# Thinking about more plants



## hth313 (Sep 30, 2019)

I have a small Top Fin 5.5 gallon with too many fish and 3.5 plants. I am at two partial water changes a week to keep water parameters good.
(Nitrates goes up to slightly below 40 before a change, nitrites and ammonia are at zero).

I want to improve things by working on the eco system. One way is to get rid of some fish, and I may need to do that at some point. However, I am a bit reluctant to do that yet as many are growing frys and I like to see how they turn out.

As I am not allowed to get another tank and I cannot add fish (I do not want to remove some yet either), I have some constraints. What I can do is add more plants and to me adding more plants seems like a good idea if it helps with water parameters. My thinking is that this may reduce the nitrates so that I can cut back a bit on water changes. Doing it weekly would be more ideal as it is running a bit on the edge at the moment. It would also give me a project or purpose with this hobby, something to experiment with.

In that case I probably need to get a better light, as the one that came with the tank looks weak to me?

Does adding a bunch of additional plants sound like a good idea here, will it help?


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## TomC (Apr 21, 2010)

Try adding some duckweed. It grows quickly and shouldn't get out of control in a 5.5g. You can weed it out periodically, removing the soaked up waste.


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## Otocinclus (Aug 31, 2012)

Java moss is another one that is both good for the fry and good for water quality.


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## hth313 (Sep 30, 2019)

I do not need to protect the growing fry hide any longer, they are large enough. There are too many survivors anyway, which is why the tank is overstocked, lol.


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## `GhostDogg´ (Apr 22, 2010)

What fry are you raising?
You can use them as trade bait, & essentially solve your problem.


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## Marillion (Aug 6, 2019)

Sorry to say, while the plants may help a bit with the water parameters it will not be enough to reduce the two required water changes down to one. With a more heavily planted tank, there can also be more work with occasional trimming and removing dead leaves. In effect not really reducing your workload for the maintenance. But that shouldn't dissuade you from getting some more plants as on the whole, they would benefit your ecosystem.


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## hth313 (Sep 30, 2019)

I kind of suspected that it would not help all the way with plants. My worry is more the frequency in the water changes than the amount of maintenance.

The plants have started to spawn too, which is good. I think I will try to improve the light and practise more with plants in the coming months.

The growing fry are guppies, not that big demand for those I think. At least a local fish shop can accept the surplus, so I will probably hand them the majority later.

I am probably going to keep it a bit overstocked so that there are more fish to keep the amount of fry down (kind of sad state in some way). I do not mind some fry, but getting like 10 new ones every month is not really good for such a small system. The rest of the family do not like that they eat the babies. I can do the math and just look in a different direction.


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## TomC (Apr 21, 2010)

If you add something like a Betta, it will keep the fry in check. If the family objects, then tell them it's that or a bigger tank.


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## hth313 (Sep 30, 2019)

Well, I got right of 16 fish, so I went down to 12/13 in the 5.5 gallon tank. I also added some floating plant that once it got familiar with the environment took off and soon spread to cover all the surface. It has hanging roots so it looks quite interesting. I have to weed it out weekly to keep some open surface to feed the fish.

This has totally changed the balance for the better. Once that plant population got really going it more or less killed the algae problem (on other plants). I need to rub off some algae on the glass on a weekly basis, but it looks quite clean (relatively). I had a water test made yesterday after running 4 weeks without a water change, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates all read 0.

I think I will do a 30% water change anyway on a monthly basis, I just wonder how needed it really is?


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## Marillion (Aug 6, 2019)

Even with a lot of plants. Having 12/13 fish in that 5 Gallon will required some water changes. Having 0 nitrates after one month sounds a bit fishy to me...pun intended. Make sure your testing media is good. Ie. if you are using the API Master Test kit the Nitrate test bottles have to be shaken vigorously, as does the test tube you are mixing in. At various times. Make sure to follow testing directions whatever test kit you are using.


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## WilliamBowman (Jan 14, 2020)

You can use the SunGrow Luffy Aquarium Grass Seeds. Aquatic plants are not only good to see but also beneficial for your most cherished fish in the tank.


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## hth313 (Sep 30, 2019)

Marillion said:


> Even with a lot of plants. Having 12/13 fish in that 5 Gallon will required some water changes. Having 0 nitrates after one month sounds a bit fishy to me...pun intended. Make sure your testing media is good. Ie. if you are using the API Master Test kit the Nitrate test bottles have to be shaken vigorously, as does the test tube you are mixing in. At various times. Make sure to follow testing directions whatever test kit you are using.


I go to PetSmart and they use test sticks. As we had lots of fish in the past, I have done this quite frequently. Last month I went weekly to get a test done. It really reads very low. The fish seem healthy and are very active. If I get the opportunity I will try another shop at some point to compare.

There are probably some tolerances in the tests. It may not be 0, but it seems to be very low and it was not like that in the past, doing the same procedure.

It is really a jungle in the upper third of the tank. The stronger plants have multiple roots reaching down almost to the bottom. I suppose there may be other things in the water so it is probably be a good idea to make some water changes anyway.

I will keep monitoring and tending it and see how it goes. We have some more new fry now, probably 3-4 at the moment, including a street smart one that has survived for around 3 weeks.


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## Marillion (Aug 6, 2019)

It sounds like you have a really heavily planted so that will definitely help to keep water parameters in check. However, test sticks are not super accurate and I am not so certain Pet Smart would be a good source to rely on overmuch...of course there can be exceptions depending on who is working there. But ultimately, if your fish are healthy and spawning there can't be too much going wrong there!


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## WilliamBowman (Jan 14, 2020)

If you are wondering. Keep reading this article, it helps you know more benefits of aquatic plants. maybe it helps you!


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