I have a 100GAL. Commuity tank with a Odyssea CFS 500 V2 canister filter, 2 1600 GPH dual head wave maker powerhead pump,s and a Aquatop 300 watt diital heater. The tank theme is river with approximately 75+ fish, all under 3": Tiger Barbs, Swordtails, Zebra Danos, Plateyes, Mollies, Assorted Tetra, 1 Redtail Shark, 1 Gold algae eater. The bio in this filter is producing High Nitrate at 80 + and did 30% water changes like a mad man 3 times a week. To lower the nitrate plants were the answer . Working alot of OT I dont have time for plants. I found the Marimo Balls at Petsmart and picked up 5 tennis ball size. I broke 1 up into 3 smaller size balls. Marimo Balls are a nutrient sponge and are slow growing. I plan on picking up 5 more. The Balls move with the flow from the powerheads and look good in the tank. The Nitrate dropped down to 10 to 25 with 30% water change once a week and 1/2 dose with Nitraban. I use a sump pump to remove the water in 5 min. and I am done. This filter is a workhorse, Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0. My target is 5 to 10 on Nitrate. I will update later .

We have 80ppm Nitrate right from our water source, so we run a Nitrazorb pouch in our filter in each tank. It brings it down to about 25-35ppm. We also have lots of live plants. Our tanks are really low light (I mean, maaaaybe half a watt per gallon... maaaaybe...) and I'm not finding that the plants are taking any extra time at all. I've got 2 Marimo Moss Balls in the 20g and 3 in the 36g - they are cute plants!

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20g Heavily Planted http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery...00&ppuser=8981
36g Bow Front Heavily Planted http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery...00&ppuser=8981

The nitraban will not make the nitrates where they won't show up on your testing, You could also cut your feeding by a day or two.