"The Cove"-When Nitrate Reduction Gets Out of Control...

[dasaltemelosguy]

About two years ago, as some of you know, I was part of an experiment to quantify the nitrate consumption of a variety of plants. Emergent plants ultimately won the day insofar as nitrate uptake was concerned, with Lucky Bamboo and Pothos consuming the most and 2^nd most respectively.

This was that test:  "Alternative Nitrate Reduction via Emergent's"

That test lasted for one year. It was performed in my tanks as well as in a dozen or so tanks at an LFS. Upon the experiment’s completion, I found myself with a LOT of emergent plants…and only three tanks.

I unfortunately never thought to shoot imagery to document the early stages of this test, so I only had the results, but not the process.

However, the following video may prove of interest to those with emergent plants in their tanks.

Please see this 10-minute video of the fish room we call; “The Cove”.

Our original plan was to create a mini, virtual, ‘cove’ in a small room if you will. We installed three, large tanks in a “U” arrangement on three sides which forms a square once the couch seating closes the ‘4^th side’.

We attempted to create a pseudo-art installation, as it was set up in a room that we use to display a lot of our art collection.

The tanks are open on all sides with one exception. We thought perhaps with the tanks being visible 360*, that we’d 'see the tanks, through the tanks', as well as from many angles as they reflect off of each other from countless angles and directions.

What we did not anticipate was growth. Pothos eventually covered the backs and sides on all three tanks and now runs across the floor, and Lucky Bamboo, well, it now hits the ceiling.

In fact, I had to move a ceiling fan TWICE to avoid the ever-growing bamboo!

 

My tanks lack the sophistication I often see here at COOP as mine are not biotopes nor are they aqua-scaped in any sophisticated or authentic manner. They’re relatively simplistic; just a bunch of happy, healthy, fish with no fear of each other…or me, as you’ll see.

It’s a 10-minute video. If you don’t have much time, try to check out the last 2 minutes as it shows an Oscar Fight (my Oscar vs my right hand!) that is pretty wild.

I apologize about the length. I hope you like it.

 

“The Cove” – When Nitrate Reduction Gets Out of Control...

 

Here are the details on the 3 tanks in the video:

125 Gallon (6'): 

Oscar (14")
Pleco (12")
Two large Parrot Fish 5" & 8"
Silver Dollar school (adults)

Ten, 5'-6' stalks Lucky Bamboo
Four large Pothos Plants
Two Fluval FX6 canisters

Average Nitrates after 2 weeks: 10PPM
-------------------------------------------
120 Gallon: 

Red Severums
Gold Severums
Electric Blue Acaras
Dojo Loaches
Plecos (12" & 8")

Ten, 5'-6' stalks Lucky Bamboo 
Two large Pothos Plants
Two Fluval FX6 canisters

Average Nitrates after 2 weeks: 5PPM
-----------------------------------------
75 Gallon:

Shubunkins
Dojo Loaches
Electric Blue Acaras
German Blue Rams
Longfin Lemon Blue-Eyed Plecos
Mystery Snails
Nerite Snails
Millenium Rainbow
Bosemani Rainbows
Silver Dollars

Twenty, 5'-6' stalks Lucky Bamboo 
Two large Pothos Plants
Two SunSun 704b canisters

Average Nitrates after 2 weeks: None Measurable

Edited August 17, 2022 by dasaltemelosguy
Wrong Name in Fish List

[Guppysnail]

Absolutely stunning fish. With those types of displays the fish are the works of art. Oscar is my new favorite majestic psycho 😍. The surrounding artwork really sets them off. I could sit there and be enthralled for days on end. The bamboo and pothos are really beautiful as well but nothing compared to those beautiful fish. 

[BeeD]

Watched the whole thing. I love it! I feel like you really knew what you wanted, considering you moved the ceiling fan twice. Every tank is just gorgeous, and you're right the fish look incredibly healthy and happy, colors galore. 

I've always liked the underwater bamboo look. I think I saw some egg crate or something, was that to keep them from tipping over? That's a great idea. 

[TeeJay]

I wish I could get my emergent plants to grow like that. My bamboo looks healthy but hasn't grown any. The pothos inch plant and Swiss cheese plant haven't done anything either. The only thing I can figure is I'm not cutting the vines at the proper nodes to stimulate the root growth. So whatever it is your doing it's working wonderfully. I would be proud to say those tanks were mine.

