Wait what?

I was reading this, and this guy says that adding plants to an established setup is bad because it will kill of the existing bacteria? Should I be worried?

"Consider this: The Bio-filter bacteria convert ammonia and nitrites into nitrates. Plants can use all three of those as their source for nitrogen. In fact, ammonia is the preferred nitrogen source for plants. If you add plants to a tank with an established bio-filter, the plants will actually use up some of the ammonia before the bacteria can convert it. That means that there will be less ammonia for the bacteria, so the bacteria colony will decrease in size. And since less ammonia is now being converted to nitrite, there will be less nitrite than before, so some of those bacteria will die off too"

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_newtank.htm

 

It's okay. Essentially the plants are doing what the bacteria would. Don't be too concerned though.

 

Ok cool. Thanks slagter

 

I dont think that it would be to the extent that it would wipe out your entire batch of bacteria, the system will almost certainly stabilise itself before total disaster...

 

U can maybe look at it as overfiltration....

 

So he's being an idiot.... ?

 

No, he's not being an idiot, it's just what happens. There is nothing to be concerned about.

 

MMMmmmm is there such a thing as "over filtration"???