happysnapper 454 Posted March 27, 2018 I’m mostly asking for reassurance that what I think is happening is happening lol. Stocked my new patio pond (35g) on Friday with two fish. I have three creeping Jenny plants, a few stems of hornwort mostly for them to munch, and a pothos with roots submerged. My water comes out of the tap with 1ppm ammonia. I set up a sponge filter with media from an established tank (have since added an Aquascape underwater filter). Saturday morning: Ammonia: 1 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate:0 Fed pellets 2x Sunday morning: Ammonia: 0.5 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 0 Fed pellets 1x and zucchini noodles 1x Today: Ammonia: 0.25 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 0 Fed pellets 1x Are the plants taking up all the nitrate before it shows on my test? Or do they suck up ammonia too? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tithra 4,917 Posted March 27, 2018 Most plants actually prefer ammonia/ammonium over nitrates, so yes, if you have enough plants they could certainly be helping to reduce that. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shakaho 6,312 Posted March 27, 2018 Did you put the water with 1 ppm ammonia into the fish pond? Do you use Seachem Prime daily to Protect the fish from ammonia? While aquatic plants do use ammonia, you don't have many plants in there. Hornwort can consume a lot of ammonia if you have a lot of hornwort. Do your fish actually eat it? Mine won't. Your sponge filter doesn't appear to have enough nitrifiers to handle the ammonia since you don't see any nitrite or nitrate. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
happysnapper 454 Posted March 27, 2018 Yes, I dose with Prime when I see ammonia. Today’s test is 0, 0, 0. I have never seen ammonia levels drop without seeing nitrate before. I’m confused. There isn’t much hornwort, no. One of them eats it. Also saw her nibbling the creeping Jenny. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shakaho 6,312 Posted March 27, 2018 Your filter nitrifiers may produce some nitrate and the pothos (a land plant that uses nitrate) may just gobble it all up. I don't know your water change schedule, but with ammonia in your tap water, you should consider small frequent water changes so that you never have much ammonia in the tank. Changing 10% of the water daily maintains the average water quality as well as a 50% weekly water change, and you never have more than 0.1 ppm ammonia, which should be gone in a few hours. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
happysnapper 454 Posted March 27, 2018 I usually do about 75% weekly in my tank and double dose the Prime. The ammonia is gone by the next day. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
happysnapper 454 Posted March 27, 2018 In the pond I haven’t had it long enough to develop a schedule but is there any reason I should change it if there’s no/low nitrate? I was going to give it a top off today. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites