Should I REMOVE the pothos?

Mount_Prion

Piranha
MFK Member
Jan 31, 2012
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center of the universe
So I've got a tank going with some major pothos growing in the sump.

The tank itself is a bit unusual, sort of a running "groundwater" setup where the water pretty much is actually pumped up from a sump into a thick layer of rocks and dirt that it passes through on the way down. In that dirt I've planted a bunch of terrarium plants.

My concern is that the pothos are doing too good of a job and limiting the resources in the water that could be used by the other plants. Right now, though, the terrarium plants are pretty new and most don't have thorough enough root systems to do what the pothos are doing. But maybe the pothos being there is slowing them down from developing such.

I add ferts to the water generally and sometimes nutritab plugs.

Should I get rid of the pothos? Want to keep the water clean for the turtles that will be in there but also keep the plants healthy and growing.

Thanks!

This seemed slightly more like it should be in setup than planted tanks/aquascaping, as this isn't really an aquascape and I'm talking all terrestrial plants and nutrition/setup. Feel free to move though.
 

PDRed302

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Aug 4, 2011
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Fort Worth Texas
I'm new to the whole plant thing for the most part (still in the R&D stages) so someone with more experience please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong here...

It sounds like your running a type of Aquaponics setup, something I'm currently working on and researching. I came across this question myself, albeit a little different; I was more concerned about aquarium plants eating up too many nutrients for my gardening crops to really flourish.

After searching around for a bit it seems that no one really had a good answer for the question, there were tables, theories and charts to follow as a an aquaponic farmer: http://www.aquaponic.com.au/Fish to plant ratios.pdf <---- There's a good one but nothing that an aquarist could really utilize on a small scale.

What I've taken from reading articles like the one listed above, going through message boards and playing around with search engines; is the conclusion that if at the end of the week before your water change, if you still have any kind of nitrate reading, then your tank water should still be adequately feeding all of the plants in your system. Since NO3 is one of the easiest nutrients to test for and I know that it is used by the plants, it only makes since that if I have an excess amount of it in my system, that all of my plants are being thoroughly fed.
 

Mount_Prion

Piranha
MFK Member
Jan 31, 2012
2,172
33
81
center of the universe
I'm new to the whole plant thing for the most part (still in the R&D stages) so someone with more experience please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong here...

It sounds like your running a type of Aquaponics setup, something I'm currently working on and researching. I came across this question myself, albeit a little different; I was more concerned about aquarium plants eating up too many nutrients for my gardening crops to really flourish.

After searching around for a bit it seems that no one really had a good answer for the question, there were tables, theories and charts to follow as a an aquaponic farmer: http://www.aquaponic.com.au/Fish%20to%20plant%20ratios.pdf <---- There's a good one but nothing that an aquarist could really utilize on a small scale.

What I've taken from reading articles like the one listed above, going through message boards and playing around with search engines; is the conclusion that if at the end of the week before your water change, if you still have any kind of nitrate reading, then your tank water should still be adequately feeding all of the plants in your system. Since NO3 is one of the easiest nutrients to test for and I know that it is used by the plants, it only makes since that if I have an excess amount of it in my system, that all of my plants are being thoroughly fed.
Good call. Feels pretty funny testing and hoping to find it, but I'll keep an eye on my levels.
 
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