House plants to fish plants

[JamieB]

So skimming through YouTube, saw a thing about using pothos as a de-nitrate nitrite. Which ever, but it was being used to help clean the water. So were other house plants. So I got on a small kick watching videos about assorted house plants in aquariums. Thinking I’ll cut a few shoots of pothos, spider plant, and maybe one of the monstru leaves, see how they do. Have any of you tried this? How did it work for you? And what about moving some to the pond come spring? I know I’ll have to bring them in in winter/ fall, but I like the idea of a planted pool. Keeping the fish from eating them looks to be the hardest part. I’ll be trying this in the aquarium over winter. And what about water changes? Will this reduce the need for them? I didn’t get to change water last week cause I was away, and when I got home, saw hubby hadn’t done so, and I’d developed a bit of algae. So I’m glad I’ve moved up to the bigger tank, and now to add more plants to pull the fish waste out.

 

[brokensword]

Algae on surfaces is what you want; the fish like it too. It cuts down on how much you have to feed the beasties. If you mean an algae bloom--the free floating variety that obscures you view--that is an indicator you have too much nutrient in the water. ALL plants will help with his. If you plant enough, or have few fish, have no koi (though some report their koi are well behaved koi), the plants should have a fighting chance. When my gf were small, less numerous, growing almost anything in the pond was easy. Now, not so much as I have to get a quantity of parrot's feather started in my stream (no fish) and let it flow out INTO the pond. Once I get an established group, I can then thin it, placing it in the pond proper where the fish do graze, but not as quickly as I can replace it. The fish tend to eat the roots and so, stunt/hamper the plant's spread/growth. Same for my Water Lettuce; I overwinter a whole aquarium of the stuff and when I open up the pond, I wait until May before I put it in because if I did it earlier, I'd have none left for the summer. Once the herd wakes up, it's feeding time and apparently, they like plants/roots.

 

[JamieB]

It was just on the tank walls. All I have in the tank are late spawn babies, 12. Nose to tail, they are still small. In the pool, I’ve got adults, 6 big ones and less than 10 smaller ones. By big, that’s full size common or commet goldfish. 6-8”? I’d guess. I had chunks of big iris free floating all year for them, they didn’t mess with it much.

 

[brokensword]

Other than your viewing pleasure, the algae on the glass will help with nutrient abundance and if it grows freely, the fish will also snack on it. Right now, I have two gf in a 60 gallon with remnants of WL and covered with duckweed. I feed the fish once a week and the rest of the time, they eat the plants. They're doing fine. Free floating iris are usually very good in a pond; they're great filters. Gf can get up to 16", but I'd say most get to about 12". Yours might still grow some. Next summer, get some water hyacinth and water lettuce (though, this one does better NOT in full sun but can still be used) as they both have aggressive root systems (filters).

 

[JamieB]

I’ll try to find some. I’ve avoided it as it’s so invasive if it gets free. I’ve got duckweed, the iris, some parrot feather, one little lilly, and some other plants I snagged from a pond. The rush looking things all died, cattails were still ok, and I’ve no clue what the other thing was. But the fish ate it all. There’s a local pond that floods which is full of it, I’ll snag a good amount to clean for them next spring, and toss most in the pool.

 

[pimen]

photos are quite popular in aquarist cos theyre thriving in a very minimum light since most aquarium placed in indoor area,
but as u said u can used any other house plant like photos, monstera, spider plant etc,
if u have light organism in ur aquarium, the water change can be avoided, just adding water cos of evaporation, but if u have overstock population, u still need a routine water change, they consume nitrate for sure, but u need a balance between amount of photos roots and nitrate in ur water, just check nitrate level periodically and calculate it with feeding quantity, over the time..u will know how often and how much the ideal feeding to make photos do their job with nitrate stable in appropriate condition and can reach no water change condition for a long time,
based on my experience with photos, they are the most effective low light nitrate absorber ever among other house plant, cos photos rate is very fast,supply ur water with oxygen as much as possible (aerator), they can do even better with 1-2 hour morning light, ( I place my aquarium near window...

 

[JamieB]

Ok, so all I’ve ever seen on feeding fish is a small amount that if they don’t finish in under 5 min, skim out. So I’ve got 12 goldfish under 1”, I’m feeding them a small amount of flakes I break up small. Less than 1/16 tsp. I fed them once to twice a day, depending on if they eat all their mornings meal. Those 12 and the frog and a bunch of snails are all I have in there aside from plants and rocks. For plants, I have three cuttings of pothos, then several tendrils of spider plant dangle in. Most days I use a turkey baster to pull up a few ounces of water for my basil and pepper plant, and then every couple of days I do a small mason jar of water or two for the potted plants. All said, I’m changing about 2-3 gallons each week. With the little tank, that was roughly 1/2, but I didn’t have the cuttings in it. When I had tanks previously, I’d do changes about every other week, but lots of plants. Never been big on testing water quality, unless I see a reason to make me worry. Maybe once every couple of months. I’m a lazy aquarist. I test on first set up usually, till I get it well established. But I didn’t have test strips this time, and still haven’t got them cause I was thinking about the pond kit, which I’ll have to order online or buy at a big store next time I go to a city.