Edited August 16, 2022 by TeeJay

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I just float the pothos cutting, leaves & all, in the tank.  It usually sinks, but still remains healthy looking when completely underwater.  I haven't tried this for an extended period of time, but about 1-2 months or so.

Edited August 16, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[jwcarlson]

Making me miss my oscars!

I put some pothos cuttings and philodendron cuttings in my 75 discus tanks, I like the look of the roots hanging down.  My only concern is what to do when the plants gets massive.  I guess just keep trimming and dealing with it.

@TeeJayWeird that your pothos won't get going.  The nodes have a very visible root bump on them.  Unless you're just cutting a leaf off (not taking any of the main vine), they're tough to mess up.  Fresh cuttings do take a bit of time to get rolling.  But once they get a decent amount or root going they start rolling.  How long have you had them in?

Edited August 16, 2022 by jwcarlson

[Patrick_G]

I love that Severum tank, absolutely stunning! I also like that you’re successfully keeping Shubunkins  with Rainbows, Cichlids and Silver dollars. It looks like everyone is getting along just fine. 

[Flumpweesel]

Lots of beautiful fish, thanks for sharing. Everyone's colour is amazing.

You can prune lucky bamboo it will just put out a new branch.

[FLFishChik]

Stunning! That room looks so peaceful and relaxing and the tanks are gorgeous! You inspire me to try the lucky bamboo now!

[TeeJay]

On 8/16/2022 at 4:23 PM, jwcarlson said:

Making me miss my oscars!

I put some pothos cuttings and philodendron cuttings in my 75 discus tanks, I like the look of the roots hanging down.  My only concern is what to do when the plants gets massive.  I guess just keep trimming and dealing with it.

@TeeJayWeird that your pothos won't get going.  The nodes have a very visible root bump on them.  Unless you're just cutting a leaf off (not taking any of the main vine), they're tough to mess up.  Fresh cuttings do take a bit of time to get rolling.  But once they get a decent amount or root going they start rolling.  How long have you had them in?

I would say they have been in there a solid 7-8weeks

[John Henry]

Mesmerizing!!  Not sure I could afford to feed them all.

[Atitagain]

Very impressive fish, water quality, plants, I mean everything. I’ve been growing pothos and lucky bamboo with fairly good success the bamboo is slow growing but seems to be healthy. My Oscar tank has the oscar and a full grown bristlenose in a 75G was very hard to keep nitrates under 50ppm, after adding pothos and bamboo I keep it around 20ppm easily. I’ve just started another Oscar tank and have a African cichlid tank both will be getting both plants. Thank you for sharing the video was great. 
nice to have some plants that are easy to use with bigger cichlids.

[Anjum]

@dasaltemelosguy that room is GOALS! I have a "shed" that's actually finished out like a tiny home, fully plumbed & wired, but it's not currently hooked up to power/water. But hopefully we will be doing that project before the end of the year & when we do I'm lighting that B up like a christmas tree & it's gonna be my tropical plant/aquarium room. And that's the vision I've had for it, as far as lots of plants grown emerged from the tanks. I want it to be a legit jungle inside.

I haven't grown Lucky Bamboo before. Did you root it directly into the substrate initially, such that it was fully submerged at first?

@TeeJay do you have pics of the plants you're struggling with? Maybe could help diagnose what the issue is. Pothos in particular, I know to be one of the hardiest, easiest plants to grow. I broke a 12"-18" piece off my main plant last summer & stuck it in a tank. I'm not a big gravel vac'er & this tank has tons of mulm. When the roots reached the substrate, it went gangbusters.

Future Jungle Shed

[TeeJay]

On 8/16/2022 at 7:15 PM, Anjum said:

@dasaltemelosguy that room is GOALS! I have a "shed" that's actually finished out like a tiny home, fully plumbed & wired, but it's not currently hooked up to power/water. But hopefully we will be doing that project before the end of the year & when we do I'm lighting that B up like a christmas tree & it's gonna be my tropical plant/aquarium room. And that's the vision I've had for it, as far as lots of plants grown emerged from the tanks. I want it to be a legit jungle inside.

I haven't grown Lucky Bamboo before. Did you root it directly into the substrate initially, such that it was fully submerged at first?

@TeeJay do you have pics of the plants you're struggling with? Maybe could help diagnose what the issue is. Pothos in particular, I know to be one of the hardiest, easiest plants to grow. I broke a 12"-18" piece off my main plant last summer & stuck it in a tank. I'm not a big gravel vac'er & this tank has tons of mulm. When the roots reached the substrate, it went gangbusters.

