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Re: NFC: plant filtering capabilities
Use Pothos Ivy and other fast-growing houseplants, with their roots
immersed, but leaves out in the air. They get way more CO2, that way, so do
a better job of using up the water-borne nutrients that the fish don't like.
Cabomba often requires too much light, anyway.
The best submersed plants are so fast growing some have been classified as
weeds and banned from shipment in CA. Hygrophila polysperma, Water Sprite
and any fast-growing stem plants are better than Java moss, which is a
pretty slow grower. You may need brighter light, but equalize the on-off
periods (roughly) or you will discourage plant growth and encourage algae.
Plants grow a lot while respiring in the dark (they need the dark time to do
it). Algae can use light constantly.
Good floating plants include Water Hyacinth and Water Lettuce. Frogbit is
good, too. All can utilize CO2 from the atmosphere to get their carbon. All
need very bright light, tho.
Most of the swords grow very well emersed, and one in particular, Brazil
Sword, is expensive at the LFS and dirt cheap at the nursery under other
names. :-) [BTW, it does poorly when completely submersed, and isn't really
an aquatic plant at all.] Look for plants that like really wet roots, tho.
Wright
Kristine Weisbrod Massin wrote:
>
> Does anyone know the comparitive filtering/water cleaning abilities of
> different aquarium plants?
>
> There's a gentleman in town here (Denver) who has set up an interesting
> aquarium filter for his marine aquariums. He uses the case & pump from a
> wet-dry undertank, but instead of using bioballs he fills it with plants.
> It seems to work great, the tanks in the shop he had that setup on were
> much healthier than the ones with the traditional set-ups.
>
> I'm thinking I would like to combine this idea with my current wet-dry.
> My plan is to leave the bio balls in, but fill the resevoir side with
> plants & leave grow light on them all from 1pm to 11am (not quite 24 hours
> & flipped from the plants in the tank). I'll have to build a screen
> filter for the pump, but that's pretty simple.
>
> My problem is that the only plant I have an abundant amount of is java
> moss and I'm not sure what kind of filtering ability it has. I could get
> some cabamba for pretty cheap, but I've never had really good luck with
> it. Maybe a mixture of assorted plants would be good? My amazon swords
> from my old tropical tank are sending out babies like mad...they need to
> be seperated anyway...there's no room for the fish anymore!
>
> Suggestions?
>
> thanks,
>
> kris
--
Wright Huntley, Fremont CA, USA, 510 494-8679 huntleyone at home dot com
"As government regulations grow slowly, we become used to the harness.
Habit is a powerful force, and we no longer feel as intensely as we
once would have [the] constriction of our liberties that would have
been utterly intolerable a mere half century ago." --Judge Robert Bork
*** http://www.libertarian.org/ ***
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