 

[JamieB]

This is a picture of the set up I have. I think it’s a 40 gal tank, not full so the frog hopefully won’t jump out. I figure once I kick the frog out, ill top it off. I just made the filter thing, 6 plastic scrubbies, a layer of polyester filing, airstone to drive the water flow. It’s a design o got off of YouTube. It should help break the nitrate to nitrite or reverse, not sure. I know ones bad, the other is usable by plants. I plan to add plants often and maintain frequent partial water changes. I know it’s not the best, but I figure it’ll do ok till spring.

 

[brokensword]

Jamie; I didn't mean you HAD to have the parrot's feather (as I know it's invasive down south) but rather that's what I do. You should be able to overwinter most of the pond plants, just have to usually give them good light and warm water.

I'd cover that terrarium/aquarium as your frog could surely jump out as is. Not worth the risk. Just place some screen netting on top and secure the edges except for the feeding opening/side.

You can usually eyeball the fish and see if they're getting enough to eat. Hollow bellies or skinny fish mean they need more. There should be a robustness to their body and some growth should occur. They say it's a myth that fish grow to the size of their environment but I have a lot of stories where that just plain happened. I also have stories where the fish did indeed outgrow their tank, too. Remember, if you have any algae and/or water plants, the fish won't ever go hungry. If you see the plants disappearing, feed the fish a bit more.

 

[pimen]

to be honest the purpose of this filtration is like bog filter for pond, but the big difference is most of marginal pond plant need direct sun alot n photos dont need it and still superbly grow...
for me, the test is just for my own experience to make my aquarium set up self sustained for a very long time without water change at all, when I know how much and how often i should feed my fish, i dont test it anymore, not touch it, just let the plant do the rest,the purpose is cos im too lazy to change the water ,
I think u're wrong with the cycle,
as I know, the cycle is ammonia>nitrite and the last is nitrate, ammonia >nitrite>nitrate are converted by aerobic bacteria( aerobic bacteria need oxygen to life and to fullfill this process, and nitrate can be converted to nitrogen and evaporate to the air by anaerobic bacteria, but to grow anaerobic bacteria is difficult cos it need low oxygen, so its very tricky to grow aerobic and anaerobic bacteria at the same time in closed ecosystem, (some aquarist use deep sand bed method and use like nitrate reactor,
but nitrate can be reduce too with water change AND BY PLANT (in this case is photos plant), actually I always see nitrate is the most thing that many aquarist calculate in the end, the one that relatively tolerable is nitrate, ammonia and nitrite are always easy to be converted to final stage > nitrate, many establish tank or pond must be has a tolerable ammonia and nitrite level or maybe has 0 level, but still has high nitrate, but nitrate is very tricky to get to rid of, u just need to make the nitrate level tolerable to fish cos it still dangerous to organism if it has a high level

 

[JamieB]

to be honest the purpose of this filtration is like bog filter for pond, but the big difference is most of marginal pond plant need direct sun alot n photos dont need it and still superbly grow...
for me, the test is just for my own experience to make my aquarium set up self sustained for a very long time without water change at all, when I know how much and how often i should feed my fish, i dont test it anymore, not touch it, just let the plant do the rest,the purpose is cos im too lazy to change the water ,
I think u're wrong with the cycle,
as I know, the cycle is ammonia>nitrite and the last is nitrate, ammonia >nitrite>nitrate are converted by aerobic bacteria( aerobic bacteria need oxygen to life and to fullfill this process, and nitrate can be converted to nitrogen and evaporate to the air by anaerobic bacteria, but to grow anaerobic bacteria is difficult cos it need low oxygen, so its very tricky to grow aerobic and anaerobic bacteria at the same time in closed ecosystem, (some aquarist use deep sand bed method and use like nitrate reactor,
but nitrate can be reduce too with water change AND BY PLANT (in this case is photos plant), actually I always see nitrate is the most thing that many aquarist calculate in the end, the one that relatively tolerable is nitrate, ammonia and nitrite are always easy to be converted to final stage > nitrate, many establish tank or pond must be has a tolerable ammonia and nitrite level or maybe has 0 level, but still has high nitrate, but nitrate is very tricky to get to rid of, u just need to make the nitrate level tolerable to fish cos it still dangerous to organism if it has a high level

I know it’s a cycle, just don’t know which one came first, nitrite or nitrate.

 

[JamieB]

My goal is minimal effort aquarium. Thank you guys, I do appreciate all the input. And merry Christmas!