nitrite is 0, but Nitrate came close to 80ppm it an 10 Gallon Tank. should i do a small water change and control feeding my parrot fish?
A Parrot fish in a ten gallon? I assume its a baby.
Check your tap (source) water to see if it has nitrates first. If not, then feed less and do more frequent, med/small water changes.
This is the best video I seen
great video. that's why you need to do water changes, since plants consume ammonia first, water changes will drop the nitrite and nitrates, as well as dropping ammonia
Is this MrMomsFishtanks or jFlesh aquariums?
I've been trying Lower my Phosphates 10 & Nitrates they are 160 but nothing seems to lower them. Thank is 65 gal, heavily, healthy planted fish tank. Every body is happen. I have no problems except the dreaded BBA on tubing and ornaments and plants. I add Fertilizer after a 10-14 days water change of 25% . I'm trying to keep that down and much as I can do. I keep the plants trimmed and clear. So in your opinion do you think I should stop fertilizer for a while and only add trace elements? I have three light fixtures all LED they are run at different times & intensity through out the 9 hr. day. Matching that with my pressurized CO2. My tank is 15 years old. Renovated 3 yrs ago.
Since you inject CO2, I'm not sure about the ferts. The CO2 will make them grow fast, so they may need the food. I'd try stopping or cutting back for a while and seeing what happens. How heavily stocked is the tank? That sounds like a lot of nitrates for a planted tank with CO2.
Have you try plant called cabomba ? , Its low light fast growing plant
I never had any luck with it, but I do like it.
@@DanHiteshew-oneandonly i use it on my betta fish tank, its helpfull for betta breeding proses
Amonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 3-5, ph 7.4 , plants going brown, low tech tank. Started king brit plant food, they are recovering well, seems if constant supply of trace elements aren't there, the plans use internal resources and once depleted, they start to die. duly noted, some pet shops buy in plants, they look good for a few weeks but the damage has been done . Am I correct? 55 gallon tank looks a mess now. No C02 plant food is vital not carbo stuff.
I never use any foods or ferts or anything.
Exactly try keeping your nitrates ano lower then , 20 to 25 PPM... Small water change
Hey buddy, I kept changing my water and had super low ph, for months, now I'm adding backing soda, low cheaper than oh up n easy to use, half a tea spoon for 10 gallons of water, I have pathos plants, spider plant n a peacelilly on top wit a grow light they suck the extra nitrate us or 8 ft long, I have a lot of Corry fish, they had babies, the bottom says clean. How long r your lights on have it super brute 8 hours n lite for 6 ?
I usually keep my tanks on a 12/12 cycle
Beautiful tank u got there..
Hey thanks for a great video discussion. What are the red fish in with the Angels?
Those are Serpae (Red Minor) Tetras.
Any recommendations for fast growing, easy plants?
I sell Java Fern and Water Sprite. water Sprite grows fast. danielhiteshew@gmail.com
what makes you think nitrate turn back into ammonia iv never heard that befor don't think that ill happen unless you know something I dont
do fishes provide nitrates to plants?
what algae eater would you recommend with Angelfish?
Otocinclus or Rubber Lip Plecos. They both do a great job.
Dan Hiteshew I was thinking otos are perfect because they don't get too big. Then I read that some angelfish have died trying to eat them because of their spine
***** I suppose it's a possibility, but I wouldn't worry too much.
sorry for being newbee, so what levels of nitrate and phosphate should I target on low tech, led custom built fixture, 150g, moderately stocked. I been dosing micro and macro and find nitrates over 80ppm and phosphates 3ppm. thanks
I'd try to keep them a little lower. Phosphates don't matter as much.
Try to keep your nitrates below 50, but don't worry too much if they climb a little between water changes.
What kind of lights are you running?
I'm not sure. Probably a shop light, but I don't remember if it's LED or fluorescent in this video.
As always so informative.The tank looks great since you added the Java fern. I can't believe how big that CAE got. It seems like he got big rather fast. How big is he? Is he done growing? So a question about plants. What kind of plant grows faster than the Anubis and the Java fern but doesn't require really expensive lighting?
Jessica Cammarata java moss i believe
Temple Plant, Water Sprite, or Water Wisteria are all good. Java moss is good too.
It's about 7 inches and it's growth has slowed, but fish are "indeterminate growers" so it's never stop completely. They can get up to 11 inches, but I don't think it'll get that big. It went from tiny to about 5 inches in the first year or so. It's about 4 y/o now.
Dan Hiteshew So only 2 inches in 3 yrs? Wow that's slow!
Toguro Thanks!
The older a fish gets, the slower it grows. It won't get much bigger than this over the next several years.
