Hello, I am trying to find some good plants that can be "cut" and then stuck in the water for root formation to help suck up extra nutrients. Today I bought a Pothos vine and will be trying my luck with that. Any body have any tips for mounting them, and anybody know anything about this plant. Also, any suggestions for fast growing plants that will suck up nutrients and roots wont decay when submerged?
Non-aquatic plants to help bring down nitrate, nitrites, etc
- Thread starter wonword
- Start date
I have lots and lots of good plants for growing with riparium planters. This is the easiest way to keep emersed aquatics in a tank.
Cool, my tank its a plexiglass including the top, so I think Im going to build something to hold the roots just in the water and come out of a whole in the plexiglass. Grape plants would be cool if they would work!
So your tank has one of those big perimeter braces on top? Yeah that wouldn't work so well with riparium planters, unless you were to lower the water level and just grow the plants up to the top.
I started a thread all about this topic over in the Setup and Filtration sub-forum...
Ripariums for Plant Filtration
I started a thread all about this topic over in the Setup and Filtration sub-forum...
Ripariums for Plant Filtration
Thanks for the link, I will mainly be using the plants to try to extend the need for waterchanges. I will still be doing the once a week 30-50% waterchange, but i notice that at the end of the week before I do the waterchange the fish become less active. Im thinking its a build up of things in the water that plants may be able to help with. Here is the tank, and the vines will be coming out of the whole in the corner. I have shoplights mounted above the tank, so the vines should be able to grow on top of the tank and down the sides.
I think that Pothos vines are a real good idea. Those holes are small, but with Pothos you could have a lot of foliage coming out of the tank, which would correspond to lots of roots in the water sucking out nitrates and other pollutants.
What kind of fish are you going to put in here? If you are seeing what looks like a reaction to increased nitrates you would do well to also decrease the stocking load and/or increase water changes. The plants will help some with reducing nitrates, but they can only do so much.
What kind of fish are you going to put in here? If you are seeing what looks like a reaction to increased nitrates you would do well to also decrease the stocking load and/or increase water changes. The plants will help some with reducing nitrates, but they can only do so much.
Its a 120 with rays, catfish dats and such, it has 2 fx5's for filtration, so the plants would mainly just be for fun and looks. With school I dont really have enough time to more waterchanges, as they take a long time with this much water.
Well that sounds like a fun bunch of fish. You ought to post some pictures when you get it set up.
I'd say that if you can get the lights to shine right on the plants then that will improve their efficiency for filtration--the more actively they grow the more nitrates and other nutrients they will demand.
You might consider picking up some aquatic plant fertilizers that can provide potassium and iron. The plants should get plenty of N and P fomr the fish waste, but Fe and K are often limiting for plants in fish tanks. Seachem Iron and API Leaf Zone would be good products to look for. You can just dump some in form time to time, especally after water changes. This will help the plants to grow faster and increase their ability to remove pollutants.
I'd say that if you can get the lights to shine right on the plants then that will improve their efficiency for filtration--the more actively they grow the more nitrates and other nutrients they will demand.
You might consider picking up some aquatic plant fertilizers that can provide potassium and iron. The plants should get plenty of N and P fomr the fish waste, but Fe and K are often limiting for plants in fish tanks. Seachem Iron and API Leaf Zone would be good products to look for. You can just dump some in form time to time, especally after water changes. This will help the plants to grow faster and increase their ability to remove pollutants.