what are some good ways to keep nitrates low ?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
jp80911;4362334; said:
if the plants added are aquatic plants that use CO2 dissolved in water you'll need to inject CO2, it'll be same as adding the plants in the display tank.
if adding plants that grow out of the water surface and consume CO2 in the air, that's a different story.
I haven't don't too much research on this yet since I just start thinking about it.

will Scindapsus aureus be a good plant ??
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the best/cheapest/ easiest to grow emmersed is i find Lucky bamboo go to any chinese super market or chinese or asian store and they will have some. get a bunch plant them with their roots in the water and their stem/leaves in the air and watch their roots grow like nuts.

Having a storng light over them helps too. A "daylight" compact flourescent from home depot would be great for this.


AND voila you have a mini refugium.
 
Zander_The_RBP;4364175; said:
the best/cheapest/ easiest to grow emmersed is i find Lucky bamboo go to any chinese super market or chinese or asian store and they will have some. get a bunch plant them with their roots in the water and their stem/leaves in the air and watch their roots grow like nuts.

Having a storng light over them helps too. A "daylight" compact flourescent from home depot would be great for this.


AND voila you have a mini refugium.
Click to expand...

I was trying to decide between devil's ivy and lucky bamboo. I guess bamboo will be easier to control since they only grow upward, and devil's ivy will be growing everywhere and my fish room will turn into a jungle.
 
I have had great success with duck weed. Also experimenting with waterlilies after Foster's post. (One has gone crazy, the other nothing). With my next w/c Wed., I am incorporating a few Cyperus involucratus( baby tut grass).
I haven't seen an improvement in my nitrates, but the level hovers around 10-20ppm... which I have seen has been highly debated on this thread. It skyrocketed last week when I fed the gang cabbage and silversides ( I think I missed some pieces).
 
jp80911;4364958;4364958 said:
I was trying to decide between devil's ivy and lucky bamboo. I guess bamboo will be easier to control since they only grow upward, and devil's ivy will be growing everywhere and my fish room will turn into a jungle.
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jp- I am going for the 'jungle look' as well... I am quite proud of myself, I hung my light from the ceiling(thanks Home Depot), and hope to have plants shooting out of the water and trailing everywhere in a couple months!
 
Pyramid_Party;4362351; said:
Do you got evidence? Theres tons of fish that live in very bad conditions and plenty of them live long. Just take a look at some of the people that don't know what they are doing and keeping oscars in yellow water. Some of those fish live like 5-8 years or even longer that way. The point is people freak out about nitrates when really a bunch of obsessive fish keepers made everyone paranoid to do 90% water changes every other day.

Nothing wrong with keeping your water clean, but don't need to obsess over 10-20 ppm of nitrates.

People talk about clean water and fish living long, but very few here have had fish they have kept alive for even 5+ years. And then you look at these fish noobs that keep 2 oscars in a 55 gallon for 10 years in yellow water. Makes you wonder.
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Evidence? Sure. I have a friend that bought 2 puffers and let his tank get up to over 50ppm of nitrates over the year. The smaller of the 2 couldn't take it anymore and was found dead on the bottom of the tank. Ever since he's stepped up his water changes and kept the nitrates under 20, the surviving puffer has become more active, and much more colorful. So yeah, 40-50ppm of nitrates is awful.

Second, I have a Ceylon puffer that is almost 5 years old. If you have a fish that is as sensitive to nitrates as a puffer for at least that long, let me know. I doubt you have.
Oh, and as for oscars living in yellow water ( not that yellow water means high nitrates, could just be color from the food or something ), why? If they were in clean water, with low nitrates, they'd probably live 12+ years...
 
mhansen76;4365202; said:
jp- I am going for the 'jungle look' as well... I am quite proud of myself, I hung my light from the ceiling(thanks Home Depot), and hope to have plants shooting out of the water and trailing everywhere in a couple months!
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let me know how it goes for you since I won't be adding any plant to my sump anytime soon, still have to wait for the basement to be finished first.
it'll be either devil's ivy or lucky bamboo. devil's ivy being the cheapest cuz I can get it for free by taking a piece off from my aunt's house but bamboo can easily be confined within my sump....decisions decisions...
 
jp80911;4365611; said:
let me know how it goes for you since I won't be adding any plant to my sump anytime soon, still have to wait for the basement to be finished first.
it'll be either devil's ivy or lucky bamboo. devil's ivy being the cheapest cuz I can get it for free by taking a piece off from my aunt's house but bamboo can easily be confined within my sump....decisions decisions...
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I'd really really like to see pics of this. I plan on setting up a 180 with a sump, so every idea is valuable.
 
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