Nitrates and Plants

[Odd Duck]

@dasaltemelosguy I like the look of your stock in the “bamboo forest”.  Very soothing colors and gives a very tranquil look.

I wonder what my Jack Dempsey pair would think about this?  Gomez and Morticia have uprooted everything else I’ve tried to plant no matter how many rocks I pile around the roots.  But if the canes are held top *and* bottom (I’ve got bigger rocks I can use, but they wouldn’t work for the smaller plants I had).  Hmmm.  This may be next week’s big project.

If I used the big rocks and an otherwise bare bottom, it would still be very cleanable with help from a turkey baster fastened to the siphon to blast debris out of the rocks.  Now if I could just get them to leave alone some jungle Val in pots with rocks packed around the base of the plants.

[Isaac M]

@dasaltemelosguy I have no data or rules for riparian plants but I have yet to add too much that they die from lack of nutrients. But I agree, they do wonders for eating up nutrients in the aquarium. I utilize them in almost every single aquarium I have and my nitrates stay under control. 

[dasaltemelosguy]

Gomez and Morticia?!   I love it! 

Odd Duck, I think you're idea is spot on. The leverage that enables them to dislodge them by pushing the top over will be removed as they're anchored by roots and at the top. The stalks are quite strong, I doubt they can do damage to it. They're like 1/2" thick wooden dowels in feel.  For what it's worth, I have a 12" Oscar that tears to shreds anything I put in there and he bit and pulled at them for the first  2 days and finally gave up. And the pacu's are sweet and fun but impulsive and crash into them all the time. I particularly like your idea of the 'rockpiles'. Mine are in 4" worth of gravel so vacuuming becomes must be done 'through the trees' if you will. The rockpiles sound like they might prove very pretty and easy to clean. I'd love to see pictures of what you come up with. 

[dasaltemelosguy]

I hear you Isaac M. I'm still in disbelief of the sheer magnitude of nitrate reduction. The first time I tested it I literally opened a second set of bottles thinking they were defective!

I don't know which consumes more nitrate, the pothos or bamboo because although the bamboo tank's nitrates are now only 5ppm, it's much smaller fishes than Oscars and pacu's (Blue Acaras and Red Severums). The latter is now circa 10ppm. I'm still quite surprised as I've typically has 40ppm+ in these tanks and far higher as the larger fishes grew, circa 80ppm or higher. WC's twice a week to manage until this. 

Your tanks are gorgeous BTW. I'd love no top but I had to work out the lighting grid cover or these large, very active fish would be all over the floor!  I'm thinking of adding an arowana once they all move to the 300. 

[Odd Duck]

I’m ordering stuff today, lol!  I may have to get more river rocks.  I’ve got several, but not sure it’s enough until I pile them up and see how it looks.  I’ve got plenty of other rocks, but they have more texture and I’m not sure I want to use too much texture with these goofy Jacks.  They’re pretty, but they aren’t really very smart for large cichlids.

I don’t have enough space to do the full length of the back (I have a couple big HOB’s on that tank), but had already ordered 2 shower caddies to hold pothos plants, so I’ll drill out some bigger holes in the bottom of those, put egg crate over top of them (already have some), and they should be as braced as I can make them.  I’ll only have room for 10 bamboo, I think.

I’m also thinking I’ll do some small pots for the roots of the bamboo (and pile the rock around and on top).  I’m also going to try some larger pots about half full of dirt capped with sand substrate for some jungle Val.  Then I’ll pile up smaller rocks (too big for ingesting) on top of the substrate in all the pots.  The Val will have to force its way up through the rocks, but it should protect the base/roots.  I’ll have to start those in another tank or they’ll rip them loose even with rocks piled up around them.  Once the Val is growing, it will go in the 75 with the crazy Jacks.  I think the effect will be pretty cool.

I’ve been hating the way that tank looks with the fake plants, but hadn’t come up with a better solution for getting live plants in there except for the pothos idea.  But I think I can do that, too, along with the bamboo and, I hope, the jungle Val.  I’ll let the pothos trail down the back of the tank to help limit algae inside the tank.  I don’t have any backer on that tank, so the marble pothos trailing down should be pretty with the light coming through it.  Might even have to feed those snails a bit more since I’m actually going to clean the back glass (What?).  😆 

Thanks for spawning the idea!  Between bamboo, pothos, and maybe Val, it should balance nicely, I think.

