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I checked the nitrates on my 55g tank, and they were high.

They were in the red zone, but i couldnt tell what exactly they were (somewhere between 20 and 60)

I have been doing water changes about 2 times a week, but they dont seem to be going down.

I have done about 4 water changes since then, i would think they would go down somewhat?

my Tap water are around 10ppm nitrates.



I am thinking of getting live plants, hornwort to be exact, but im not sure if my LFS will have it since it is a seasonal plant, and it should be availible in the next month or so.

If i get the hornwort, how fast will it suck up the nitrates? A week, a month, ect. Also, how much will i need in the tank (55g) to suck the nitrates up? I have heard that they will do fine in low light situations.

Since water changes dont seem to be working and if my LFS doesnt have plants, what else can I do to lower nitrates? Removing fish isnt really possible.

You must be using aquarium pharmaceuticals NO3 test. I had this same problem in reading that test, there is almost no difference in the color of red. My tap water is at about 7ppm and I ended up just going nuts with water changes for about a week straight until I was satisfied the Nitrates had gone down. Having readings of 20-60ppm is not that bad, some people would even say Nitrate up to 100ppm is alright for most fish. I would not let mine get that high, but its your own decision. Do some water changes, that'll help. I've never done live plants so i'm sure I am no help in that department. Good luck!

Hornwort is you best bet. If your LFS doesn't have any you could always offer to buy some from some of the members here on FP.

Most of us who have it, end up tossing some of it at one point or another.

The hornwort we have came from a 6 inch piece, that we had left after tossing all of it. It is a very fast grower.

It would cost almost nothing to send a small piece of it to you.

A large bunch of it, like what you would get from a LFS, would reduce your nitrates in a matter of weeks.

Hi,
Actually any of the floating plants from water lillies, to
hornwart, anacharis, etc, draw their nutrients directly
from the water and will make a definate difference in
the nitrate readings. Provide light for the plants, and
as the plants grow the nitrate levels will begin to drop.
By the way, one sprig won't do the trick, get a handful
toss it in, and then let it grow.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

As for your question how long will it take hornwort to lower your nitrates, in my experience it took a month to lower my nitrate in one of the tanks from 40ppm to 0ppm. This is in my hassle-free tank where I don't provide co2 or nutrients. I tossed it out because my other plants in that tank, which were doing well until then didn't like that and new leaves were yellow, something I am not happy with, of course.

Thanks.

hopefully my :FS gets some good hornwort in.

then we can go back to the regular water change schedule.

another thing...

the hornwort there was like starting to turn brown, and it was a light green, brownish color.

If i moved it to my tank, do you think it would flourish again? or would it just die?

My experience with hornwort was that it dramatically reduced my nitrates in a bit over 24 hours (40 to 20ppm).

Hornwort is also rather difficult to kill. I'd thought that I'd seen the last of it in my 30 months ago. Noticed it was growing again a few days ago. My advice is to get some and leave it floating, once you start trying to "plant" it you end up with broken pieces as it fights with the flow from the filter.

^_^
[hr width='40%']"I'm alright, I'm alright
It only hurts when I breathe"

Allright.

Maby i will get it for cheap since it is crappy.

Also, i have seen it planted, i thought it was rootless?

I'm having the same problem with my tank as victimizati0n. Sadly it's been this way for years. I've tried biozyme, freshwater salt, live plants, complete tank changes. I can't keep algae eaters alive. Older fish seemed okay so I just gave up for a while and decided to accept it, but the algae's starting to get out of hand now and I'd like to be able to have an algae eater again. Recently I tried a new filter since the old one was the one that came with the tank. And I've tried weekly changes. That didn't do anything.
Should I try the hornwort stuff?