The great importance of nitrate in the aquarium is arguably less perceived by fish keepers than the effect of ammonia and others in general. Even though nitrate is not as directly toxic as ammonia, from time to time, high levels of nitrate detrimentally have a great impact on fish and the aquarium environment on the whole. If this ion is that dangerous, how can you scientifically reduce it? Actually, you are technically capable of reducing the content of nitrates in water by applying plants. There are the top 5 of the best aquarium plants reduce nitrates that basically can assist you with the nitrate reduction as much as expected.
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Top 5 Best Aquarium Plants Reduce Nitrates For Your Need
Top 1 – Greenpro | Water Wisteria Green
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Plus points:
- Aquarium plants package: Those are prevalent plants used in the back or midground in aquaria with a slow growth rate and no hard effort needed to sustain as well for those who love plants inside your tank.
- Excellent hiding place: Just picture this, a set of live plants can literally provide a safe place for your aquarium pets and make them far more comfortable. When you were small, you actually still loved the “hide and seek” game, right? If so, there is no reason why your little fish don’t like it, too.
- High-quality: The manufacturer is probably the best middleman with transcendent plants from Greenpro, but that is not enough. After being professionally inspected, packed, and organized with compatible boxes for all conditions related to weather, you can be sure that those will retain the freshness when it gets to your aquarium.
- Healthy environment: It is obvious that aquatic plants produce oxygen and absorb CO2 with the purpose of enhancing water quality as scientifically demonstrated, thus, this product, by adding live plants, helps your natural ecosystem in the aquarium to be healthily beneficial.
Minus point:
- Just a word of warning the stems of your plants, those are very brittle and easy to break off so you should take care in handling them.
Top 2 – The Sun Ave Bacopa Monnieri Moneywort
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Plus points:
- Great size: You can save money for the further purchases for the reason that there will be from 7 to 8 stems per plug or pack, in the meanwhile, each stem is more than 4 inches, giving you a sense of relief in terms of both finance and quality at the same time.
- Healthy condition: There is sometimes a mistaken assumption that live stems in aquariums are nowhere to be found, but this brand can ensure the freshness of live plants with healthy strong roots as well, which may surprise you a lot.
- Easy grow: As strong as described, some plants may still be dead when submerged deeply into the water, but don’t worry about the prominent quality of this supplier, I guess the gradual growth of those will stimulate your youthful enthusiasm.
- Easy care: If you are not into substrate, light, or supplemental nutrients, you perhaps like those plants because none of them are required.
Minus point:
- The plants are much bigger than being advertised online, so this may cause a bit of inconvenience for you if your aquarium is small-sized.
Top 3 – 1000 Live Duckweed Plants LEMNA Minor
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Plus points:
- Must-have: Even if those plants are not for human consumption, it is still required to be as healthy as possible for the aquatic environment of your fish. Furthermore, with long roots and no pests, snails, and of course no pesticides as well, your aquarium is really protected at any rate.
- Water-clean: Don’t sacrifice the quality of your experience for the quality of water, as this product will never require you to do that. Water will always be fresh even when plants are put inside. Just chill out with your fish all the time practical.
- Satisfaction guaranteed: “Once bought, don’t return” – a catchphrase that has been a cliche. But in the market, even if you have bought, if there is any problem associated with the manufacturing process or delivery, you can still actually send it back and request for a replacement, if your explanation is practically plausible.
Minus point:
- Many reports indicate that the delivery still leaves a lot to be desired as loads of packages seem to have leaked or been out of date when arriving.
Top 4 – Greenpro Brazilian Pennywort
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Plus points:
- Live aquatic plants: A wide range of use that you can think of, from the foreground, the midground to the background, when it comes to this product. New stems can be easily trimmed anywhere enabling the plant to grow thicker and give a more decent look.
- Easy to begin: On account of their strength and hardiness, this would be an amazing choice for those who are not really skillful in taking care, making it a lot easier than expected.
- Healthy environment: The water quality of your aquarium community will be enhanced a whole lot thanks to oxygen production and CO2 absorption simultaneously.
- 100% warranty: On the basis of cutting-edge technology and digital controlled nursery, the brand is confident claiming that their plants are 100% disease-free, so users can be 100% free from worries also.
Minus point:
- After several days of use, some leaves may strip off pretty soon, due to no plant additives added for the sake of naturality.
