# [Wet Thumb Forum]-Best plants for sucking up nitrogen



## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

I'm thinking one of the modules for my new goldfish tank filtration will be a natural planted tank. I'm thinking mainly rooted plants. What plants suck up the most nitrogen? 

I'm considering doing the larger sword plants... e.g. ozelot or mayby amazon or barthii.


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

I think another good sword, but hard to get (least 'round these parts) is E. macrophyllus. A really big one that will even grow partially emersed. I know you're thinking about rooted plants, but what about others like hornwort and anacharis?

-ricardo


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

> Originally posted by Betty:
> What plants suck up the most nitrogen?
> QUOTE]
> 
> The ones that grow the fastest, which means emergent aquatics, houseplants, or floating plants.


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## Aquatic addict (Apr 14, 2006)

An outdoor barrel in direct sunlight full of water hyacinth would be hard to beat


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

Right now the plan is modular
1) mechanical filtration stage
2) hydroponic stage with probably lettuce and tomatoes
3) natural planted tank
4) maybe a sand bed with floating plants (e.g. duckweed and water lettuce, as I don't have great luck with hyacinth inside.
5) pump back to the tank


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## Jane of Upton (Jul 28, 2005)

I'd favor the water lettuce or frogbit over the duckweed, as they have a LOT more root for the surface area they occupy. Water sprite also is a fast, fast grower, either floating or planted (and will do OK planted in plain sand if it is extracting nutrients from the water column). Oh, were you thinking duckweed because you could then feed it to your Goldies? I like the food cycle nature of that thought!

I also like Ricardo's idea about a big, emergent amazon sword. You'd probably get offsets or "babies" that you could put into the tanks, too. 

Sounds like quite the setup there!

You've got enough light for tomatoes? Or are these under artificial lights? Careful the DEA doesn't think its for something ELSE that grows well hydroponically, LOL!

Sounds cool!
-Jane


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## Jane of Upton (Jul 28, 2005)

Oh, another thought - in terms of houseplants, Spathiphyllum can be a bog plant (often sold as "aquarium plants" in big box stores) and does OK under lower light conditions. Its a heavier "feeder" than Pothos, so if nitrogen uptake is the goal, it would top my list of easy houseplants to introduce. It would LOVE to live hydroponically (think "betta vase"). 

-J.


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

I hope it'll be quite the set up. I suppose we'll see! LOL

Yea, the goldies love duckweed.. right now my other tanks aren't producing enough duckweed to feed them as much as I'd like. I'd like to have a steady source happening. The roots on water lettuce are amazing! it seems to have morphed into a frogbit-like plant with huge root systems. I'm rather disappointed the goldies don't appear to eat it.

Yea, that's partially why I was thinking swords. The big amazon sword in my 125 has like a hundred plantlets on it. I have a LPS who will buy plants from me.

I'm thinking if I run the hydroponic container along the back bottom of the aqaurium, I can build something that will both provide lighting for the hydroponics plants and the plants in the goldie tank. I should be able to build something with the screw in compact fluorescent bulbs. Gotta jack up lighting in the tank too. RIght now it's got a lamo stock light on it, but thankfully it's getting a lot of sunlight now from the windows. You can see some of it from my webcam.

Thanks for the info on the Spathiphyllum. I'll look for that. I think that's the reason the plant filter couldn't keep up on the 55... the plants don't grow fast enough to keep up.

I can just hear it now... Are you SURE those are tomatoe plants!? ROFLMAO

Yea, I think that'd be cool too. To take that even further... An underground house with solar panels, a well, windmill, garden and an aquaculture/aquaponics setup out in the boonies. That'd be nice!


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## imported_BobB (Feb 26, 2005)

Betty-See you and raise you one...that being a big rabbit pit producing groceries both for me and other assorted plants and critters.


