Nitrates are back!!

[esoxlucius]

I haven't had nitrate in my hex tank for months and months now. The simple reason being is I let the algae do its own thing on the three back sides of the tank, I only clean the three front sides for viewing purposes. I have also had salvinia in there which aids nitrate absorption too.

A few weeks ago however I put in a small clump of frogbit and as you can see from the pic below it has taken off considerably, not only out competing my salvinia (which you can see to the left of the picture) but also, more importantly has blocked out the light and my algae has decreased greatly.

I decided to do a nitrate test just to see if there had been a swing in parameters, and I am surprised to say there has been a huge swing, see pic below. My nitrate has always been bright yellow 0ppm in this tank, and now look at it!!!

This proves one thing to me, and it is a little unexpected. It tells me that plants may be good for sucking up nitrate, but the king of nitrate absorption is the much maligned algae. The general consensus in the hobby is that plants are good, nice to look at, and that algae is an eyesore which needs eliminating.

One thing's for sure. I will be changing things around a little bit in this tank so I get my algae back.

 

[troublesum]

I'm partially blind but does that say 80 PPM?

 

[esoxlucius]

I'm partially blind but does that say 80 PPM?

In the true light I read it as about 40ppm minimum. That is terrible for this tank. I have work to do!

 

[jjohnwm]

Esox, I am envious of that beautiful Frogbit. I've seen that stuff grow into lovely green floating carpets in the tanks and ponds of others, and when I finally managed to get some I introduced it into a couple of my outdoor stock tanks this summer, expecting it to grow like wildfire. Nope! It has reproduced a wee bit but the leaves turn yellow and brown faster than new ones appear. Huge let-down.

Yes, that looks like about 40ppm to my eye as well. Shame on you!