Benefits Of Amazonian Frogbit. Cure For High Nitrates?

Finally having located the right plant, I have to write and say how pleased I am with the results.

Since I started keeping fish I have struggled with nitrates. My tap water nitrate is 40ppm and before a water change the nitrates are somewhere between 60-80ppm (its very hard to judge the colour).

I've tried numerous filter additives and mediums to address this and up till now they have all been less than satisfactory. HOWEVER I seem to have cracked it with the introduction of real amazonian frogbit. The shrimpery has got it growing on the surface and it's growing well AND it's reduced the nitrates in that tank.

As soon as it's grown enough side plants (although I might just buy more) I'm going to establish a colony of this plant in my 200l and see if they can fix the nitrate issue in there too. I'll grow it across the front of the tank as there are no plants there to shade.

Watch this space.....

I throw lots of this away so generally have some to spare.
There are two of my tanks where it won't grow because of the faster surface flow.
Root length is inversely proportional to nitrates, when there is plenty of nitrate the roots are short, but as nitrates reduce, the roots grow longer as the plant tries to take in more nutrients. They are useful indicators.
Of course, they do considerably reduce the amount of light reaching the plants below which might affect the growth of high light requiring plants.

I've got a few frogbit in some of my tanks, and I've noticed that it helps the nitrates. I have even seen test results from the puffer fish tank look more orange than the tap water "control" that I ran. For someone who had no experience with aquatic planting and had previously just gone as far as sticking 2 bunched plants in the sand, the frogbit on the top for the past month had given more orange in the nitrite results than the tap water control I ran, which showed a result of 40.
For me it only seems to make a difference in the puffer tank, which is fully stocked with fish that are very messy. The frogbit doesn't seem to make a difference in the tiger barb tank, which is <75% stocked.

I've got a few frogbit in some of my tanks

How many is a few Donna? It'll be interesting to make comparisons.

Well everything you have all said makes me even more interested in owning some of this.

I want to see how much difference it'll make to the 200l, mine is very understocked because of nitrate issues.

As a rough estimate, I certainly have less than 10 plants in each tank, so much less than 20% surface coverage. Probably closer to 10% coverage.

Dear All,
A few months ago I stumbled across a similar plant and I fully agree with Fiona they have really improved my water quality. My plant wasn't described as Frogbit but 'dwarf water lettuce' but it certainly looks similar to internet pictures of Frogbit.
I also have some numbers that can back up Fiona's view. A while ago I got fed up with water test colour charts and got a cheap build project colourmeter, so have a set of accurate and repeatable readings of NO3 both before and after the introduction (will post on this meter separately as it has improved my water test dramatically)
Before Water lettuce/Frogbit I had a INCREASE in NO3 between weekly water changes of 13.2ppm and afterwards this has reduced to 5.5ppm per week, the water is running at an average NO3 level of 12ppm in a heavily stocked community freshwater tank (I am a fish person with plants, not a plant person with fish)
I am now harvesting most weeks, I weighed the plants I removed once and got 80gm of plant (a lot!), so if anybody would like some just ask.
I have also attached a couple of pictures to show the roots and there is also an extreme macro shot showing the hairs on the leaf surface that make them float, theses are not visible to the eye, the leaf just looks waxy
Regards, Andy the minion

Hi Andy welcome to the forum 

I got 'dwarf water lettuce' although I'd purchased amazonian frogbit and I had real issues with growing it successfully.

The amazonian frogbit however grows really well, it's been in my 200l for a few days now, I just need it to spread a bit. It's good to know somebody else is getting good results with these nitrate eaters.

Dear All,
A few months ago I stumbled across a similar plant and I fully agree with Fiona they have really improved my water quality. My plant wasn't described as Frogbit but 'dwarf water lettuce' but it certainly looks similar to internet pictures of Frogbit.
I also have some numbers that can back up Fiona's view. A while ago I got fed up with water test colour charts and got a cheap build project colourmeter, so have a set of accurate and repeatable readings of NO3 both before and after the introduction (will post on this meter separately as it has improved my water test dramatically)
Before Water lettuce/Frogbit I had a INCREASE in NO3 between weekly water changes of 13.2ppm and afterwards this has reduced to 5.5ppm per week, the water is running at an average NO3 level of 12ppm in a heavily stocked community freshwater tank (I am a fish person with plants, not a plant person with fish)
I am now harvesting most weeks, I weighed the plants I removed once and got 80gm of plant (a lot!), so if anybody would like some just ask.
I have also attached a couple of pictures to show the roots and there is also an extreme macro shot showing the hairs on the leaf surface that make them float, theses are not visible to the eye, the leaf just looks waxy
Regards, Andy the minion
ps 6 attempts cant attach pictures

Hi Andy, for some reason these weren't resized and were referenced as being 6000 pixels wide and 4000 high.

Was probably that windows edge issue we talked about in email. Feel free to email me those images and I'll add them for you.

 

Can you lower the water level at all?

I know in my tank there is about 1 cm between the top of the tank edging (not sure what it's called) and the maximum fill mark.

I have water at maximum level atm, I don't really want it lower, if I did it would mean the filter water output would be probably end up out of the water.

The bulb does get hot, I know this because I've stuck my arm on it a time or two. The plants are already situated as far from the light as possible. Hmmm what to do? 

Andy I read that dwarf lettuce doesn't like condensation forming on it's leaves, it causes yellowing and shrivelling of leaves when under a light. I gave up trying to grow it.