Do live plants in the fish tank help to reduce nitrate levels?

Answer 1

They do, but the plants have to be healthy.
Plants need 3 basic elements to grow: light, CO2 and other nutrients (nitrates).
If any of these are imbalanced, you get poor plant growth. For example if you have high lights and low fertilizers, your plants will grow tall and straggly. If you have low light and high ferts, you get algae, etc. So, yeah, a healthy plant will act as a nitrate sponge, using the nitrate as nutrients to grow. But if the plants aren't healthy then no, they won't do a very good job of reducing nitrates.
Some of the easiest plants to grow, and consequently excellent nitrate sponges, are moss balls, java moss, giant hygro, amazon frogbit, pennywort, naja grass. This stuff grows fast and it grows easily, so it should help with the nitrate problems.

However, the best way to get rid of nitrates is just to do week water changes, about a 30% change. This should cut back on your nitrites significantly. If you still, after all this, have high nitrates, check your tap water. If your tap water reads higher than 15ppm nitrates, consider mixing it with distilled or spring water (about 50/50) when you do your water changes.

Answer 2

Assuming the plants have aall the other things they need then yes, they will do a very good job at removing nitrates. But only if they are growing and able to process the nitrate. A lack of light or some other needed materials in the water or substrate would cuase them to use very little nitrate and therefore not absorb much at all. Be sure to read up carefully on live plants before trying them.

There are a few planst you can try in most any tank though. If you want to try it out, try floating plants like jave moss, crystal wort, bladderwort, or any of the larger frogbits. Just do yourself a favor and stay away from duckweed. Once it's in the tank it's there to stay short of drastic measures.

Answer 3

A little...Nitrate is made Nitrate which comes from the ammonia (fish waste) some of that is captured by the plants, but it takes time for the plants to grow and spread their roots.

So to answer your question, yes...but not much. I would do regular water changes (10%-15%) and maybe boost your filtration system up a notch.

Answer 4

In theory, but in practice no. You really need 10-30X the mass of plant compared to fish. Also if they shed leaves, and what not they may increase the levels of nitrates.

Answer 5

Yes they do. But in all actuality, you need to do water changes in the tank. Plants can help in highly stocked tanks, but far less than water changes. You would need alot of plants to take out 10-20ppm of NitrAtes a week.