Tiny discovery that is definately worth sharing.

[Big Daves Rays]

PS. Boycott, over.

Not to derail, but glad to see you Miles.

 

[Nic]

glad all is well buddy....... i see this plant thing is becomingvery popular last few months... maybe ill share my experiment soon...

 

[severum1]

I'm happy seeing people using plants to filter their water.

I hope that more and more people realize that plants are the way to go. Since i decided to give some of my time to MFK that i say this, and i'm seeing that is not a waist of time

 

[FireMedic]

As an addition:
The water in from my well is very hard. Hard enough that every 2-3 months I must disassemble my dishwasher (not my Wife) and hand clean the scale from it's innards.

I have three rays in 300 +/- gallons so bio load isn't actually too bad...water is filtered through 33 vertical gallons of biofilter before it reaches the plants.

More info to come.
Respectully,
FireMedic.

 

[Kolossus]

Question then...So if I wanted to incorporate some aqua plants to my tanks and my filtration method is via cannister filter, what type of plants could/should I use that might enhance my water quality? I've experimented with jungle val and water lettuce but that didn't really work out for me.

 

[Miles]

I've heard Pothos is a great plant for aquaria.. Just have some of the vines/roots hang in the water and it will spread like a 'spider' plant.. I am thinking about hanging one above my 100g in the kitchen and having half the roots go down inside the canopy of the tank, and then support/guide/direct the rest of the plant to go across the 'catwalk' that separates my kitchen/livingroom with the vaulted ceilings. Here is a pix example of what I would like to do.. not sure how much light I will need - heard Pothos is very hardy and will grow with small amounts of ambient light.

There are a few other live plants/ray threads.. maybe if we get some pix and more info going ( nic), we can merge them all up.

and for all you science buffs (where'd ya'll go.. LOL) check out this link on 'plantricity' that deals with electrical charges in plants and stimulation on aquarium inhabitants.. CRAZY stuff! http://broadroot.com/content/green/plantricity0.html

PS. water lettuce and any floating lily needs a 'calm' section of a tank in order to thrive.. too much surface movement will not allow them to settle in, grow, and multiply. Rays traditionally need good movement, surface flow and gas exchange, so it makes it a bit more difficult then say the Pothos idea.

 

[Kolossus]

PS. water lettuce and any floating lily needs a 'calm' section of a tank in order to thrive.. too much surface movement will not allow them to settle in, grow, and multiply. Rays traditionally need good movement, surface flow and gas exchange, so it makes it a bit more difficult then say the Pothos idea.

That would definitely explain why the floating plants did not work out for me (I have tons of surface movement and flow on all my tanks). My large ray setup is in the basement so I would definitely need some artificial lighting for the Pothos idea. I am definitely going to look into that though. I have already started to create my own little piece of the amazon in my basement with my newest Dutch Aquarium Systems tank. I really would like to add real plant to go along with the fake ones I already have set up. I will post pictures when I have progressed a little further on my project.

 

[FireMedic]

The way I have my sump set-up may lend itself to the propagation of surface varieties...........hmmmm.

I will keep you all posted.

This is no pipe dream, I have a 5yr plan that puts my little hobby into a 1300 square foot purpose built aquaculture building. The planted component will be two-thirds of the layout. -FM

 

[Gr8KarmaSF]

Gr8 thread....

 

[JayK1320]

this is very interesting...that article was a good read. FM I will be interested to see long term results of your setup