Best Aquarium Plants for Removing Nitrates

What are Nitrates and why do I want to get rid of them?

Nitrates arise from uneaten fish food, rotting plants or other organic material breaking down in your aquarium. You generally want to keep your nitrate levels in the water low (lower than say 25 ppm) to avoid potentially poisoning your fish or other aquatic creatures. You can use a test like this strip one to figure out if you have any acceptable level of nitrates in the water. Certain living plants can also act as a filter and remove nitrates from the water for you. Below is our list of the best plants for removing nitrates. If you just want a list of the best floating plants for your aquarium you can check our other guide out.

Best plants for removing nitrates

The best plants for removing nitrates have a large surface area and root network to filter the water effectively.

1. Hornwort is an easy to care for and resilient plant that adds a nice deep green color to your aquarium. It can grow quickly and the only downside is that you may need to prune it frequently.
2. Frogbit is a floating plant that sits atop your aquarium. Because you can have many of these covering the top of your aquarium they are effective at filtering the water. The only downside is that they do block any top lighting in the tank that your fish may need.
3. Pothos! Surprisingly Pothos is great at removing nitrates. Though the full plant can’t be sumberged you can hang the plant with the roots in the water. This is great if you have turtles or other animals that may try to eat plants that you normally have submerged. Pothos grows in all kinds of conditions and is extremely hardy, making it a good choice.
4. Java Moss can be used floating, anchored to rocks or other objects, or used as a carpet across the bottom of the tank. It’s quite hardy and the large surface area created within the moss makes it an effective filtering plant. The only downside is that should you wish to remove it, it can be difficult to fully clean out.
5. Duckweed is another top floating that effectively filters water. It’s invasive and seen as a weed, and may be illegal in some areas. We also have had trouble finding a proper supplier of duckweed online, making it harder to obtain than the other options on this list. It does do a great job at filtering out nitrates which is why it makes the list despite some of the downsides.