Natural Plant Filter - lower nitrates

[sparg93]

I bought a new tank recently and i'm still planning it out...100g.

The sump is fairly large with lots of room for plants and i have a rather powerful light mounted to the inside of the stand.

My goal is to place enough plants in the sump that it will keep nitrates incredibly and algae out of the display with very little maintenance.

In the saltwater world this is accomplished with clams and chaeto algae. I've read up on freshwater clams and everything says stay away so it is no longer an option.

So, my only option would really be a heavily planted sump. I need something very hardy (i'm a NEWBIE to plants), does not require CO2 injection, and can simply be left alone with little intervention.

Thoughts??

[htn86]

Welcome to the forum. Go here http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/di...k-warning.html

[plantbrain]

Peace lilies and hydro pondic PVC tubes work supper.
I did this about 20 years ago with excellent results.

The NO3 are not so bad, it's the NH4 and getting it to NO3 really fast that is the key. But any export of NO3 is not bad either.

Still, for you to have high NO3, you need high loading of NH4 vuia fish waste, thus if you have fewer fish and or fed them less, you will have lower NO3 if you do the same no# of water changes.

what goes in, must come out.
You can do this via water changes, or use plants to sequenster more of the NH4 and NO3(my preference).

Or you can go a non CO2 planted tank: no water changes, a biodynamic system with the fewest amounts of inpouts and exports, looks nice and is about as easy to care as it gets over time.

See non CO2 planted tank methods.
Might not work with plant eaters or big messy fish.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[sparg93]

The experiment will be a medium stocked tank and balancing out the nitrate load.

No worries about Ammonia/Nitrite, but i would love to see if i can keep nitrates down w/minimal water changes and not lowering food intake.

Sort of a natural filter.

What are Hydro Pondic PVC Tubes? - sounds like placing the plant within PVC and drilling holes...?

Any pictures or links?

[sparg93]

i actually just finished reading that link...cool idea he had.

I could be wrong, but didn't his Nitrates increase from 10 to almost 40?

[Naja002]

You may also want to take a scan through this link:

A. javanicus setup

Pix 6 & 7 show an aquatic plant filter that I used to run prior to and in addition to the emersed plant filter. Its still a 5 unit system, but I no longer run the aquatic plant filter. I've thought about starting one up again--maybe I will, maybe I won't --I don't know right now.....

The 10ppm N03 was when the setup had only 1 snake and both plant filters--plus the denitrator is probably clogged/not working well--who knows?

Now there are 3 snakes (2 adults) in the system, no aquatic plant filter and months of slacking and taking it easy after putting so much energy into everything. I've been dealing with Acrochordus for about 3yrs now. Its taken a lot of resources including mental, physical and financial. The website took many, many hours and currently needs a bunch more hrs worth of updating as I've tried different things and sorted some other things out. That doesn't include other projects, aquariums, working, and dealing with life. Believe me--I'm ready for a break!

40ppm N03 + little to no effort from me for months = No Problemo!

The part that needs to be emphasized is: Since probably Nov. '07 (~5 months) I've done pretty much nothing, except feed the plants 1x/wk and feed the feeder fish. Yeah, I probably cleaned the xP3 once.

I also cleaned the sponge prefilters, regened the purigen and changed out the charcoal filters on the Auto-WC--but that's all been within the last couple of weeks.

So, in 4-5 months I cleaned my canister filter 1x. 40ppm N03? Yeah, Baby!

[python]

I like the idea of the emersed plant filter... no CO2 to worry about and NO ALGAE

[toffee]

Any suggestion on a heavy feeder house plant that can be grown aquaponically?

My friend has grown three really BIG peace lilies aquaponically on his 75g tank with 6 (ave 6-8") cichlids. The plants grew well, and gotten really big, over 2' purely from the cichlid water, but he still have high nitrate issue.

So the issue is plant to fish ratio and what kind of plants to use.

Suggestion please?

[aquanut415]

why not use something like Echinodorous bleherii for a low light setup, or even Canna for a very bright/outdoor setup?

[toffee]

I am going to be adventurous and try some cutting of Brugmansia and Geraniums ....

not sure if these guys feed heavily on Nitrate.