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## Egon von Hacklheber (Oct 22, 2005)

Betty- I'm glad to hear that you are considering hydroponic vegetable growing as a portion of your nitrate removal. If I may, I have a few suggestions.
1) Hydroponics is great, but when researching, look toward aquaponics. You already have the fish part down. Look into S&S Aqua Farms, they have an easy to duplicate style of aquaponics using drip gravel beds, although DWC is also relatively simple. Drip fields on gravel beds are useful because the gravel will act as mechanical and biological filter for anything the plants don't immediately remove, however DWC growing is very easy and if solid wastes are dealt with, then there is no problem at all.
2) Tomatoes are heavy feeders, especially indeterminate varieties if you allow them to have six or more runners. When designing your system, I would suggest major flexibility to prevent excess nitrate in early stages and insufficient nutrients in later stages. Don't be shocked when you find that ONE mature tomato plant draws more nutrients than your entire planted aquarium.

Ultimately, I suggest your setup allow for flexibility and fine tuning once your tomato plants are full grown and fruiting, as they will consume a lot more nutrients than when you first start.

Good luck and please keep us updated.


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

Interesting site!

Looks like that works the same as people who plant aquatic plants in gravel instead of soil. The mulm builds up and helps keep the plants happy. However having the same media as both biological and mechanical filtration makes the biological filtration less effective cuz the bacteria that break down debris consume oxygen, produce ammonia and grow faster than the biobugs that convert ammonia. But if the plants suck up the extra nutrients, then it wouldn't be a problem. Using their tray method with gravel or lava rock sure would make designing it easier tho. I wonder how much poop tilapia make compared to goldies. I suppose the gravel could be vacuumed periodically.

The other thing that bothers me about their diagram is the pipe that sucks water from the fish tank appears to be at the bottom of the fish tank. They gotta have float valves happening or if the return pump failed, it would drain the fish tank.


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

Hygrophila corymbosa, Giant Hygro


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## Egon von Hacklheber (Oct 22, 2005)

Another thing to consider-
Terrestrial plants, as opposed to emergents, do not have specially adapted roots that enable them to grow naturally in water. Sufficient dissolved oxygen levels are critical, and this is very hard to do at "normal" aquarium temps in the mid 70's or higher. DWC vegetables are usually grown at 72F max. This is yet another reason to consider a drip field over a gravel bed instead of DWC. Drip fields (run on a timer) are not constantly flooded, increasing surface area exposed to ambient oxygen and allowing for faster oxygen replentishment. Even with heavy aeration and circulation, I shudder to think what your tomato plants' roots might look like after three months at 78 or 80F in DWC.

And yes, S&S Aqua Farm's design on their site is overly simplified. (You have to pay for trade secrets) If I remember correctly, they use timers to flood the beds periodically and float valve controlled pumps to return water back to the grow out tanks.

If you are referring to vacuuming gravel in the grow beds, this is not necessary, unless of course your grow bed is undersized and can't handle the fish load. They recommend 2:1 ratio (by volume) of growing bed gravel to fish tank water. This is of course with VERY heavy stocking rates (as much as 1/2 lb. per gallon), so you shouldn't need even half of that. Lettuce can be grown in 6" deep gravel, anything more than 8" is just a waste. Tomatoes will need at least five gallons of gravel per plant, unless you purchase one of the smaller "basket" varieties, then 3 gallons would be fine.


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

Wow... didn't know that... so if I turned the temp down on the goldies to around 72, that should help. I'm assuming putting bubbles along the length of the tub will help as well.

I found a 41 quart Sterilite container I think will work last nite, got some peat pots and started some tomatoe, lettuce and cilantro seeds. It's probably not big enough at 10 gallons... but I'm not sure I have room for much more since the tank is in the living room.

Looks like i have a bunch more reading to do... I sure appreciate your help on this!!


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Hey Betty: Did you say that your goldfish don't eat the water lettuce? I was looking for a plant that goldfish wouldn't bother....

-ricardo


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

Nope, neither my common goldies or my fancy goldies eat the water lettuce.


