Sump Plant

[Alan]

What would be the best plant to add in a sump to help pull out nitrates? Lighting would be mid-high range, but I don't want to add CO2. Any ideas?

[mistergreen]

any floating & emersed plants you can get your hands on. They'll get CO2 from the air.

[James From Cali]

Duckweed comes to mind.

[FacePlanted]

I would think that Hornwort would work well also. But emersed and floating plants might do even better, like what mistergreen said.

[fshfanatic]

Anacaris (sp) Just leave the sump light on 24/7 and be sure not to forget to trim every so often

[frozenbarb]

Duckweed and May floaters

[mistergreen]

Originally Posted by fshfanatic

Anacaris (sp) Just leave the sump light on 24/7 and be sure not to forget to trim every so often

plants need to 'sleep' too don't they?

[Alan]

Was hoping to stay away from floaters. Tried some awhile ago in my main tank and they made more of a mess it seemed then helped. I supposed I could add some DIY Co2, but no major stuff.

[ikuzo]

i vote for hornwort. ambient light is sufficient, but most sump are inside a cabinet so add some lighting there.

[Alan]

Originally Posted by ikuzo

i vote for hornwort. ambient light is sufficient, but most sump are inside a cabinet so add some lighting there.

Going to be adding a light directly over the sump so it should be well lit

[dufus]

hornwart would be greatest.
Anacharis doesn't like high light much.

floaters get annoying, esp. smaller ones like duckweed.

ideally, you would want to be growing some controlable fast growing algae, but i think that's hard to come by in FW, so yea, hornwart.

add some FW amphipods, MTS, and maybe even some amanos.

[jrs]

Just a thought here; what about java moss?

[dufus]

It wouldn't be as effective as some because it's comparitively slow growing, and doesn't uptake alot of nutrients.


Just adding this in, hornwart is BY FAR the most popular plant i sell at work.
I work at a pond place, and we use HW in our lilly tanks to reduce algae, it's awesome, but like cheato in SW refugiums, it will have to be thinned from time to time.

[mistergreen]

Originally Posted by Alan

Was hoping to stay away from floaters. Tried some awhile ago in my main tank and they made more of a mess it seemed then helped. I supposed I could add some DIY Co2, but no major stuff.

it made a mess?
I can see duckweed doing that but whatabout water lettuce or water hyacynth

[ikuzo]

i just remember that salvinia natans suck nitrates like crazy.