Lucky Bamboo

[Toby_H]

The following question was asked of me in another thread but I responded to it in it's own thread to prevent a tangent to the original thread...


I said:

Hulon has decided to use Lucky Bamboo as his choice of plants in the refugium. I've been using them for years and can verify that they do consume nitrates, are very hardy and will thrive under low light conditions. Although I would suggest tossing some java moss in with them which will entangle in the roots...

I was asked:

Any pics of sump/refugiums where you used this combination? I'd be interested to see some.

Several years ago I did an experiment but the detailed results were lost with a computer crash/upgrade...

I had two well established 29 gal tanks... each contained a breeding pair of (full) adult Apisto Cacs and an equal number of (full) adult (Red Seprae) Tetras...

Both tanks were on the same maintenance schedule for a very long time and both tanks showed an identical nitrate increase rate for a very long time...

I did super water changes (100+%) on both tanks to get nitrates to zero... then stuck (I think 5) stalks of Lucky Bamboo in the (AC110) HOB of one tank (adding nothing to the other tank)...

After 2~3 months with no water changes the tank with bamboo was showing a considerably slower nitrate increase (almost none)...

I did a super water change on both tanks (100+%) to reset nitrates and moved the Lucky Bamboo to the opposite tank to verify concistency and the conclusion was verified by the results.

At one point I had details with weekly nitrate tests. If you search deep enough on CichlidForum you'll find them... I don't think I was a member here yet...


I found these "miniature milkcrates" at Walmart that have 3/4" holes drilled in them. These work perfect as 'stands' or 'racks' to hold Lucky Bamboo...


I bought a gross of 50 stalks of Lucky Bamboo on Ebay for a good price. It's been a long time (years) though so I do not remember the seller. It was a good communication/purchase experience so whoever it was I would recommend them


I know you guys are never happy without pics so...


30 Gal on top and bottom with three 10 gals in the middle... water is pumped from the bottom 30 gal tank to the top 30 gal... through an overflow that seperates water into each of the 3 10 gals... each of which overflows into the bottom 30 gal...


Here is a close up of the system when I was breaking down the fishroom when I moved...

Here are some close ups of one of those 10 gals which has a miniature milkcrate holding Lucky Bamboo and Java Moss...

Here is a tank slam full of java moss with bamboo in a the back. It's not in the "miniature milkcrate" in this pic but it was transferred into one shortly after this pic...

This is a pic of the wame tank from further back...

I don't remember the specifics of this tank but here is a fry tank with Lucky Bamboo with Java Moss entangled in the roots...

Here is a a bunch of Lucky Bamboo placed in a slate structure in a 300 Gal Rubberaid... this partular set up didn't work to well as there was little/no water flow to the roots... lesson learned, ensure roots are open to circulating water...

Same set up from further back...

 

[CHOMPERS]

Nice. And yes, we like pictures.


This gives me ideas for my "problem" tank.

 

[mgk]

not to derail but do you sell fish, you have a lot of tanks?

 

[xdragonxb0i]

they are good. but they grow pretty tall, and that would pose a problem

 

[CHOMPERS]

My shed is full of garden tools that will solve that problem.

 

[Toby_H]

I've sold fish to local fish stores off and on and have shared fish through my local fish club (when I was in Charlotte), but I don't ship and am in no way a 'retailer'... Just an addicted hobbyist...

If/When height is a concern, just break the leaves off. I've trimmed mine back plenty of times...

 

[Conner]

Very nice! And thanks for the explanation with pictures. I may decide to try this in my new tank, using both lucky bamboo and java moss. Have you since used any other plants that you'd think suck up nitrates more quickly?

How often were you pruning/removing any of the lucky bamboo/java moss?

 

[Toby_H]

I've never shown any interest in CO2 injectors as my preference in filtration includes significant surface agitation...

I've never done anything with fancy lighting...

Neither of my thumbs have even the slightest green tint...

Thus I've never been good at keeping plants alive...

I can heavily neglect Lucky Bamboo and the stuff does pretty darn well. In the first pic above you can see the tanks are all emptied but the Lucky Bamboo is still doing pretty well. They sat like that for several weeks...

The stalks of Lucky Bamboo doesn't grow when we buy it like that. The sellers hack it off and wax dip the end to prevent the stalk from growing. So it's just the leaves that grow. I usually break off entire leaf sprouts while messing with the tanks on accident enough to not need to constructively "prune" them. If/When the leaves get in the way I sort of barbaricly break them off. They stand up to my neglect and abuse well...

There are a lot of types of Mosses and I arbitrarily lump them all up into "Java Moss". Some grow faster than others and some are cooler looking than others. I got all of mine from a friend through a local fish club. Some is "Java Moss", some is "Christmas Moss", some is "Flame Moss", and there has been a few other types put in my tanks. What I got as "Java Moss" seems to be thread-like and breaks apart landing in filter intakes very easily. The 'fancier' versions seem to have thicker leaves which allow it to stay in clumps better.

Again, I'm by no means a plant guy. I'm not saying this is the best approach, I'm just sharing what I've done and sharing the results I got. I chose the plants I did for two reaons: 1. They surfvive in my neglect/care, & 2. I am thoroughly convinced they remove nitrates. I'm not saying they are the best at removing nitrates, but they do remove nitrates...

 

[adrielme]

Great pics, thank you for this.

 

[Pharaoh]

Informative read.