Killer Pothos!

[jjohnwm]

I was in town yesterday and stumbled upon a fairly large Pothos plant for an insanely good price; I instantly snapped it up since I am constructing a trellis arrangement above one of my tanks, along with a basket-like thingamabob along the back of the tank specifically to grow and support terrestrials.

Got the dang thing home, removed it carefully from its container and put it into a half bucket of water. The plan was to take a bunch of cuttings, but also to hopefully soak the roots clean of potting soil and install them as well in the tank. Out falls one of those care-guide cards...informing me that it's not a Pothos but rather a Philodendron cordatum. First words on the card are "Warning: Toxic Plant!"

Just can't catch a break...

 

[fishguy1978]

So are pretty much every plant sold in the house plant section at every garden center box store. Including pothos!

 

[Milingu]

Pothos and Philodendron are both toxic because they contain oxalate crystals. As long as you or your animals don't consume it it should be fine.

 

[duanes]

Although those Philodendron are considered toxic, that has more to do with if dogs, or cats, or if you try to eat it.
Planting it in your tank is not problematic, fish won't bother with it.
I use Dieffenbachia, also considered toxic, and have never had a problem (and also have Philodendron.

 

[jjohnwm]

So are pretty much every plant sold in the house plant section at every garden center box store. Including pothos!

Pothos too?

My bestest buddy has a favourite snoozing spot right in my fishroom, and he spends a lot of time down there with me. I have always avoided a lot of plants that I would otherwise have loved to keep: Dieffenbachia, Poinsettia, lots of others, for his sake. I spent a couple of years carefully nuking my last home of the large numbers of Locoweed growing all around it, despite the fact that they are magnificent flowering plants...and it was because of my dogs at the time.

If I can't find a species of hardy, easy-to-grow plant that can stand in water constantly and is NON-TOXIC...the whole idea is down the tubes. No way is Duke going to be banned from my fishroom. And dogs tend to taste-test odd things they find on the floor...like dropped leaves.

Any and all suggestions gratefully accepted. I'm thinking maybe Spider Plants? I appreciate the reassurances regarding the fish, but...the dog comes waaaaay before fish.

 

[Deadeye]

Have you tried lucky bamboo?
It’s not a fast grower, but it does well in my tanks.
No idea if it’s toxic or not.

 

[jjohnwm]

Have you tried lucky bamboo?
It’s not a fast grower, but it does well in my tanks.
No idea if it’s toxic or not.

Not sure, will look into it. But...the main goal of this exercise is water quality. The slower a plant grows, then the less nutrients it is uptaking from the water...kinda defeats the purpose to use a slow grower.

My four favourite aquarium plants are, in no particular order, Hornwort, Duckweed, Guppy Grass (Najas) and, believe it or not, Hair Algae! And I choose them mostly because they grow like weeds, even under my brown-thumbed care. But this tank houses fish that mow all that stuff down like weed-whackers on crack, hence the terrestrial experiment.

 

[duanes]

But this tank houses fish that mow all that stuff down like weed-whackers on crack, hence the terrestrial experiment.

This is why I use planted sumps.

Most of my cichlids seem to see all aquatic plants as a salad bar.

If you keep Pothos up high enough and out of the dogs reach, you should be fine.
Most dogs are instinctually too savvy to eat toxic stuff, my dogs don't touch those toxic plants even if they're close to the ground

 

[jjohnwm]

This is why I use planted sumps.
View attachment 1538416
Most of my cichlids seem to see all aquatic plants as a salad bar.

If you keep Pothos up high enough and out of the dogs reach, you should be fine.
Most dogs are instinctually too savvy to eat toxic stuff, my dogs don't touch those toxic plants even if they're close to the ground

I've seen pics of your set-up, and actually have one myself which is conceptually nearly identical, although of course mine is indoors. But I don't think of it or describe it the same way you do yours; to me, it's simply two tanks on a single system, with one of them having a simple Mattenfilter arrangement at one end which services the whole system. Water flows from the top tank down to the lower one, which is planted. It passes through the Mattenfilter and into the small compartment at the end where a submersible pump returns it to the top tank. The biggest difference is that the top tank has its own large sponge filter which is quite capable of servicing that tank, and the bottom tank has an airlift that returns water from the pump compartment back throught the Matten and into the tank. If I need to I can turn off the pump and be left with two separate tanks, both fully functional; one on top with its own sponge filter, and the other on the bottom equipped with a way-bigger-than-needed Mattenfilter.

And I agree that most dogs in most circumstances are likely going to be fine with the plants. I am simply not satisfied with "most" when it comes to something as important as this. I don't want to trust to "probably going to be fine" or "should be okay"; I insist upon removing the potential threat. Plants that I know are toxic are simply off the table, period.

 

[Deadeye]

Not sure, will look into it. But...the main goal of this exercise is water quality. The slower a plant grows, then the less nutrients it is uptaking from the water...kinda defeats the purpose to use a slow grower.

My four favourite aquarium plants are, in no particular order, Hornwort, Duckweed, Guppy Grass (Najas) and, believe it or not, Hair Algae! And I choose them mostly because they grow like weeds, even under my brown-thumbed care. But this tank houses fish that mow all that stuff down like weed-whackers on crack, hence the terrestrial experiment.

That’s my trouble with it. I have read that if you have a lot of it, the bamboo actually makes a big impact (not exactly a shocking revelation), but I’ve only got 6 on a rather heavily stocked 125. I’m too cheap to get more for $5 a shoot, used to be 2 if I’m not mistaken.
I haven’t noticed super fast growth with my pothos either, but it’s also only been a few weeks and I’m impatient…
Hornwort would be great for my system, but of course it gets eaten faster than it can grow in there.