I've been lurking here awhile, and this thread actually made me register just to add my 2 cents.
I'm not the average person that has attempted this. I don't mind water changes (I do 70% bi - weekly on all my tanks) and i'm not under filtered (Most of my tanks have 4-10x overturn an hour) I just want my fish to be super healthy. I'm going to give you my experience.
First and foremost. My tanks never have any nitrate. Ever. Zero. None. One week, two weeks, five months. None. My plants are heavily planted. I will provide photos.
All I do? Golden pothos. Lots of it. Roots sit in the output of the filters, lights are pushed back to hit the leaves. At first the roots really bothered me visually, now it bothers me if they are not there. Quite natural, and the fish love it, and it smooths out the current and diffuses it nicely.
90 Gallon. 9" oscar, 4" blue acara, 5" l202 pleco. Most would say understocked. 0/0/0 readings. Excuse the sparse / scattered nature of the tank. I'm in the midst of redoing it, and I plundered this to redo my other tanks.
This is a closeup of the roots (excuse the reflection) what I have noticed is that these plants, when buried in dirt have very thick roots that are a dark brown in nature. In the aquarium, as you can see - they are very thin, shoot out in all directions, and are very white. I'm unsure the significance, just an observation.
How the plants are setup on the top of the tank. Notice the rich healthy growth.
Next up, 29 gallon betta tank. 9 bettas, 2 otos. Understocked for a certainty. 0/0/0 Notice something here though; the roots are not nearly as developed, neither is the top growth. What does this tell me? Between the other plants and the low waste output of the tank, there isn't as much for the plant to soak up - compared to the very dirty oscar, who has the richest plant growth. the plant is living and the tank has perfect readings. works for me. Once again just an observation.
And finally, my 75 gallon growout tank. This tank is most definitely overstocked, although most of the following are juvi's. 3x blue phantom pleco, 1x golden bristlenose, 1x firemouth, 2x angel fish, 8x roseline shark, 8x clown loach, 1x blue acara , 1x green severum, 1x EBJD. This tank is also the most heavily planted. 0/0/0. always. Another observation; once I added the pythos, my other plant growth suffered. This, combined with 0/0/0 and root growth that is better then the betta tank, but not quite the oscar tank (which is not as heavily planted) tells me these plants are competing for LIMITED resource (ammonia, nitrate) otherwise plant growth would continue unchecked (if these wastes were still present in system)
to sum it up:
- Plants can , in significant quantity completely neutralize all ammonia / nitrate / nitrite in a system.
- Greater amounts of these wastes will result in greater plant growth. Just anecdotal evidence that they are doing what they are supposed to. Absorbing bad things.
- Root and leave growth indicates the plants will greedily absorb and grow to fit whatever you can throw at them. Like establishing a bacteria colony, you can't expect a stem to absorb an oscars waste - however, given enough time, light, and space golden pothos (what I used) WILL reach an equilibrium.
- Roots develop different when submerged. I am not a botanist so I don't know the significance, but when planted the roots are tangled and thick and dark in nature. When submerged they branch like lightning in all directions, are very light in nature, and considerably thinner
- These plants do such a good job that they can and will compete with other plants for nutrients. I noticed a considerable slowing of other plant growth after pothos was added.
Sorry for the essay, I hope my contribution helps.
I'm not the average person that has attempted this. I don't mind water changes (I do 70% bi - weekly on all my tanks) and i'm not under filtered (Most of my tanks have 4-10x overturn an hour) I just want my fish to be super healthy. I'm going to give you my experience.
First and foremost. My tanks never have any nitrate. Ever. Zero. None. One week, two weeks, five months. None. My plants are heavily planted. I will provide photos.
All I do? Golden pothos. Lots of it. Roots sit in the output of the filters, lights are pushed back to hit the leaves. At first the roots really bothered me visually, now it bothers me if they are not there. Quite natural, and the fish love it, and it smooths out the current and diffuses it nicely.
90 Gallon. 9" oscar, 4" blue acara, 5" l202 pleco. Most would say understocked. 0/0/0 readings. Excuse the sparse / scattered nature of the tank. I'm in the midst of redoing it, and I plundered this to redo my other tanks.
This is a closeup of the roots (excuse the reflection) what I have noticed is that these plants, when buried in dirt have very thick roots that are a dark brown in nature. In the aquarium, as you can see - they are very thin, shoot out in all directions, and are very white. I'm unsure the significance, just an observation.
How the plants are setup on the top of the tank. Notice the rich healthy growth.
Next up, 29 gallon betta tank. 9 bettas, 2 otos. Understocked for a certainty. 0/0/0 Notice something here though; the roots are not nearly as developed, neither is the top growth. What does this tell me? Between the other plants and the low waste output of the tank, there isn't as much for the plant to soak up - compared to the very dirty oscar, who has the richest plant growth. the plant is living and the tank has perfect readings. works for me. Once again just an observation.
And finally, my 75 gallon growout tank. This tank is most definitely overstocked, although most of the following are juvi's. 3x blue phantom pleco, 1x golden bristlenose, 1x firemouth, 2x angel fish, 8x roseline shark, 8x clown loach, 1x blue acara , 1x green severum, 1x EBJD. This tank is also the most heavily planted. 0/0/0. always. Another observation; once I added the pythos, my other plant growth suffered. This, combined with 0/0/0 and root growth that is better then the betta tank, but not quite the oscar tank (which is not as heavily planted) tells me these plants are competing for LIMITED resource (ammonia, nitrate) otherwise plant growth would continue unchecked (if these wastes were still present in system)
to sum it up:
- Plants can , in significant quantity completely neutralize all ammonia / nitrate / nitrite in a system.
- Greater amounts of these wastes will result in greater plant growth. Just anecdotal evidence that they are doing what they are supposed to. Absorbing bad things.
- Root and leave growth indicates the plants will greedily absorb and grow to fit whatever you can throw at them. Like establishing a bacteria colony, you can't expect a stem to absorb an oscars waste - however, given enough time, light, and space golden pothos (what I used) WILL reach an equilibrium.
- Roots develop different when submerged. I am not a botanist so I don't know the significance, but when planted the roots are tangled and thick and dark in nature. When submerged they branch like lightning in all directions, are very light in nature, and considerably thinner
- These plants do such a good job that they can and will compete with other plants for nutrients. I noticed a considerable slowing of other plant growth after pothos was added.
Sorry for the essay, I hope my contribution helps.