Top 5 – Amazon Frogbit (Limnobium Laevigatum)
[sc name=”amz” asin=”B018YG764Y” ]
Plus points:
- Symmetrical: Each order contains 12 plants, this makes it enough to cover a 4-4 surface and gives a symmetrical look to your aquarium if you know how to take advantage of it.
- Healthy: This supplement can remove undesired and toxic inorganic nutrients for the best living environment that your little fish would fancy most.
Minus point:
- Everything appears to be perfect aside from the shipping company associating with this brand, its delivery does not deserve what you pay for and may ruin the freshness of those plants sometimes.
How to choose a best aquarium plants reduce nitrates ?
There are several types of plants that can help you to reduce nitrate content in your aquarium:
Duckweed:
Undoubtedly, duckweed is one of the best plants for making use of and absorbing nitrates in the water among those. This thing is like tons of miniature Lily pads that are beautifully connected together. It’s a perfect option for a tank that has some floating plants and for fish that like having some cover or shade in the aquarium.
Regarding using and absorbing nitrates, duckweed is absolutely a good choice. It is actually fast-growing and it multiplies in no time, and hence it has a tendency to eat up a lot of ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates also.
What is convenient about duckweed is perhaps that it is easy to grow without much effort or taking care. As far as the water is fairly clean, it is inclusive of some nutrients, and you provide it with some light, duckweed will grow like weeds. As far as we all know, it is one of the best natural water filters that are available, and it looks nice as well.
Bear in mind that this stuff grows fairly fast, so one minus point might be that you have to trim it quite frequently to keep it from overtaking the tank. Nonetheless, other than that, there are no real issues that you will encounter with duckweed, maybe apart from the fact that fish like to eat it sometimes.
Frogbit:
Frogbit looks like the duckweed somehow, being the first plant for nitrate reduction that you looked at. They basically feature rounded green leaves floating on top of the water all the time. This does grow fairly fast, which again can be both pros and cons. On the one hand, you will have to trim it fairly often to stop it from overtaking the tank. Letting this stuff grow too much can lead to way too much cover that blocks loads of light from getting into the tank. Nevertheless, the fast growth of it helps make it a good aquarium filtration plant for sure. It absorbs a lot of ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates from the aquarium, which is of course what you are going for here and me as an instructor as well.
Best Aquarium Plants Reduce Nitrates FAQs
Are there any other ways to reduce nitrates aside from using plants?
- Keep the aquarium clean: Waste actually produces nitrate; cleaner aquariums produce less nitrate that needs to be pulled out by water changes.
- Feeding amounts: Overfeeding is a primary contributor to making nitrate and other undesirable wastes, like phosphate excessive.
- Water changes: Doing regular water changes with water that has little or no nitrate will significantly reduce the overall nitrate level in the aquarium as sure as hell. If your local tap or well water is a little high in this kind of content, using deionized water or reverse osmosis water helps keep nitrate levels low when you are performing a water change. Nonetheless, because these are empty from minerals, the hardness, alkalinity, and pH of the water can turn too low and mineral supplements may have to be added instead. Mix your nitrate-containing tap water with those aforesaid types of water to make a blend with the correct water parameters before the reduction process.
Where does nitrate hail from?
Nitrate is obviously a waste of nitrite oxidation within the latter stages of the nitrogen cycle and it is visible to some degree in all aquariums. Detritus, decaying plant material, or dirty filters, or even over-feeding all greatly contribute to the higher levels of nitrate involved.
In addition, tap water that is normally used to fill the aquarium may contain nitrate as well. In the US, drinking water may contain nitrates with 40 parts per million (ppm). Prior to adding water to your aquarium, test it for nitrate to check if the levels are unusually high in your water source or not. If your baseline nitrate is higher than 10 ppm, take other water sources into account that are nitrate-free.
What are the adverse effects of nitrate on fish?
Fish will sense the influence of nitrate by the time levels actually reach 100 ppm, specifically if those levels persist. The resulting stress causes fish to be more susceptible to disease and inhibits their capability to reproduce.
High nitrate levels are extremely harmful to fry and young fish and will detrimentally affect their growth. What is more, the same conditions that lead to elevated nitrate often cause decreased oxygen levels, meaning fish will be further stressed out.