Do plants really help with ammonia and nitrite problems?

I planted my 55 gallon tank with a live plant. I have a 12 inch catfish in there. How much will the plant affect his ammonia and nitrite levels?

Do plants really help with ammonia and nitrite problems?
If there are enough plants then yes it can help but in a cycled tank you shouldn't have any ammonia or nitrite, the plants will also use up some nitrate which you will have in a cycled tank.
Reply:Plants do not help with Ammonia or Nitrite, but they do help with NitrAte. Do not count on plants to help cycle your tank, but once the cycle is set, the plants will help keep nitrate down and reduce the frequency of water changes you need to do. We do partial water changes because that's how we keep nitrate below toxic levels.



With enough plants, one CAN establish a complete biosystem, but supporting that much plant life in a contained system is a project in itself.



For info on planted tanks, see http://www.plantedtank.net/
Reply:nitrate yes it will help keep the levels down but you should also keep up your water changes to insure that they will stay down
Reply:yes but they can because when you buy them from the store the plants are covered in beneficial bacteria if they were submerged in water already. prepackaged live plants may not have any bacteria on them. Also live plants can cause green algae out breaks if you put too many plants in your tank. But you really do need a bigger tank like a hundred gallon and a canister filter because hang on filters can only do so much.
Reply:a bit over time... it's a tricky balance. ammonia and nitrite/nitrate are part of the plant's food. It depends on the plant on how much food it consumes. A fast growing plant will eat a lot, a slow growing plant, not so much.
Reply:Plants will consume ammonia if available, nitrite to a lesser extent. Nitrate however is what we like to feed our plants because in a properly setup and cycled tank we should not have any kind of measurable ammonia or nitrite. In a densly planted tank it can make a difference, but you mentioned "a" plant which leads me to think this is far from a densly planted tank.



That said, you need to rely on biological filtration to deal with ammonia and nitrite, nothing else. If the tank is not new then you are either overstocked/overfeeding or underfiltered. With a foot long catfish I would think nothing less than a good sized canister filter would suffice. Something with at least a gallon of media volume.



In the immediate timeframe, many frequent water changes will bring the levels back to a safe range. Eventually, you should really consider upgrading the tank for such a fish... but a large capacity canister will certainly deal with the ammonia and nitrite, you will just need to keep up with water changes in order to control nitrate levels.



Hope that helps
Reply:yeah they kill other germs that can effect the fish
Reply:Yes plants will help assuming the plants are healthy but really the amount of help they will provide is not going to be that significant. If you have just one plant you are unlikely to notice any different. Having even a heavily planted tank doesnt take the place of regular water changes and testing.

Decomposing plants/leaves can actually be a source of ammonia and can make things worse.
Reply:One plant will probably not be that significant in a 55 gallon aquarium. It also depends on the plant too. Hornwort has been shown to remove ammonia, and nitrates (and is one of the more effective plants for this).

Not all plants will assimilate ammonia, but most will assimilate nitrates, although sometimes indirectly with a symbiotic relationship form bacteria growing around the plant roots.

This is why a good sand and/or laterite mixture is important around the plant roots (it needs not cover the whole substrate of your aquarium)

With a healthy plant growth in a moderately to heavily planted aquarium it is possible in theory to have very low ammonia and Nitrates with little bio filtration. Of coarse usually the bio bacteria (nitrifying) will follow. I also recommend adding plants slowly in your aquarium to allow an established nitrifying bacterial colony to form.

Another note here is that an un-healthy plant population can cause decay and add to ammonia levels. This why good lighting (6500 K) and proper nutrients from CO2, Nitrates, Carbon, and some Iron are important. Products such as Sea Chem Excel can help here or you can even powder a product called Ammo Carb and add small amounts of this dust using your finger tips near your plants.



For more information about the nitrogen cycle, please see this article:

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/...



And for more information about plants in aquariums, please see this article:

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/...