Plant only filtration (why not popular in the hobby???)

[Terraphyte Tank Guy]

A internal filter wont do anything for nitrates which is the purpose of plants

IT...

Very good point. But, the nitrates being at the end of the nitrogen cycle and not especially toxic to fish at low levels, won't build up in just a few hours at night before the plants take over when the lights come on the next morning and remove the bulk of them.

TTG

 

[Jhay3513]

So i have had pothos in the overflow of my 75 gallon Haitiensis grow out tank since last summer. I noticed that my water flow in my overflow to my sump was slowing down so I planned to trim the roots yesterday during a water change. Here’s what i found.........

 

[Jhay3513]

Here’s the plant from the outside

 

[Deadliestviper7]

Here’s the plant from the outside
View attachment 1326382 View attachment 1326383

Wow lot of root growth! Needs a trim or a bigger sump

 

[ITHURTZ]

beautiful root structure, get it some more room!

 

[Hendre]

That's absolutely insane! Next is to divide and conquer

 

[Deadliestviper7]

Justin Martin

 

[FishWife200]

Justin Martin

Wow! Is it happy. I use a dirt under layer and my tanks are also in front of a window. But they have never gotten that big! Well done!

 

[David R]

I'm slowly working my way through this thread as I'm thinking about setting up a 2.6M 640g rectangle Intex pool in a greenhouse for a pond, and would like to keep it as low cost as possible (so plant only filtration is appealing). I grow Pothos in my tank inside, and I'm sure they'd do a lot better with natural light outdoors. Ideally I don't want to have anything consuming power to run the pond, and I guess that will effect stocking levels (which doesn't bother me greatly).
What other species of plants could/should I look at for this sort of temperate pond? I'd like some lilies in there too, not sure how they go at removing nitrates etc compared to pothos?

 

[Terraphyte Tank Guy]

I'm slowly working my way through this thread as I'm thinking about setting up a 2.6M 640g rectangle Intex pool in a greenhouse for a pond, and would like to keep it as low cost as possible (so plant only filtration is appealing). I grow Pothos in my tank inside, and I'm sure they'd do a lot better with natural light outdoors. Ideally I don't want to have anything consuming power to run the pond, and I guess that will effect stocking levels (which doesn't bother me greatly).
What other species of plants could/should I look at for this sort of temperate pond? I'd like some lilies in there too, not sure how they go at removing nitrates etc compared to pothos?

David...

If your indoor plants are placed outdoors, they'll need filtered light. They won't do very well if they get direct sunlight for any length of time. If your tank is in an area that gets mostly indirect light, then that would be fine. If you're looking for a plant that will help filter the water, then you won't find a better one than the Chinese evergreen. (Aglaonema). To effectively filter the water, the plant root system needs to be large. I keep this plant in some 55 and 60 gallon indoor tanks and just top off the tanks with distilled water. The plants keep the water so clean, I never have to do any water changes.

TTG