[Isaac M]

@dasaltemelosguy again, I have no data but I would imagine pothos would consume more, just based off of how fast it grows in comparison to the lucky bamboo and the shear size the pothos can grow to. I am not sure if I will do another freshwater aquarium without riparian plants ever again, they just provide so much benefit 😂

[dasaltemelosguy]

Odd Duck that sounds incredible. Like an art installation! I too hate fake plants. You're right, the pothos could grow right out of the HOBs. Your rock piles sound stunning. Love to see it when you're done!

[Odd Duck]

@dasaltemelosguy

I may actually venture to do a thread about it.  I’m not sure how stunning the rock piles will be.  I’m not even sure the rock will pile up at all.  Right now, I’m planning to use river rock in various sizes, so I won’t really be able to *pile* since they’re rounded and too slippery.  It will mostly be judicious placement of big ones around the bamboo pots, then smaller ones to help brace those in place, and smaller ones carefully placed to “look natural” on the bare bottom.  😆 😂 🤣  

I do have some petrified wood pieces that I may see if I can place those well enough to simulate some chunks of “rotting” wood.  Some of those are holding down driftwood in my 100 gallon right now.  😆 I even have a couple chunks of driftwood that I may try to cram into gaps in the rocks.  Kind of getting away from the clean, “just bamboo and Val” idea now, though.  This would all look so much better with a sand bottom, but then I’d have trouble getting detritus out from between rocks.  Not to mention all the digging Jacks would do, constantly stirring up sand.

 

Right now the tank is a bit of a hot mess.  I guess it could make a good “before and after”!  I have a couple shelves in it that *had* substrate and plants in them.  Most of that substrate is now on the bottom of the tank, so I’ll have to clear all that out.

The filters are way overdue for a rinse and thorough prefilter cleanings, and maybe a very light rinse of the sponge blocks inside the filters (only if indicated by excessive sludge).

I have the jungle Val scheduled to be delivered Saturday, I have shower caddies (to hold lucky bamboo and pothos stems) expected on Friday.  I already have egg crate diffuser for additional bracing of stems/bamboo and probably enough pots to use for the base of the bamboo and for the Vals.  Small rocks to cover substrate are also expected on Friday.  Bamboo isn’t expected until next week.  😕  I have screen to keep clay soil, Osmocote granules, then sand layers from leaking out the bottom of the pots.

Dang it, I forgot to order a new turkey baster!  Mine’s so old the bulb’s getting dry rotted.  Oh, well, I’ve got a couple weeks before I’ll need that.

I’m sure there’s other things I’ve forgotten, but I’m hoping to keep this as clean and simple as possible.  Might tuck some Spathiphyllium into those shower caddies, too, while I’m “planting”.  I’ve got plenty of that already.

For anybody that has plants growing inside their HOB’s, did you just put the plants onto or beside your sponge blocks and let them grow into them?  I have empty cartridges that I could use to brace the plants inside the HOB’s, but I’d rather keep the sponge blocks in there.  I know they’ll be “ruined” by the plant roots, but I’d rather have the filtration.  Did you do anything else, like using egg crate grid to brace stems?  I wasn’t planning to put plants inside the HOB’s, but the idea is growing on me to have a whole “wall” of plants at the back.

I’d appreciate any other thoughts or suggestions before I get too deep into this makeover.  Yes or no to driftwood with the bamboo?  Yes or no to sand?  I’d use the coarsest pool sand I could find for this one if I do sand at all.

Too tired for this, I’ll come back to it tomorrow.

[BaRanchik]

To get rid of nitrates in my tank I use a floating ring and fill it with duckweed. The duckweed sucks out nitrates SO fast it's letting me skip water changes almost completely. For a big tank like yours you could use a few of those rings. The nice thing about those rings is if you get one that holds the duckweed inside of it - you won't have it spread all over the tank and block light (I got mine from Etsy).

However, if your fish is a goldfish or any other fish that will eat duckweed - this will not work. My two juvenile goldfish can devour tons of it a day.