Continuing on the subject of plants in the aquarium I'll now talk about how plants can destory toxic substances in a aquarium. A plant acts both as a filter for toxic substances in two ways. Firstly, plants absorb a large amount of nitrogen in order to fuel there growth. Nitrogen in the tank in the form of dangerous nitrite and somewhat less dangerous (but still dangerous) nitrate. These can be poisonous to fish and also leads to dreaded alga blooms. The biological portion of your filter will do this as well but if your tank is overstocked this provides an additional buffer zone between water changes. Plants absorb nutrients preventing algae blooms, which in some cases are very toxic constantly secreting toxins. Lastly plants provide an operating surface for helpful bacteria. These will grow on the sponge in your filter but more surface area helps speed up the cycle an provides some buffer in the case of filter failure, clogging etc.
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