Future Jungle Shed

Right now the only thing I have emerged is on vine of inch plant in my 29 gal tank. Then one bamboo in the 10gal Cory tank. The pothos and Swiss cheese plant vines I tried died off so I'm still waiting for my potted plants to produce a couple of nice vines that are long enough to start the process again. I'm thinking I'm not getting enough lighting to them from the top to get them rolling. 

[Anjum]

On 8/16/2022 at 4:30 PM, TeeJay said:

I'm thinking I'm not getting enough lighting to them from the top to get them rolling. 

Ahh that could very well be it. Mine is just a few feet away from an east facing window & it gets a bit of direct sunlight in the mornings. 

[TeeJay]

On 8/16/2022 at 7:34 PM, Anjum said:

Ahh that could very well be it. Mine is just a few feet away from an east facing window & it gets a bit of direct sunlight in the mornings. 

Yes I'm thinking this may do the trick. I can slide it right beside the tank and point directly down on the vines until they get going then I can flex it as need when they grow longer. I want to try and trail them up and around the walls. Comes with a remote and I can adjust the brightness. 

[Anjum]

@TeeJay That should work great! 

[OnlyGenusCaps]

Awesome vid, and tanks @dasaltemelosguy!!!  That oscar must be fun when you are cleaning the tank.  He knows whose home that is.  😅

The clarity on that water is impressive!  I always do "the bucket test" where I take the replacement water on a water change and set it next to the water that I took out (not when gravel vac'ing obviously though) and see if I can detect a color difference.  I look for slightly yellowed water coming out.  I'll bet your tanks pass that with flying colors!  Or no color at all really.  🤪  Those fish look like they are suspended in air!  Surreal in that way. 

[eatyourpeas]

This is a beautiful room with beautiful tanks, @dasaltemelosguy! Thanks for sharing! 😍

[dasaltemelosguy]

On 8/16/2022 at 10:31 AM, BrettD said:

Watched the whole thing. I love it! I feel like you really knew what you wanted, considering you moved the ceiling fan twice. Every tank is just gorgeous, and you're right the fish look incredibly healthy and happy, colors galore. 

I've always liked the underwater bamboo look. I think I saw some egg crate or something, was that to keep them from tipping over? That's a great idea. 

Thank you so much for the very kind words. Yes, that's plastic lighting grid. I've replaced glass panes in the lids with the grid to keep the bamboo stable. Once they reached over 4' tall, stability became an imperative! I believe @Odd Duck had to do the same thing as her cantankerous Jack Demsey's destroy any plants she's attempted. That was certainly the case with my crazy Oscar! 

[dasaltemelosguy]

On 8/16/2022 at 11:27 AM, TeeJay said:

I wish I could get my emergent plants to grow like that. My bamboo looks healthy but hasn't grown any. The pothos inch plant and Swiss cheese plant haven't done anything either. The only thing I can figure is I'm not cutting the vines at the proper nodes to stimulate the root growth. So whatever it is your doing it's working wonderfully. I would be proud to say those tanks were mine.

That's really nice of you to say, thank you. I do remember the bamboo is a very slow starter. I don't think we saw any new growth for the first 3 months or so. We used to joke 'I think they're really just plastic plants' as they never seemed to change. Then it took off. It really did appear dormant for months, after which you noticed new growth every few days. Or there's just more poop in my tanks! 🤣

[dasaltemelosguy]

On 8/16/2022 at 4:15 PM, Anjum said:

@dasaltemelosguy that room is GOALS! I have a "shed" that's actually finished out like a tiny home, fully plumbed & wired, but it's not currently hooked up to power/water. But hopefully we will be doing that project before the end of the year & when we do I'm lighting that B up like a christmas tree & it's gonna be my tropical plant/aquarium room. And that's the vision I've had for it, as far as lots of plants grown emerged from the tanks. I want it to be a legit jungle inside.

I haven't grown Lucky Bamboo before. Did you root it directly into the substrate initially, such that it was fully submerged at first?

@TeeJay do you have pics of the plants you're struggling with? Maybe could help diagnose what the issue is. Pothos in particular, I know to be one of the hardiest, easiest plants to grow. I broke a 12"-18" piece off my main plant last summer & stuck it in a tank. I'm not a big gravel vac'er & this tank has tons of mulm. When the roots reached the substrate, it went gangbusters.