How long do you keep your lights on?
Usually I do 12 on 12 off.
This has been my experience as well. Ton of plants. No ammonia or nitrite ever. Because sump and plants. Nitrates stay non 0. If I use an all in one fert, nitrates go up and stay up. Time to learn ei.
Beautiful tank, great info.
Hey Dan, ive had my figure 8 puffer for a week and he is doing great, but im having an extemely hard time trying to get him to eat snails, any ideas to try to get him to eat them, they are ramshorn snails, and they around about the size of his eye
Maybe let it get a little hungry and it'll eat them. Butterbean is picky too. He'll turn his nose up at snails sometimes, hoping for something better. lol
He eats them eventually if he doesn't get any shrimp.
how long do i leave the snails in the tank before taking them out since they are alive and all
Excellent video. 👍📺😎
a question, if you have lots of slow growing plants could you supplement by adding floating plants or letting pothos grow in the tank? Would that help control nitrates? Or would the Pothos outcompete all the submerged plants?
Super late response but may help others; my local fish store has an unimaginably thick forest of pothos growing over 3 large walls of fish tanks, but they still have plants like Val, wisterai, anubias, so on...growing just as thick!
The key is to control the nasties through different layers of the water column, photos would basically take care of the top layer of tank.
Hummmm. Liked your video. You very clear and understandable. Makes it easy to listen to and apply. I have a 75g planted high tech. Lots of lights, lots of plants, medium bio load. In recent days I have experienced an increase in nitrates. I got up to 80 ppm. Did a huge water change (40g) and lowered it to 40ppm. I also saw your video on phosphates. Mine is off the scale. Was 10. after the water change down to 5. For over a year I ran at nearly no nitrates and very low phosphates. Was wondering what may have happened? Why the increase in a few short weeks? I do 20 to 25 gallon water changes once a week. I try not to over feed and stopped using frozen foods. What are your thoughts?
Very informative thank you
Great vid! How many fish and what type do you have in your Angel tank 55gallon? Just trying to get a rough idea how many I can put in my 55gallon. Thanks.
I have no idea what was in there in the video, but as of now, I've got a Angelfish, A pleco (about 8 inches) about a dozen diamond Tetras, a few Hatchetfish, and a Synodontis Lucipinnis.
It is always worth checking the nitrate level of your tap water if you're declorinating it and using it for water changes in your aquarium...
My tapwater has about 20mg/l nitrate... so if my aquarium has 50mg/l nitrate and I want to get it down to 25mg/l... a 50% water change would not be anywhere near enough!
A long, long time ago, when I started in this hobby, I was frustrated because a 30% water change wasn't making any difference at all to the aquarium nitrate levels! It wasn't until I eventually thought to test the tapwater and realised how high the tapwater nitrate levels were - meaning 30% water changes were useless in reducing an aquarium's nitrate level.
The 'legally acceptable' nitrate levels in drinking water vary a lot from country to country: the EU and UK acceptable levels are 50mg/l - I believe that in the USA, acceptable levels may be much lower: as low as 5 mg.
A lot of literature quotes 10mg/l nitrate as the maximum safe limit for human consumption - making my tapwater unsafe to drink 😬 (and using a domestic water filter DOESN'T remove nitrate - you need something like a Reverse Osmosis system)!
So... don't only test your aquarium water... test your tapwater as well! It may explain why your aquarium nitrate levels remain high, despite regular maintenance.
concept nicely explained
Rapid growth, GOT IT!!!
Great Video
No wonder every planted tank I have done had died haha I just don't have a clue about any of this so thanks for lesson 🤗
Very informative thanks!!
I have my stock little led light strip and feed 4-5 times daily ( guppy’s ) my nitrates are zero if I don’t add fertilizers. I’d say it all depends on the tank and what plants you have
Your tanks are beautiful and so are the fish! I am interested to know why you do not use ferts? I consider my humble 46gal to be low tech, as well; no CO2, Eco-Complete substrate, Finnex 24/7 Planted LED. All pretty basic. But I love my ferts! Plants are healthier, fuller and my red plants are red. I see strong sturdy growth in all the different species and I do not get algae, either. My fish are healthy and long lived; and seemingly content. The only con I can fathom is the cost. Do you have another reason for not using ferts, or can you refer me to video that you have discussed this topic in? Thank you!
Great content and info! Man I had to do a double take on that alage eater, it's huge lol.
Lol Everyone says that. He's a beast, sure enough.
