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

[Pandamania]

I have three plants in my cichlid tank. One of them is I guess a "good luck" BAMBOO. I had posted some pix of my stuuf on here, someone told me not to put it completely under water. So I put it into a shallow 5 gl. The odd part is, now it seems I've got a messed-up nitrite and nitrate problem in my cichlid tank. I'm seriously thinking of putting that plant back in there!

 

[MaddMaxx]

Presume the Mangroves just hang? I can get some of them of ebay so will give them a shot

I have all my plants in hanging planters that I got from Hydrophyte. I believe the mangroves especially do well when kept in some substrate. I only got mine a few weeks ago, but they're already sprouting and showing good roots (check out the link in my sig for updates).

One part of this puzzle that I haven't seen worked on is which plants will out-compete which other plants for which nutrients. Pothos easily starve elodea, and it seems that spider plants and pothos are matched for thirst, but can a mangrove grow at all in the presence of greedy vines like pothos?

I'm not sure Knife, I don't have any experience with pothos, but I've never considered the "nutrient competition" aspect. I have my mangroves in planters with fertilizer tabs so I think they're fine for now... I guess we'll see...

 

[carsona246]

The only time I've ever heard of plants suffocating a fish is when your also dosing co2. I don't think deoxygination would be a concern unless your pumping co2 in the tank, which would be unnecessary for pothos/peace lilly

 

[JK47]

The bulk of your plants are Spathiphyllum or commonly called "Peace Lily."

The green and white leaved plant is a Dieffenbachia or commonly called "Dumb Cane." This is the one that could cause a major upset in your tank and kill your aquatic life. If any part of the plant is scratched, broken or decaying, the plant has a liquid like sap that is toxic to animals, children and a skin irritant.

Are you serious? I'll gut it out of there tonight, not willing to risk it. You sound knowledgable, what resources do you use to learn what plants can cause issues or not? Any good links or books? Thanks so much for your post.

 

[knifegill]

Dumbcane was, after all, named for what is does. Paralyze the throat. Or just kill you.

 

[GhostShrimpMan]

I got a plant out from my backyard recently and put it in my aquarium just to see how it would do. It had a big bulb and one leaf when I took it out. Other plants I saw in the the backyard, from the same species I assume, have huge leaves, perhaps 2 feet across. So I was like sweet let's try it out. Well now it's been a week and I now have 2 leaves and some pretty awesome looking roots spanning half of the aquarium. I would say it's doing well.

 

[knifegill]

I have those in my yard, too. I'll add it to the melee! Are they arrow plants or something?

Add cabbage to the list of good emergent aquarium/riparium plants. Got one in my 55g and it's going nuts and getting big.

 

[carsona246]

like the kind of cabbage you eat? I've been looking for some edible plants I could add

 

[knifegill]

Yes, it is grown from gardening seed. Freebie from my workplace and I had the guts to try it in water. It did well, so I tanked it. Big, ugly green cabbage. But with those huge leaves I suspect it will do a good job of metabolizing waste.

 

[carsona246]

I might have to give this a go, although i'm not sure if I could convince my gf to eat something I grew out of my tank