Plants in aquarium sump

[tolstoy21]

I was thinking of removing some of the bio media from the middle chamber of my sump and putting plants in there. Between sponge and media, I probably have more bio media than I really need in there. Does anyone have experience with this? Worth it? Not worth it?

I was thinkIng of using this to grow out java moss, but if my goal was cleaning the water, is there a better suited plant, like pothos or something? Or can pothos outcompete the plants in the tank?

Edited October 30, 2020 by tolstoy21

[MickS77]

I've never tried but I think it would work. I would float some hornwort or guppy grass with some airstones under it to keep it moving, similar to a chaeto saltwater refugium.  

[tolstoy21]

2 minutes ago, MickS77 said:

similar to a chaeto saltwater refugium.  

Yeah that was exactly my thought.

I don't have a real reason to do this other than I'm interested in trying it out.

I think what I'd like to achieve is a higher plant load to reduce my water-change water usage by increasing the interval between WCs, while also growing out something I'll use elsewhere, like java moss or guppy grass, etc. I don't necessarily want that higher plant load to be exclusively in the display tank.

[David Ellsworth]

I'm not sure how that would work out. It really works well in salt water tanks because barely anyone plants saltwater tanks with plants, they all want fish and corals. Both of these need little to no nutrients in the water such as nitrates/phosphates. They use it as a nitrate absorbing filter in salt water.

 

So in freshwater if you have cichlids or other fish that demolish plants like locusts that may be a great addition to such a fish only tank with a sump if you have a fast growing plant that pulls from the water column in the sump for nutrient export.  But if you have a planted display then you have to carefully look at which plants you are keeping. If you have only root feeders then it could help with water column cleaning, but if you have anything like stems, epiphytes, etc that pull from the water column you are basically stealing food from them by giving them fast growing competition to stunt or starve them out. You may have to fertilize more to compensate and that might defeat the entire purpose. It may have limited usefulness in Freshwater. 

Edited October 30, 2020 by David Ellsworth

[tolstoy21]

3 hours ago, David Ellsworth said:

You may have to fertilize more to compensate and that might defeat the entire purpose. It may have limited usefulness in Freshwater. 

Yeah this was my exact thought as well and what I was hoping to figure out. Can I keep the current fert schedule/amount but also reduce some of the normal nitrate uptick further via plants in the sump? 

I don't current fertilize heavily. I use the dry ferts that Select Aquatics sells in a modest amount, once or twice a month, and root tabs every three to four months. But fish and food wastes creep the nitrates up overtime, as is the case I guess we're all in.

Right now I get that nitrate reduction via water changes, so I was hoping to maybe shift some of that capacity for reducing nitrates to plants in the sump so that I didn't have a super-duper plant-heavy main display.

But like you suggest, I also don't want to create a cycle where I'm now feeding more ferts.

I guess I'm hoping to find a balance, slow those nitrate-over-time increases, and also grow out some things I want to use in other tanks, but that i also don't want floating around my display tank, cause i like the way it currently looks.

I guess i'll just have to give it a try and see what happens.

 

PS - I could lighten my fish load and feed less, but what fun is that?! 

 

Edited October 30, 2020 by tolstoy21

[ChemBob]

If your goal is to increase nitrate uptake, then I'd go for it. Definitely use a faster growing plant, like the stem or floating plants mentioned above. If you see too much nitrate uptake, just reduce the amount of plants in the sump. If I could get to a top off only situation, I'd be thrilled personally. Though I understand there are other benefits to water changes than just nitrate removal, so maybe it would just be minimize water changes. 

[David Ellsworth]

Indeed. Like ChemBob says, no harm in giving it a try, and like he says it is in your sump so if your plants struggle just rip some of it out.

You can have the light on in your sump for a longer period than the display to aid in nutrient uptake. Saltwater use Chaetomorpha algae because they can use longer light periods. Some run it 24 hrs and the plant can handle it. However, many plants do well with a rest period so I don't know if fresh water has a plant equivalent that could handle 24 hr light. Any fast growing plant should do. 

[Seized]

Definitely worth it if you are wanting to store some plants or make a sort of freshwater refuium. Also you could use it to keep certain fish out of the display aftrr quarantining them to have them preped for another tank. Just as long as you quarantine them before doing so or it could be problematic.