Thanks Dan awesome video (great explanation!) After a 15 year break from fish tanks my building ponds for people and myself I wanted to ask you what's your thoughts on adding salt to your tank? I'm starting up a couple new tanks and know that adding salt helps the fish when they're sick or stressed is a good thing, BUT.in my ponds over the years anytime I added salt to help the fish it seemed to hurt the plants and stop them from blooming how much is too much salt in an aquarium if I want to keep a lot of plants or do I want to stay away from salt all together? Thanks again for what you do and the awesome video 👊
The rule of thumb for salting an aquarium (NaCl) is one teaspoon per gallon. (most fish can tolerate much more than that, but even very softwater fish can stand 1 tsp/gl)
As far as plants go, they should be able to handle 1tsp/gl too. How much were you salting the ponds? Plants don't do well in hard water or pH over 7.6.
Thank you for the quick reply sir 👊 as per the instructions on the bag when I added salt to my ponds. I could have possibly had a salt built up due to the fact in my ponds I'd rarely do water changes and just let mother nature/rain do its thing. Living outside of Nashville TN, we get ample rain.
But it always seemed after I added the salt it stunted plant growth and killed the algae blooms we get every spring as it heats up. So if I'm hearing you correctly? Going by the instructions on the aquarium salt box, it should not stunt the growth of my plants? (As long as I keep the pH Down?) Thanks in advance for all you do! and your help in the matter.
@@RcOutreach Yeah, I don't see why a little bit of salt like that would matter at all.
@@DanHiteshew-oneandonly thank you sir and for all you do 👊
@@RcOutreach Happy to help.
Great explanation and good video as well I guess I am not a fan of youtuber keep showing their face in front of camera and try to explain abunch of stuff .
I rather look at the tank and what's being work on .
So yeah this is just my kind of video
I broke through to zero nitrates with dosing fertilizer, CO2 and having giant Amazon swords and water sprite in my 200 gallon. I have to trim back the swords and water sprite at least every two weeks and fill a medium size bucket with trimmings.
I know water sprite grows like a weed, but that's great to hear swords growing like that. wow.
Nice
good information to the point nice job
Thanks!
thank you
Well said
AND THATS WHY A WEEKLY WATER CHANGE IS IMPORTANT 🙃👍🏻
Well said.
A dirty sand/substrate bed will help the plants grow, but also release tons of nitrate
Everything I have read and learned about the 'nitrogen cycle' over more than 3 decades says that ammonia is produced in the tank from decaying fish waste, uneaten food, decaying plant material etc. Two types of bacteria colonise the filter - the first converts the ammonia to nitrite and the second then convert the nitrite to nitrate. Nitrates are then used by the plants as food or alternatively they have to be removed by water changes. You seem to be suggesting that plants in some way convert the nitrates back into ammonia. I have never heard of this and surely if that were the case nobody would put plants in their tanks since it would be counterproductive and rather than get rid of nitrates would actually increase the ammonia level, the very thing you are trying to eliminate in the first instance..
The plants don't release the ammonia back into the water. They use the ammonia as "building blocks".
So they have to break down the nitrates into nitrites, then the nitrates into ammonia in order to "digest" it?
andy stokes exactly. I thought the same thing. Plants DO NOT convert nitrate back into ammonia. It's called a cycle for a reason and it never just suddenly stops and goes back in reverse. Nitrate either stays a nitrate, or it becomes nitrogen. It's this kind of misinformation, presented as fact that causes people to make poor decisions with fish keeping, and then wonder what went wrong.
Living, growing plants doesn't produce ammonia.
Plants that is eaten by fishes and decaying plant material produce ammonia.
I don't know if that's what is refered to in the video.
It's the only thing I can think of that make sense.
Plants utilise ammonium as their favoured food source primarily via leaf uptake. They do not utilise nitrate as its a costly energy sapping process for them to convert it back to ammonium within the leaves, unless forced to. I have found this out by reading articles written by those who have carried out scientific studies into the subject.
Hi Dan
If your nitrates are high in a planted tank it can be because your tap water contains nitrates. Nitrates are a by-product of the breakdown of ammonia and nitrite, and you should not be concerned by high nitrates. Companies have made people in the hobby scared of nitrates so they can sell them 'nitrate lowering' products. Don't fall for it. The longer I am in this hobby, the less products I buy, because I realise I don't require them.
If you use Biohome Ultra media, that sorts the Nitrates also to get a full cycle.. had it for 2+yrs now ... all good
You're not just a fish keeper you are a blOOdy scientist!!! LOL Years ago I kept 3 gold fish and a "be-whiskered" loach in quite a big tank...NO heaters, NO plants, (only plastic ones) NO light and just a filter running. They swam for the best part of 14 years. We knew nothing about nitrites, nitrates and ammonia, we just did a full tank clean up once a month.
How times and chemistry knowledge has changed.
Try Duckweed