Future Jungle Shed

Thank you so very much. That shed would be an amazing fish room! Entering it would feel like a portal to escape the outside world. Sitting in the midst of them is a beautiful feeling. But your idea could take it to another level. I too love the "legit jungle" effect!

When I first used the bamboo, I passed them through the grid cover and behind each stalk I used an acrylic nut & bolt. So, I just used green tie-wraps to hold each stalk erect. 

Then the Severum's ate the roots off! My Pothos in the Severum tank doesn't grow as well as the other two because the Severum's eat the roots to within an inch of the surface.

So that was too short-lived for me to say how they would have fared suspended! But once, I planted them, and they grew wildly. 

Hope to see pictures of your 'Sea Shed' one day!

[TeeJay]

On 8/17/2022 at 11:14 AM, dasaltemelosguy said:

That's really nice of you to say, thank you. I do remember the bamboo is a very slow starter. I don't think we saw any new growth for the first 3 months or so. We used to joke 'I think they're really just plastic plants' as they never seemed to change. Then it took off. It really did appear dormant for months, after which you noticed new growth every few days. Or there's just more poop in my tanks! 🤣

Yes I mean it's stable and does look better than when I got it from my local flower shop. I think I just need to get more light to the emersed plants that I have started. Just waiting for my Swiss cheese plant and pothos to get more long enough vines to start the process again. In the mean time I'll get a better light for the top dwelling plants.

[dasaltemelosguy]

On 8/16/2022 at 1:31 PM, Patrick_G said:

I love that Severum tank, absolutely stunning! I also like that you’re successfully keeping Shubunkins  with Rainbows, Cichlids and Silver dollars. It looks like everyone is getting along just fine. 

Sorry for the late response. Thanks so much, that's so nice of you to say. That Shubunkin tank is more or less a lucky accident. It's actually full of colorful 'refugees'; Bullied fish I had to rehome plus a group of Rams, Shubunkins and Dojo's I found hiding in terror in a tank full of African cichlids at an LFS. Since I had the room, I took them ALL home! Fortunately, they all have a similar, docile temperament. They rewarded me with chaotic, crazy colors. 

I had African cichlids once. They were so beautiful, but I personally couldn't handle the aggression. 

That Oscar is extremely aggressive and challenging, I've thought about rehoming him so we could do more with his tank, but I can't part with him. He was perhaps 1" long when I bought him at a PetSmart about 2 years ago and now, he's 14"! Be it a plant, rock or fish, HE decides what can stay, or not. And mostly 'not'. He gives me no say in these matters! 

On 8/16/2022 at 3:45 PM, Atitagain said:

Very impressive fish, water quality, plants, I mean everything. I’ve been growing pothos and lucky bamboo with fairly good success the bamboo is slow growing but seems to be healthy. My Oscar tank has the oscar and a full grown bristlenose in a 75G was very hard to keep nitrates under 50ppm, after adding pothos and bamboo I keep it around 20ppm easily. I’ve just started another Oscar tank and have a African cichlid tank both will be getting both plants. Thank you for sharing the video was great. 
nice to have some plants that are easy to use with bigger cichlids.

You're very welcome and thank you for the very kind words. 50-20? That's one of the more dramatic drops in nitrates I've heard of using these plants. I too love Oscars, but the aggression can be a challenge. We had a 6' long wooden, abstract carving of an alligator that we tried to place near HIS tank. Not one other fish even notices it, but he clearly sees an animal and relentlessly tries to attack it, so we had to move it out of the room! Their cognitive ability and expressiveness are really interesting. Coupled with the aggression, they're like evil puppies!

[Atitagain]

On 8/18/2022 at 11:12 AM, dasaltemelosguy said:

50-20? That's one of the more dramatic drops in nitrates I've heard of using these plants

This is over a few months and I should of said as well I’ve been more diligent with water changes and gravel vacs. After thinking on it I’ve also been not over feeding him, so yes true plants not only factor to get numbers down. They are such a help tho and I’m so glad he doesn’t tear the roots up or bang the bamboo around to much.(YET?)

I’ve kept fish off and on for about 30 years now and I can’t remember a time I didn’t have an Oscar. They are what sucked me into this hobby and I still check his tank 1st every time I walk into my fishroom because I know he will be dancing.