Pothos, trim roots to encourage growth ?

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888fish

888fish

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jun 19, 2008
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Heavily stocked freshwater tank in garage. Using 500ml of purigen in 40G sump, consistent 80% water changes every Sunday. I have pothos growing in my tank for a year now, probably 8ft+ long, but only sprouting 2-3 new leaves every month or so. I just added a 27W CFL grow light, been using 4+ hrs daily for a week now.

Should I trim the pothos roots to encourage more growth?

My nitrates are still approx 25-30ppm at the end of the week. Didn't get a baseline prior to pothos. Thanks!
 
888fish said:
Heavily stocked freshwater tank in garage. Using 500ml of purigen in 40G sump, consistent 80% water changes every Sunday. I have pothos growing in my tank for a year now, probably 8ft+ long, but only sprouting 2-3 new leaves every month or so. I just added a 27W CFL grow light, been using 4+ hrs daily for a week now.

Should I trim the pothos roots to encourage more growth?

My nitrates are still approx 25-30ppm at the end of the week. Didn't get a baseline prior to pothos. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Thats very high nitrates. What is your stock?
 
Reserve the right to not answer that question at this time. LOL. Lets just say, I like all the activity in a crowded tank. Been in this hobby for 27 yrs, just curious about trimming the roots of Pothos. Many Thanks.
 
I wouldn't imagine it would, is there room in your tank to add more stalks of Pothos?

If so you could try cutting your vine in half and having the other half growing in the tank as well to add more plants to help remove it.
 
Trimming the roots a little may help, but the light will help as well. I had a bunch growing in an ac110 that got little natural light. It stayed healthy but didn't really grow much. Moved some of it to my sump with a cheap light that's on about 12 hrs a day and it has taken right off. With that said, even with the pothos growing well I don't believe you will see a noticeable drop in nitrates in a heavily stocked tank. I have less stock than you, but I have nitrates from the tap. So my nitrates end up about where yours are by the end of the week. The pork is has not made a noticeable difference for me.
 
you dont need to trim pothos, just add more pothos vines into the tank. to improve pothos growth rate, add a little current to their roots.
 
Trim the plant not the roots. Plants get their nutrients from their roots and from the photosynthesis occurring in the leaves. When you trim the plant it causes the roots to spread farther to acquire more nutrients to supply the plant to make up for the lack of photosynthesis. Once the roots grow more you will see a significant amount of growth on the plant itself. At least this is what I do with all my houseplants, not sure if it makes any difference in an aquarium.
 
I read about that. Trimed a lot of vines yesterday, leaving only two long thick vines coming from a bushy collection. Will C.
 
When initially adding the pothos to the tank there is a benefit to trimming the roots. After this amount of time it won't help though.

Adding more light or more plants will likely see a larger improvement.

As someone who also likes the look of a well stocked tank I know what a pain it can be at times.
 
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