If you put plants in your sump, even emergant, you'll have to light them well. I would be sure to block the light from the nonplant sections of the sump or algae will grow on all your heaters and hardware/pump intakes and it sucks....
Heavy planted wet/dry filter= less nitrate???
- Thread starter tonymofo
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My text is inside Dr Joe's quote....sorryDr Joe;886768; said:Partially right, you forgot that aquatic plants reverse the process when in the dark.
My system has the lights on a reverse cycle ( light in planted sump at night )
Terrestrial plants will remove a share of the the nitrates from the water without adverse effects to the water quality.
Exactly
The tank still needs W/C's.
And the point was to remove nitrates, not make the cover of garden monthly.
Dr Joe
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Plants and wet/dry filters are fine as long as you aren't injecting CO2. The same water movement the draws in O2 will also draw CO2, there is no way to limit what gases are absorbed.
This method will work fine, but you will be best off with very simple plants that don't require high levels of co2, and also, plants that can survive off low, and cheap lights is best. Emersed plants often need 3000-3500K bulbs in combination with 6700K bulbs. They will remove nitrates quite effectively, but if you don't keep up on water changes, the other nutrients required to keep the plants healthy, and photosynthesizing properly will fall too low. The best way to avoid this problem is water changes.
HunterX;886815; said:If you put plants in your sump, even emergant, you'll have to light them well. I would be sure to block the light from the nonplant sections of the sump or algae will grow on all your heaters and hardware/pump intakes and it sucks....
I have UV sterilizers...Algae....what's algae...................just joking haven't had that problem in a long time
I had plants thrive in my 90 wich had a overflow and wetdry I added no supplements and only had them in ecocomplete.. they thrived so I see no problem with your idea ad hyacynths and water letuce along with anacharis would help you along good but are no substitute for waterchanges... why don't you look into a drip system rallysman has a good setup and so does neoprodigy who is working on a dosing system now...
