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Hi,

I have a small 3 gallon tank that I built and have had it running for a few months. Everything is stabilized, even though it is a little overstocked. I have several different types of plants in it; Bronze Wendii, Amazon Sword, Green Hedge, and something from a local pond. All of the plants are doing great, except when my mollies pick at the Wendii, then they devour the leaves completely and it takes a week or so to grow back. My question is this: I read someone's post a while ago mentioning something about plants 'taking care' of fish waste. Does this mean that plants help breakdown the waste completely so I won't have to clean the gravel as often? Or do the plants just take out certain nutrients from the waste and reintroduce them back to the water? Thanks for the help.

Scheibe

Hi
What plants do is absorb chemical waste in the water and use them as food and produce oxygen for water.
Have you heard of the nitrogen cycle?
When fish gives out nitrogenous waste, ammonia is present in their waste.
The ammonia is oxidised into nitrite by a kind of bacteria (Nitrosomonas sp).
And further the nitrite is converted into nitrate by another kind of bacteria (Nitrobacter).
Nitrate is absorbed by plants in your tank as food,
plants use this food for their growth.
Plants release oxygen into the water as the by product of photosynthesis.
And fish uses oxygen to live.

Yes I see. I guess to further clarify. Will the nitrogen cycle physically break down the waste as well? Or is the ammonia just sucked out?

Thanks for your reply.

i don't think it will actually physically break down the waste
ammonia is just the chemical present in the waste
it sort of dissolves into the water instead of being sucked out

Hi,
I THINK, what you are really asking is "Do I have to
vacuum out all the fish poop?" The answer is yes.
Once a week, you should vacuum the tank along with a
10% water change.

In a heavily planted tank, that is nearly impossible,
but you should at least wave the hose over the substrate
and clean up as much as you can. You are not going to
get it all, and if you don't disturb the substrate, then
the bacterial colonies will remain unharmed.

IF you have a tank modeled after the ones described in
the ECOLOGY of the PLANTED AQUARIUM, then you don't even
do that.

Frank


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