How to lower nitrates when tap water is already 20 ppm.

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For my tanks with plant eating fish, I use large acrylic shower caddies (from Walmart). I drilled extra holes to increase water flow to the root system.pothos.jpg
 
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For tanks where the root system are safe from the fish, I just secure the plants to the tank or canopy.
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Chicxulub said:
This is true. I had my pothos colony in one of those 55-70 gallon Tetra HOBs that is otherwise pretty much useless. The plants were above my tank. The only light that they got was light reflected up from the tank and the dim ambient light that was occasionally turned on in the room.

Regardless of the low lighting, the plants still grew like weeds and did a fantastic job of sucking the nitrate out of the system. Even with several very large fish in the 150 in question, nitrate almost never got above 10ppm.

It's worth considering. I FIRMLY believe in pothos lol
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I have an old Penguin 400....hmmmmm....would you suggest some kind of anchor media in the bottom...filter inserts removed of course...?
 
boldtogether said:
I have an old Penguin 400....hmmmmm....would you suggest some kind of anchor media in the bottom...filter inserts removed of course...?
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I would just cut a large opening on the filter cover and secure the plant right to it with zip-ties. Then put a fist size rock on top of the cover to keep it secure on the filter
 
boldtogether said:
I have an old Penguin 400....hmmmmm....would you suggest some kind of anchor media in the bottom...filter inserts removed of course...?
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Mine had two sides to it, with the intake in the middle and two outflows on either side. I didn't have any cartridges in it. I took two clumps of pothos stems, rubber banded them together loosely, then stuck them in there. They were there like that for about two years. After sticking them in, the ONLY interaction I had with the pants was occasionally dumping water into the filter to help it prime after a big water change broke the siphon. When I broke that tank down, the roots where damn near solid in the cartridge slots and growing out of the outflows into the tank. It was a glorious thing lol
 
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boldtogether said:
What about just no cover? The cover rattles anyway...and I would remove the bio-wheels too....
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The cover shouldn't rattle with a piece of weight(rock) on it. If you still want to go sans cover, then drill some small holes just below the lip of the top of the filter, and secure the plant that way....again with zip-ties
 
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I didn't have a cover on mine. After a while, the plants were so large that they'd preclude the possibility of having a cover anyway lol
 
Chicxulub said:
Mine had two sides to it, with the intake in the middle and two outflows on either side. I didn't have any cartridges in it. I took two clumps of pothos stems, rubber banded them together loosely, then stuck them in there. They were there like that for about two years. After sticking them in, the ONLY interaction I had with the pants was occasionally dumping water into the filter to help it prime after a big water change broke the siphon. When I broke that tank down, the roots where damn near solid in the cartridge slots and growing out of the outflows into the tank. It was a glorious thing lol
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I do believe I will be trying this. Nitrates are always around 10ppm after my nitrate tower...I have too much flow going through it...I have always thought of Pothos....now I have a project!!
 
Just out of curiosity how are algae scrubbers compared to pothos. More or less effective. I'm planning a large tank build or buy if the right one comes up for my datnoids. I'm going to plan it out to have some nitrate removal in the sump. I have time to do it right since the dats are about 2" now and in there grow out. Let me know what you guys think or your experiences.
 
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