any good plants that take out nitrate that aren’t over the top?

[shern]

Greetings all, i’ve been a long time fan of duanes many plant powered zero nitrate tanks and though i would love to try them, i always run into a problem with space. this space isn’t in the tank but rather over the top. i keep many escapist fish and many jumpers so any open top seems to not be a good decisions, however i still enjoy the look and use of large plants in the aquarium. i currently only have valsneria and amazon sword but neither are especially effective as the tank is 250g. any other plants i could try?

 

[Jexnell]

Give the vals some time, proper light and you will have yourself a jungle.
I started with five vals
And six months later
And from top down
It got so bad I had to pull all plants, remove all non vals and replanted after removing about half the vals I had. Some were around size feet in length.
The mat under the plants is a shower curtain folded in half...
As mentioned some got over six foot in length and 1.5 inches in width.

I used Caribsea Planted plus substrate and Finnex Planted Plus 24/7 led light at factory settings.
Right after the replanting
And another 6 months later.

 

[shern]

i’ve trimmed off most of my val but even when my tank was a jungle i never saw too much of a change in nitrate, maybe i’m expecting too much out of the val or they aren’t as efficient in nitrate consumption. i had a first a couple months back and now i’d say i only have a 1/4 of the original max

 

[Jexnell]

The thing with plants eating nitrates. You need several times the weight of fish in plants for it to really give the effect you want.

 

[Jexnell]

With how overgrown my tank was there was a near zero reading in nitrates.

Tip: if you buy Caribsea planted plus substrate buy it local. Make sure the bags are still sealed with the fertilized fluid still present. Pour right into the tank no rinsing. I had a day or two of cloudy tank then it cleared up once settled. I did use some root tabs while I had Amazon Swords, no other ferts used beside the fish waste.

 

[shern]

With how overgrown my tank was there was a near zero reading in nitrates.

Tip: if you buy Caribsea planted plus substrate buy it local. Make sure the bags are still sealed with the fertilized fluid still present. Pour right into the tank no rinsing. I had a day or two of cloudy tank then it cleared up once settled. I did use some root tabs while I had Amazon Swords, no other ferts used beside the fish waste.

genius, my tank is all white sand though, a bit inert but I don't think ill ever change it. not too many plants do well in sand but I do use fert and root tabs to make up for it

 

[duanes]

As Jexnell wrote...... in order to make a sigificant dent in nitrate, it seems the plants need to out weigh the fish, by about 3 fold.
Although I have Dieffenbacia in the main tank, my sump is about 80% planted with Vallisneria, a couple water lilies, some salvinia floaters, and a couple mangrove trees.

below the mangrove tree section

a long shot of the 125 gal sump, as you can sort of see, the left darkened area, about 20%, of the sumps 6 ft length holds the pump., a couple small bags of ceramic media, and the Porrett foam dividing wall

Below the 180 gal main tank with cichlids, and overhanging dieffenbachia.

 

[duanes]

Before the sump was planted, it looked like this while being set up in 2020, with the porrett wall, 3 bags is media, and the pump.

 

[RyanScanner]

I’ve never seen any nitrate with every test and mine are only partially planted but I still do 50% WC per week

 

[RyanScanner]

Wisteria and hornwort grow almost in any conditions and propagate very easily. It’s a lot easier to establish the plants for 6 months before adding fish as I’ve learned the hard way with my 300g. Everything constantly uprooted everything so barely anything can get established. Even putting in a colony of neocaridina in the first 6 months to take care of the algae while your plants grow then remove or become a snack. But if it’s really well established with plenty of hiding places and the shrimp colony is booming might even get away with having both.