Can planted tanks hold more fishes?

[yhbae]

I know live plants are helpful in aquariums. I have them in just about every aquarium I own. Never really thought of it much because it is a no-brainer unless species I keep eat them.

Since then, I started writing an online bioload calculator and tried to figure out what would be the effect of plants on the bioload. Many many people have been suggesting that I should add this "feature". Yes, plants do absorb _some_ toxic chemicals excreted by fishes, including ammonia and nitrates. On the other hand, I also read that fishes produce plenty more toxic chemicals/toxins that are not absorbed by plants.

So here's my ultimate question - can you keep more fishes in planted tanks? If so, WHY?

I always thought of having plants as a safety net rather than a mean to increase the total bioload of my tanks. But I would gladly stand corrected if this is not the case.

[alien54d]

sure why not?
IMHO too many fauna spoil the beauty of the planted aquarium

[vinz]

Yes, if your plants are provided with everything they need to grow really well and produce lots of oxygen and take up ammonia and nitrate. They will only take up ammonia and nitrate if all other conditions match. E.g. amount of light, CO2, other nutrients.

Yes, if the above is true and the plants are heavy ammonia and nitrate consumers. There are slow growing plants that do not take up as much ammonia and nitrate.

However, the tank may still encounter algae infestation as heavy bio-loads produces more ammonia at any one time and this encourages algae to grow.

And as alien54d stated... aesthetics.

Imagine this scenario: A electrical outage occurs early in the day after everyone has gone to work. The tank is in a dim part of the house. No light => no photosynthesis => no oxygen produced, no ammonia/nitrate uptake. Heavy bioload consumes the present oxygen, continues to produce ammonia/nitrate... the rest you know.

It may take a little longer than bare tanks, but it COULD happen if the bio-load is really high.

I would be careful suggesting that having plants will allow higher bioload. The effect the plants will have on the tank are very subjective (growth rate, conditions, type of plants, amount of plants).

[bossteck]

Hi yhbae,

I appreciate why you're asking this question. For discussion sake, answer would be yes Vinz had provided a very good explanation of that in his reply.

For practical purpose (that of building your stocking calculator) I would suggest you just ignore the parameter of whether or not the tank is planted. Because you would have to then take into account the types of plants (fast / slow growing, rooted / floating etc) there will be no end.

[vinz]

Oh and another thing... if the plants die en masse... they BECOME the source of ammonia and nitrates.