Good plant for my sump?

[skytan13]

Added probably 10 leaves worth of half-dead pothos from my wife's "deco" for around a week.
Sprouted 2 new leaves already, guess these guys will love their new home.

Been struggling to keep nitrates down (between 50-80ppm) before each once a week 50% WC , as i dun really like to cut down on feeding.

 

[tarheel96]

Been struggling to keep nitrates down (between 50-80ppm) before each once a week 50% WC , as i dun really like to cut down on feeding.

Pothos helps some. Light is almost always going to be the limiting factor. With enough sunlight you could grow Water Hyacinth like duanes in a post #29 which would remove much more nitrate than pothos.

You could save some time and effort by going with larger WCs ... say 75% instead of 50%. It may not seem like it, but a single 75% WC reduces nitrate to lower levels than (2) 50% WCs performed during the same time period. I aways drop the water level as low as I can during WCs. You'll keep nitrates lower while performing fewer water changes and you'll use less overall water.

 

[tarheel96]

S skytan13 - What was the new thing you were trying? A plant?

 

[skytan13]

My lifestock and driftwood are actually the limiting factor for % of my water change.

My Arowana will freak out all the bottom dewellers, he dun really target them but will chase them abit when they on same lvl with him.

 

[skytan13]

S skytan13 - What was the new thing you were trying? A plant?

wheat grass, for my wife's rabbits since previously the top part of the compartment was empty.
The results were okay but they are not nitrate machines thou.

 

[Tomt37]

Wouldn't elodea remove nitrates fast due to mad growth rate fixing nitrogen and being easily cropped for removal

 

[tarheel96]

Wouldn't elodea remove nitrates fast due to mad growth rate fixing nitrogen and being easily cropped for removal

It should work better than most aquatic plants. I have some Elodea ordered that I'm going to try in a tank with potassium bicarbonate added to raise the alkalinity to around 15dKH. Elodea should grow faster in water with high carbonate hardness.

Carbon dioxide is at very low levels in aquariums without CO2 injection (~2 ppm) which is why most aquarium plants grow so much slower than floating plants or terrestrial plants. Floating and land plants have access to ~200 times more carbon from atmospheric CO2 levels (350-400 ppm).

Plants like Elodea and Hornwort can use the carbonates, mostly bicarbonates, in water as a source of carbon instead of relying solely on CO2, so they will outgrow other aquarium plants in hard water with high carbonate hardness (where CO2 is limited).

 

[duanes]

(Been struggling to keep nitrates down (between 50-80ppm) before each once a week 50% WC , as i dun really like to cut down on feeding.)
from the above statement, a once per week water change, is unsatisfactory.
Even with lots of Pothos, my routine was 30% every other day.

 

[Tomt37]

Nothing I've kept grows as fast as elodea .. you can see the o2 bubbles coming off it .. it has such a high rate of photosynthesis.. out competes algae for nutrients easily

 

[tarheel96]

Nothing I've kept grows as fast as elodea .. you can see the o2 bubbles coming off it .. it has such a high rate of photosynthesis.. out competes algae for nutrients easily

Are the O2 bubbles forming without CO2 injection? I'll get a lot of bubbles under my Hygrophila corymbosa leaves (and other plants) but that's with CO2 injection ... I don't think I've seen it without CO2 added.

Hygrophila isn't one of those plants/algae that can use bicarbonates like Elodea. It relies solely on CO2 for its carbon.