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## Endlersmom (Feb 29, 2004)

Hi Betty,

I would love to see your finished set up. The idea of growing tomatoes inside is intresting. I would love to see pictures of the set up.


As a very basic plant for nitrogen, how about hornwort. 

Have you tried it and if yes do your goldfish eat it?


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

I probably won't have the money to set it up till February. Plus I need to get some more light over the main tank for when the season changes and it doesn't get direct sunlight anymore.

Found a neat DIY, that may make me change my mind and do a trickle filter with the terrestrial plants in it. That should help somewhat with getting O2 to the roots. plus it could be tall enough to hold more water (which would be a good thing).

Naw, the goldies don't eat hornwort. Bout the only plants they eat are duckweed, azolla, salvenia, frogbit and hair algae.

Here are some pics of the tank after it was first set up and here's the webcam which is currently pointed at the goldie tank. Right now in the goldie tank, I have limnophilia, sag subulata, two amazon swords, giant hygro, and sunset hygro all potted in topsoil. There's also some wysteria that I need to pot cuz it's not very happy tied to a rock. LOL and some najas grass and hornwort floating along with a bunch of water lettuce.

Oh and here's an article I just wrote on how to pot plants in topsoil. I'm gonig to have to redo the pics cuz the little goldies apparently got to the paper towel thru the sides of the basket and almost made a mess. I redid it last nite with a knee high hose over the basket. LOL


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

and my little mini plant filter in the HOB Penguin filter. LOL


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## Dave P (Dec 13, 2005)

Hi Betty,

Just read your article on how to pot plants in topsoil -- nicely done!







I didn't realize it could be done so easily; a link to this article (or even a copy of the article itself) should be posted somewhere in the El Natural forum so that it could be easily accessed by others. It should be necessary reading for those interested in the lo-tech method for potting aquatic plants.

I look forward to hearing how your experiment with trickle filtration augmented with terrestrial plants turns out. I think you're going to have a lot of fun with it.

Good luck!

Dave


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

Thanks Dave.









I can't wait to get started building it!
So much to learn... so little time! LOL


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## GuppiesRfun (Apr 26, 2005)

Hi, I read Betty's article abouted potted plants. I like the soil idea in a tank, but prefer to have pots and have had success with them. I learned some more from the article. I was using one layer of newspaper to cover holes in pots. On to of that I put a layer of small rocks which maybe I don't need but use for my house plants. Then of course, I use some kind of soil. thanks for the paper towel idea-duh! My mom taught me to use newspaper because she doesn't like to waste anything including a little square of paper towel! Well, I'm fifty now, don't listen to her and I don't think I'll deplete the tree population with a little extra paper towel-haha!Paula


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

LOL I can't claim the paper towel idea. Someone on here mentioned it in an earlier thread on potting plants. In my regular pots, I just use a piece of slate over the bottom hole. 

My mom was a depression baby too.


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

My smaller goldies got to the paper towel thru the basket, and almost made a big mess... so I had to repot it. I just redid the Potting Plants in Topsoil Article using knee high hose for the basket.. and added a page on using a clay pot and another using a soup bowl.


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## Dave P (Dec 13, 2005)

> I just redid the Potting Plants in Topsoil Article using knee high hose for the basket..


Knee high hose? No problem...I should have plenty of that...err...I mean, uh...my wife...yeah, my _wife_ should have plenty of that around here...









...just kidding...









You know you're a crazed aquatic plant enthusiast when:

a) you have to beg your wife, husband, or significant other to go buy some Fleet enema for you at the grocery store (if you don't know what I'm talking about, just do a quick search in the 'Plant fertilization and Science' forum).

or b) you start rifling through your wife's/husband's/significant other's







lingerie drawer looking for old knee highs and pantyhose.

Dear me...what have we become...


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

ROFLMAO Crazed aquatic plant enthusiasts!! 
CAPE for short... I like that!


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