Nitrate reduction on 120

[esoxlucius]

My small hex tank is currently running at a consistent 0ppm nitrate, thanks to algae, salvinia and a small terrestrial spider plant. I had java moss in there too but it started suffering once the salvinia started blocking out the light, so I took it out.

The most vigorous grower at the minute is my salvinia, it's thriving. It's very quickly taken over the algae, which seems to have levelled off now.

So.....I hatched a plan to do something similar in my 120, but just with surface salvinia, nothing else. I know my choc cichlid and my severum won't eat it, as I've already tried them with it, they're not interested at all, which is a surprise really, especially the sev.

The only problem I had with an earlier attempt at adding salvinia was that it kept floating over to where the water returned, and it would get blown all over the tank. So, I made one of those floating plastic rings from vinyl tubing so the salvinia would be confined within it.

I've thrown a clump in and things seem to be ok at the minute. This stuff will spread quickly ensuring full surface coverage within the ring. Over the next few weeks I'll let you know how I get on with it regarding nitrate reduction.

If it works I will do something similar with my 360. The only problem there though is my GG loves salvinia, so my approach to my 360 will have to be different. Anyway, for now, I'm just concentrating on my 120.

 

[FJB]

Excellent. It should work. Sometimes a little bit of the Salvinia gets thrown about, but one can experiment with various flows, to. inimize it and /or with slightly larger diameter tubing. Very nice!

 

[duanes]

I collected a little bit from Lake Gatun, when first setting up my 180 (along with a few other plants).

Much of it overflowed to the sump.
The tank never tested for any detectable ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate.
I believe the Salvinia sucked them all up.
in the sump it did very well, to a point where extra went to compost.

 

[esoxlucius]

I was always under the impression that the amount of greenery you need to impact nitrate was so great that it's really more trouble than it's worth. But if you can identify the plants which absorb the most nitrate, and exclusively utilise those, then it would seem you may not need as much greenery as originally thought.

I know the volume of water in my hex tank is small, but even so I was still pleasantly surprised that the nitrate very quickly hit zero. Admittedly I'd be truly staggered if just a surface carpet of salvinia did the same in my 120, but the experiment is underway now, the results will be interesting.

 

[duanes]

Years ago, I did an internship at an industrial waste water treatment facility.
They were using plants like salvinia in final stage detention ponds after initial stages of treatment, to use up any pollutants as dangerous as heavy metals, before water was released back in the environment.
My experiments here over the last 3 years seem to show a trend.
Fast growing plants that also spread fast, that I've had to cut back, or periodically remove like salvinia, papyrus (umbrella palm), and Vallisneria did very well.
Slow growers like Anubias, not so much.

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

IME hornwort is another absolute sponge for the nitrogenous wastes of fish. If your giant gourami doesn't eat it, you could use it in salvinia's place in your 1363 liter.

 

[esoxlucius]

A little update on my experiment.

Without any greenery whatsoever the water change schedule on my 120 is every 2 weeks. The typical nitrate level on water change day is mid to dark orange, so I'd say it's around the 10-20ppm mark. The last water change I did was Saturday 2nd April, so I've another due tomorrow.

On Monday 4th April, shortly after the last water change, I added a small clump of floating salvinia within a DIY floating ring, see picture in post #1. That same salvinia has now taken over the whole ring, see picture below. So, I did a nitrate test just a moment ago and, although it was promising, I've realised there is a fundamental and very annoying flaw with this little experiment I've been doing.

And that is, as we all know, the nitrate test on the API kit is frustratingly very vague. It will only give you a reading that puts you in a "range". For complete accuracy it is a waste of time. So it is virtually impossible using this kit to determine how successful, from a pure numbers perspective, how beneficial my salvinia has been, which is frustrating.

All I can say is the nitrate colour was a light to mid orange, between 5-10ppm as opposed to my usual mid to dark orange of 10-20ppm. So the salvinia is reducing the nitrate but, numbers wise, how much, I can only guess.

As previously mentioned in another post I would have been staggered if my nitrate would have been close to 0ppm by just using floating salvinia, but it has definitely made some impact.

The next stage in the experiment will be to increase the amount of salvinia, which I plan to do, so the experiment continues. Pic below is of current salvinia coverage within the floating ring. As you can see it is a very quick grower!

 

[esoxlucius]

An update on my 120g tank regarding nitrate reduction using just surface salvinia.

As you can see from the pictures below my floating vinyl ring is now stuffed to overflowing with thick growth. I also have a surface carpet of it in one of my sump chambers, which is almost as dense as the growth in my tank.

The last water change I did was a week ago. My nitrate, without the salvinia, would certainly be well into the orange by now on the API chart.

As you can see from the bottom picture the nitrate is barely detectable. An obvious and very welcome result of utilising the salvinia.

Water changes will obviously still be done but i'm now at the stage where my fish are constantly living in virtually 0ppm nitrate conditions, instead of the usual up down up down up down nature of nitrate production.

Pics 1 and 2, salvinia in vinyl ring in tank.
Pic 3, salvinia in sump section.
Pic 4, current nitrate reading, last water change a week ago.

 

[aussieman57]

A little update on my experiment.

Without any greenery whatsoever the water change schedule on my 120 is every 2 weeks. The typical nitrate level on water change day is mid to dark orange, so I'd say it's around the 10-20ppm mark. The last water change I did was Saturday 2nd April, so I've another due tomorrow.

On Monday 4th April, shortly after the last water change, I added a small clump of floating salvinia within a DIY floating ring, see picture in post #1. That same salvinia has now taken over the whole ring, see picture below. So, I did a nitrate test just a moment ago and, although it was promising, I've realised there is a fundamental and very annoying flaw with this little experiment I've been doing.

And that is, as we all know, the nitrate test on the API kit is frustratingly very vague. It will only give you a reading that puts you in a "range". For complete accuracy it is a waste of time. So it is virtually impossible using this kit to determine how successful, from a pure numbers perspective, how beneficial my salvinia has been, which is frustrating.

All I can say is the nitrate colour was a light to mid orange, between 5-10ppm as opposed to my usual mid to dark orange of 10-20ppm. So the salvinia is reducing the nitrate but, numbers wise, how much, I can only guess.

As previously mentioned in another post I would have been staggered if my nitrate would have been close to 0ppm by just using floating salvinia, but it has definitely made some impact.

The next stage in the experiment will be to increase the amount of salvinia, which I plan to do, so the experiment continues. Pic below is of current salvinia coverage within the floating ring. As you can see it is a very quick grower!

View attachment 1492812

One trick I've learned with the API test kit for nitrate (and other parameters) is if the test starts to turn a color quickly say orange then it is towards the higher end of that range. If it takes longer to turn color then it is in the lower end of the range between those 2 colors. You can get a rough estimate using the time it takes to color up. Hope that makes sense. Does your Severum eat the Salvinia?

 

[Rocksor]

Whats the total dissolved solid level (TDS) level of the aquarium versus tap water?