Cheap plants, less nitrate! POTHOS

[Cyber Warrior]

Hi everyone, read through about 40 pages but couldnt find an answer so sorry if this has been asked..

Is there any concern about introducing parasites?

Ive had my pothos plant on my tank for about 6 months now and its doing great but it just dawned upon me that I did nothing to prevent parasite infection other then rinsing the dirt off the roots. Ive seen some people use clippings off plants and grow new roots which sounds safer but to actually yank a plant out of its dirt with who knows whats crawling inside leaves me concerned. I came across one mention for aquatic plants and ridding disease with something called potassium permanganate.

Thanks in advance and love seeing all the tank setups, looks great. I thought I was the only nutjob who stuck the entire root system into his tank before running into this thread lol.

 

[Gaddisautoglass]

I've personally never had a problem. I usually just wash them and trim the roots back to only an inch or two, then throw em in. Most of the original roots will die off because they're not suited to being fully submerged anyway. That's all I've ever done for years and no problems yet. Would love to hear others input on this though as i never really gave it any thought either.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Yep, tough to find specific info in this massive thread. Any time you add anything to you tank you run the risk of exposing your fish to something they've never been exposed to before, but like said, thankfully pothos plants are forgiving enough to be able to tolerate a fairly aggressive washing to get the dirt off and then a massive root trimming. I've only got pothos in two of my tanks, but never had a parasite issue that I could tell.

 

[H]-[H]

Hey guys, anyone here uses plants(pothos in particular) as mechanical filtration? Using just the roots of plants to trap waste from fish without using any filter pads/sponges/etc..

 

[Gaddisautoglass]

I really don't see that working that well, it would be harder to rinse out of the roots than a sponge or floss I'd expect. Plus it would take quite the root system to catch as small of particles as sponge/floss.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

It can be done,but u would have to do very frequent water changes(maybe 2 to 3 times a week)

 

[H]-[H]

The idea is to use the waste as fertilizers for the roots if that make any sense.. But sure enough, the root has to be packed in order for it to work.. Theoretically, once the roots are submerged, they won't need to be rinsed, right?

 

[Gaddisautoglass]

I suppose if you had a fairly light bioload and maybe some snails or something to help it could be possible.

 

[pimen]

Im really confuse, what is the best way to growing photos in water ? , based on my experience, if I put my large photos that already has roots ( soil roots), even I trim the roots, soon that photos will growing good but always has roots rotting all the time and make alot debris in the water

 

[1000ninja]

I want to add pothos to my tank. Most of the methods i see involve putting some kind of basket directly into the water but I would like to avoid that. Any way I can get the roots directly into the water while suspending the rest of the plant above?