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Cheap plants, less nitrate! POTHOS

I have a 125 gallon with 2 Oscar's 2 Jack Dempsey 2 convicts and a common pleco. I have 6 pots of pathos roots in the top of the tank and 2 very large pots in the sump, tank has been running almost a year now and I've only changed water once, highest my nitrates ever were was a few months after adding plant's and fish 10 ppm that's when I changed water about 50%, since then the highest they've got up to was about 5 ppm and most recently 0. I do about a 5 gallon top off per week and that's it.

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Oh ots completely ghetto all DIY, bought pumps, lava rock and plants, tank was a hand down and lights are plant spotlights. I'll try to get more pics tonight.
 
I figured that this would be a great idea since I have growing fish! I bought pothos, but my tank setup isn't that great for placing them in the top. I have a tight hood, so there's barely any room for them. I have a sump underneath, but it's crowded and I don't really want a light in there. I'm building an auxilliary tank for growing them. I bought an acrilyc vase, a small 180 gph pump, some tubing, bulkheads, and some lava rocks. The water fro my sump will be pumped into the bottom of the vase, up through the lava rocks, and out an overflow back to the sump.

Here's where I'm at now:

The vase was drilled and bulkheads installed, offset on purpose.
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View from the top with the overflow and the false bottom installed above the inlet, hoping to keep it clear and have a diverse path for the water to rise up.
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Dry mock up, just waiting for the silicone to cure. You can see the tiny little pothos peeking out the back of my tank. There is a big set of windows that shine in from the left, lots of light.
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Gaddisautoglass said:
I have a 125 gallon with 2 Oscar's 2 Jack Dempsey 2 convicts and a common pleco. I have 6 pots of pathos roots in the top of the tank and 2 very large pots in the sump, tank has been running almost a year now and I've only changed water once, highest my nitrates ever were was a few months after adding plant's and fish 10 ppm that's when I changed water about 50%, since then the highest they've got up to was about 5 ppm and most recently 0. I do about a 5 gallon top off per week and that's it.
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Chris, with this bio load, this sounds impossible. What test kit are you using? If it's the API master test kit, are you following the nitrate test instructions to a "T"?

We do primarily change water to manage nitrates, but not doing a WC in almost a year, while topping up the tank level is going to mess with the water's KH and GH (among other things), that eventually you're going to have a pH crash that will do in the tank.

I'm another pothos keeper and have a big one in my 75g where I keep an adult oscar and green severum. My pothos is big and constantly growing with a huge root mass. I notice zero nitrate reduction with this plant in the tank. I keep my nitrate creep below 20ppm by doing a weekly fin-level water change on this tank.

This isn't the most recent pic of my pothos. It's got 4-5 large runners that hang 2-3 feet from the back of the tank that you can't see from the pic.
 
BEERSWIMMER said:
Finished, up and running!
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Beer- That's a BIG 'ol pothos!!

Was that planted in soil originally? Hopefully you trimmed the roots WAAAY back after washing the soil off. These plants have to go through a conversion where they convert their terrestrial roots to aquatic roots. This is why it helps to trim most all of the "dirt" roots off before you submerge what's left. It will speed the process along and won't stun the plant any.
 
Yes I use the api liquid kit, add minerals from time to time, I have a total of 10 pots in it, the shortest vine is over 5', longest is close to 10 but I trim a little off bi-weekly to promote new grow, mine grow around a foot or so in that time . Plus they get natural light all day through the window. I guess I did kinda exaggerate the no change in a year. I do a gravel vac every couple months but that's only maybe 5-10 gallons.

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