Tropical Fish Forums

[eazy]

I have a 120 gallon with 5 tinfoil barbs (range 3-7"), an albino oscar (5-6"), and a black shark (8-9"). I have two emporer 400s on the tank, and I've always seemed to have a nitrate problem. I heard plants could lower the nitrates, and I always liked the idea of floating plants in my tank. Would my fish eat them? If so, would they eat so much of the plants that it wouldn't even be worth buying them?
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120 Gallon Freshwater

[Josh Hansen]

Yes that is a great idea about the plants taking up nitrate but unfortuately your tinfoil barbs and the oscars will eat your plants. Another problem is the tank capacity is struggling with your fish species large sizes. You will always have a problem with nitrate while keeping fish in this tank. I would advise you need to upgrade to a larger fish tank or buy different fish species. Otherwise you have to do large frequent water changes to keep the nitrate levels down or low which will not be much fun.

from Josh

[eazy]

Bah, I know, it's such a shame. As my fish have grown I've taken out more and more fish and traded them in. What if I had 3 tinfoils, the oscar, and the black shark?
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120 Gallon Freshwater

[eazy]

What floating plants can live in lowlight aquariums?
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120 Gallon Freshwater

[susankatomerit]

You can try duckweed, water lettuce and hornwort, but as said the fish that you have will probably eat it. But with duckweed its cheap enough . You can throw some into a large tub with water movement and keep it growing and just throw it into the main tank every couple of days. I keep it in a couple of my fry tanks and killie tanks and throw out at least a couple of cups a week.

But I would have to agree with Josh, with the load that you have it would be best to do some large water changes weekly to keep the nitrates down..
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47 tanks and still adding!
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[eazy]

Would something like java moss work in my tank? (I know it isn't floating)

Would it grow fast enough to survive among my fish?
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120 Gallon Freshwater

[Josh Hansen]

Depends on the java moss amount and whether the java moss will absorb the nitrate at a decent uptake rate. Nitrate can cause major fish health problems such as fungal and tail rot disease when it reaches high levels. Nitrate when it reaches high level indicate high fish numbers or large sizes and waste build up in the water is beyond the fish tank capacity. I do not like my nitrate levels to go pass 20ppm

On the fish size of your tinfoil barbs and oscars will always provide a high nitrate load on your fish tank due to their massive size. You might like to read up on their full adult length as the nitrate levels will unfortuately in the future will become worst as the fish become larger. You will spend a lot of your time doing a lot of large water changes keeping the nitrate low.

from Josh

[susankatomerit]

[eazy]

What would you suggest I do,

would taking out 2 tinfoils make a difference?...

so it would be 3 tinfoils, 1 oscar, and 1 black shark
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120 Gallon Freshwater

[susankatomerit]