Plants consuming nitrates and other "consumables"

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Miguel

Miguel

Ole Dawg
MFK Member
Dec 28, 2006
15,870
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Very much south..
I am doing an experiment in one of my tanks ( housing a big Aro com ). Said tank has a big sump where I have, in one big chamber in the middle, a lot of water plants ( with light and everything plants need ).

Now yesterday I made the following adition to the system...

(1) Only with the roots submerged fixed to eggcrate in a place where water flows through the roots, I put several Spatophyllum plants. A guy here told me that they are very much nitrate and phosphate consuming and that they secret some excretion that consumes algae.

(2) I got one of those big in-house plants ( the type of plants you see in the lobbies of buildings ) that has several aereal roots growing out the plant's trunks...Some of those aerel roots are now with their ends deeply submerged in the sump's 1st chamber ( the one the water falls in from the tank ).

I am told that this is one of the best solutions for naturally cleaning water of nitrates and excess nutrients...

anyone has experience with this sort of experiment?

am I mising something I should not miss?

:)
 
Miguel;845361; said:
I am doing an experiment in one of my tanks ( housing a big Aro com ). Said tank has a big sump where I have, in one big chamber in the middle, a lot of water plants ( with light and everything plants need ).

Now yesterday I made the following adition to the system...

(1) Only with the roots submerged fixed to eggcrate in a place where water flows through the roots, I put several Spatophyllum plants. A guy here told me that they are very much nitrate and phosphate consuming and that they secret some excretion that consumes algae.

(2) I got one of those big in-house plants ( the type of plants you see in the lobbies of buildings ) that has several aereal roots growing out the plant's trunks...Some of those aerel roots are now with their ends deeply submerged in the sump's 1st chamber ( the one the water falls in from the tank ).

I am told that this is one of the best solutions for naturally cleaning water of nitrates and excess nutrients...

anyone has experience with this sort of experiment?

am I mising something I should not miss?

:)
Click to expand...


sounds great....let hear your results !!!
 
will keep u posted!!
 
Hi Miguel,

Good job, I don't know what the secretions are (plants don't exude bacteria or enzimes for the most part).

I know that these plants are very good at filtering air.

For sump applications, I found cattails http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typha for bog style, water hyacinth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_hyacinth & water lettuce http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pistia, & alligator weed http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/alphpic.html for floating plants; and Hydrilla verticillata, and Ceratophyllum demersum, for submerged plants.

Make sure to keep good records and keep us posted of your evaluations.

Dr Joe

.
 
thank you Dr. Joe!! I was waiting, eagerly I might say, for you!!

M
 
The ones that supposedlly release the "secretion" are of the SPATHIPHYLLUM family...

In my case it sthe Spathiphyllum Quatro..
 
I do this same sort of thing on all my tanks
I am most proud of my ac-110 conversion I put alot of work into it :)
Seriously these peace lilies work great
Typha and water Hyacinth are the champs but not well suited for an aquarium
I have used all kind of stuff and peace lilies is one of the best

mini-DSCN3224.JPG
 
Exactly!! Like mine! I have put loads in the sump ( looks like your in the hang on filter ) and they look lively, standing straight up!

Would you confirm that excretion thing? I was told so, that it is very effective agains algae formation...
 
I can already tell you the answer. I have 10ppm nitrate in my tap water and STOCKED 220gal. I have plants in the tank itself and my nitrate stays a consistent 5ppm
 
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