Pothos and Light
- Thread starter DN328
- Start date
That pothos set up you have there is one of the better ones i've seen. Can you remember what your nitrate build up was like before you had that pothos plant in comparison to what your nitrate build up is currently?
Wow...I would spend all my time managing that under my sump if I was fortunate enough to get such growth.
DN328 knowing how crazy u are about cleanliness make sure the light isnt pointed down into the sump.
I did the same thing with water lettuce and a grow light and eventually had tons of algea growing all over the sump. Even i didnt like the look of it.
Ha you know me mon LOL. Now you got me worried about algae growth in my sump. If I decide to go through AND use the Finnex clip on, I was thinking of point across, but Im sure it's going to hit the chamber...
I was planning to use the caddy or ring to hold some in the chamber where you see heaters and UV. I do wonder if it's even enough room to grow enough that would make a noticeable difference in nitrate.
I don't think I need UV but I use them since I have them
Good question. If that doesnt make a dent, I certainly would not grow enough to come close.
I had this growing and could not see a noticeable decrease in nitrates using typical at home test kits. There were a couple more larger branches of leaves to this, but I broke them when I was removing it from the sump. I just let the roots grow freely in my filter sock chamber. They started to grow around the baffles though lol
This is a 20 tall that is plumbed in the closet behind my 125. So the return pump for the tank is tri y-ed for 2 returns to the tank and one to this 20. The pipe to this tank has a shut off valve that is barely open so not much flow gets to it. It then just dumps back into the sump. There are 2 led full spectrum flood lights on 12 hr timer. When the 125 has been lightly stocked I can't detect nitrates. At a somewhat heavy stock like the couple days I was setting up my 180 and had all my clowns in the 125 I got about 40ppm but that disappeared a couple days after with a water change and moving the fish out. 
Two weeks ago I trimmed this down to the white pipe. In part because I'm struggling finding the right amount of food the new fish in the tank will eat and they are messy eaters but I get similar growth monthly.
I have pothos in all my tanks but it works really well on this one. I believe for a couple reasons, light/dark schedule, dwell time, and directed output. Lights are on 12 hrs/off 12 hrs, being in a closet when the lights are off it's dark and I think this is almost as important as the quality of light. Dwell time, since there is not a lot of flow thru the water that is there has time with the plants. Directed output, when I put this together I plumbed it in such a way that the water coming into the 20 is directed at the roots of the pothos.
All this is just my experience and the pothos only really shines in the 125, it doesn't do much in the rest of my tanks.
Two weeks ago I trimmed this down to the white pipe. In part because I'm struggling finding the right amount of food the new fish in the tank will eat and they are messy eaters but I get similar growth monthly.
I have pothos in all my tanks but it works really well on this one. I believe for a couple reasons, light/dark schedule, dwell time, and directed output. Lights are on 12 hrs/off 12 hrs, being in a closet when the lights are off it's dark and I think this is almost as important as the quality of light. Dwell time, since there is not a lot of flow thru the water that is there has time with the plants. Directed output, when I put this together I plumbed it in such a way that the water coming into the 20 is directed at the roots of the pothos.
All this is just my experience and the pothos only really shines in the 125, it doesn't do much in the rest of my tanks.
Your pothos look very healthy too. I suppose if I kept pothos in the sump I would also get continuous water flow in the sump. Else, I'm just going to have some decaying plants, algae taken over sump and nitrates as high as ever.
There's dead plant in there all the time, it dries out quickly and is easily pulled out. If you get it to thrive you'll need to trim quite often anyway.
I had the same issue with water lettuce. Did ok on smaller stocked tank but did nothing on the larger bioload poly tank. It grew like crazy but didnt put a dent in nitrates.
