i've been struggling with high nitrates for the longest time. I usually do a water change every wednesday with nitrates hitting 40-80. Some of the goldfish would get a little floaty sometimes. I got to admit adding plants into a aquaium with high nitrates helped a lot. my nitrates are dropped to only 10. impressive!

Yes, plants will soak up a lot of nitrates. In my heavily planted 66 gallon tanks, I never have nitrates show on my water tests

Is there a "rule of thumb" to how many plants per gallon and how many for the amount of nitrates? Do different plants soak up more nitrates than others.

I can't remember having read a rule of thumb for plants per gallon, but there could be something like that out there . Some plants do use more nitrates fromt he water column. Usually plants that have roots along the stems; plants such as elodea rather than rosette plants; such as swords.

my amazon swords are soaking up nitrates like mad!

arr so thats why i dont see much in the way of nitrates, if any in my 40G (UK) tank! i like to have a lot of plants in there, but recently after having an outbreak of Ich, i had to remove all plants. it looked so bare, and the nitrates did start to creep up. now i have plants again, its better! yay to plants, and i think they looks so nice. my Gf dont bother with them, which is good.