Nitrate reduction on 120

[duanes]

Great experiment, that with testing you can actually see noticeable nitrate number reductions.
My Salvinia has disappeared from both the tank, and sump, as the other aquatic plants, like Vallisneria and Hydilla have taken over sucking up the amount of nutrients the Salvinia needed.

The only fish I kept, that would actually consume large amounts of salvinia were Cincelichthys bocourti and pearsei, but they would eat just about any plant thrown in the tank.

 

[esoxlucius]

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?

Your little "trick" is a valid one. If the starting colour of yellow starts changing to orange quickly you know your nitrate is going to be high. I once tested a womans aquarium water up the road from me and the starting colour was orange, it bypassed yellow almost instantaneously! Within 15-20 seconds it was deep burgundy and off the scale. I estimated her nitrate to be in the several hundred range. I rescued some fish from her, lucky lucky fish.

And no, my sev doesn't even look at the salvinia. It was the one worry I had when I started the experiment, given sevs liking for plants, so I got lucky from that perspective.

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

I have a TDS meter and used to test my water regularly to get a handle on the day to day changes. My tap water was always very low if I remember rightly, and on water change day my tanks were usually around the low 100ppm range. The details are a bit sketchy. I've since broken my TDS meter though, I tried recalibrating it and have done something to it which I can't seem to reverse, so I currently can't get accurate TDS readings, which would be nice figures to have.

 

[FJB]

I dont have aquaria large enough to justify sumps. But I could set up 2-3 tanks to a sump one day...
Regardless, I firmly believe in well established planted tanks, and as much natural removal of nitrogenous waste as possible, together with the largest manageable water changes. Floating corrals have been toy pens for quite a while. I dont measure much, but they work.

 

[esoxlucius]

I dont have aquaria large enough to justify sumps. But I could set up 2-3 tanks to a sump one day...
Regardless, I firmly believe in well established planted tanks, and as much natural removal of nitrogenous waste as possible, together with the largest manageable water changes. Floating corrals have been toy pens for quite a while. I dont measure much, but they work.

View attachment 1496536

I believe it was that very picture of yours which give me the idea of doing something similar in my 120. If it wasn't for the flagtail that could be my tank, lol, so thanks for the inspiration!

You don't need to have big tanks to run sumps, you can run a sump on a goldfish bowl! But I know what you mean.

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

View attachment 1496530

View attachment 1496531

Wow, looks like your floating ring has its capacity for salvinia pretty much maxed out!

Just my $0.02 on water replacements: To keep the growth inhibiting hormones and such in check, I'd advise to maintain a water replacement schedule that would have kept the NO3 at 5 ppm or less without the plants, regardless of how little NO3 there is. That's based on duanes' advice, who found over 5 ppm chronically toxic not only in terms of NO3 but also the hormones and such that water replacements remove.
Maybe a little off topic here, but also applies to your 1363 liter. Based on duanes' advice, it would be a good idea to up the water replacements for 5 ppm or less NO3 (you use 20 ppm as the cutoff for that tank iirc).

Good luck, and do keep us updated on any further salvinia progress in this tank!

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

esoxlucius , I made some edits to my comment which you may or may not have seen. Just so you know in case you didn't.

 

[esoxlucius]

esoxlucius , I made some edits to my comment which you may or may not have seen. Just so you know in case you didn't.

My nitrate reduction experiment has absolutely nothing to do with minimising water changes, or bypassing them completely. I am fully aware that nitrate is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to "other" substance/chemical build up in an aquarium.

My water change schedule will remain as it was before. The luxury that my experiment does afford me however, is that my fish don't have to go through the usual up down up down up down levels of nitrate that they were going through pre salvinia introduction.

Although I don't entirely fully understand the true benefits that this gives my fish, I do know that it can only be looked on as an improvement. I'll happily take that.

What has surprised me though is that I used to think that you'd need an absolute jungle to make a dent in nitrates. I now know this isn't the case. All I have is a floating ring full and a single compartment in my sump full of only salvinia. Salvinia is not only one of the easiest plants to grow, but also one of the most nitrate hungry it would seem. So it's win win.

So now I have my small hex tank, and my 120, virtually nitrate free. Could I carry this experiment on to my 360g? Now that would be a huge challenge.

 

[duanes]

You don't need to have big tanks to run sumps, you can run a sump on a goldfish bowl! But I know what you mean.

I agree with this,
At one point in WI I had a 50 gal tank outside for the summer, and used a 1,000+ gallon pond for its sump.

My preference is always using sump filtration for all my tanks, but I believe its sometimes the smallest tanks that benefit most, from sumps.
The increased water volume and larger area to grow plants can only help, especially if the small tank is overstocked.
For the tank in the pic above, I found having it outside, the day/night temp fluctuations became problematic, so adding the ponds large amount of water as a sump kept the small tanks temps less volatile

There also seems to be some variability in the ability of certain plants to make use of, and need nutrients.
A small amount of fast growing Salvinia seems hungrier and needs to be fed much more than a slow growing Anubias three times it weight (or size)
So choosing the proper plant for nitrate reduction for the job could be important.
Compact, and easy to control Salvinia may be the perfect solution for smallish tanks.
As it spreads, just compost the overage
But if there is room, Papyrus in a giant sump if the main tank is full of large fish.

The root ball of my Papyrus grew to almost half my 125 gal sump, and the plant stems themselves stood almost 5 ft tall.

I pulled the Papyrus a few months ago when mangrove pods became available.
There are now bout a dozen mangrove saplings growing in the sump, but their slow growth indicates their nutrient uptake may not make a big dent, at least at this point.

The photo above is 8 months of growth.
Mangrove tree pod washed up