Terrestrial plants In aquarium

MammaBearinTN said:

I have 2 pothos roots in one of my tanks. Both fish and plants are doing great. Water parameters are generally perfect or near perfect.

I cleaned and cleaned and then cleaned the pothos roots some more, and then soaked the roots in water for a couple of weeks before adding it to my aquarium just to make sure that the roots wouldn't disintegrate in water. Every few weeks I pull the plants out and trim the roots a bit.

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JennySolano said:

I am moving in the same direction. Emailing this post to myself. Have pothos all over the house.View attachment 143440

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Guyb93 said:

Really looking to drop my weekly water changes from around 60-70% to around 40-50% doesn’t sound loads but 20% is 100l difference in my tank , even with large weekly water changes I still have small levels of NO3 by the end of the week it’s normally 20ppm due to my stocking they are messy require an army’s worth of food and eat every living plant I had and tried to introduce, they even eat the leaf litter
So my question is can terrestrial plants take the NO3 out of my water ?
Iv seen cases of plants grown out of the water with the roots drawing from the tank not sure what plants they were but I’m not sure if they were just for visual purposes or weather they can help water quality in a tank where the stock won’t allow plants in the tank ?

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Byron said:

Yes, terrestrial plants whose roots (only) are in the aquarium water will assimilate nitrate. Terrestrial plants, unlike aquatic plants, use nitrate as their source of nitrogen. Aquatic plants do not, they use ammonia/ammonium; this does work to lower nitrates because the removal of so much ammonia/ammonium means less for the bacteria so less nitrite and less nitrate result. Just so you know.

Terrestrial plants can be toxic to fish, depending upon the species. Philodendron I believe is toxic, and in spite of any YouTube advice to the contrary, the sap than runs through the leaves, stems and roots of pathos is toxic. If your fish are prone to eat anything as you say, do not use toxic plants. Putting the roots in a filter rather than the tank itself can get around this problem, if a filter allowing this is on the tank. Simple illustration, an HOB filter, though you would probably want something larger.

As for water changes, you need more of them, not fewer, and these plants will not alter that. There is much more than just nitrates involved in changing water. From your description of the fish and conditions, you should not reduce the water changes at all.

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Guyb93 said:

Quick question if I can pick your brain a second , slightly off topic but I’m planning on rehoming my group of 10 bronze corys on the sole purpose of cleaner water .. my logic is that with passive feeder in a tank with very aggressive feeder I’m having to put more food in the tank in smaller sizes so it spreads to the substrate if that wasn’t an issue and I only had aggressive feeders my brain is saying there will be no food waste at all . Or would I be worsening the situation by removing the only fish that collects food debris ?

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Byron said:

The amount of food going in the tank, regardless of which fish eat it or if it is "left," is a significant factor in water quality and fish health. Fish do not need much food because of their physiology. Birds and mammals must eat more food per mass because most of the energy obtained by what is eaten goes to providing an internal body temperature. Fish do not have this need, and they also have a much easier life in an aquarium where food is readily provided without have to search for or capture it, and where there are no predators to escape from. These things all use energy, but eliminating them means less energy is needed.

Corydoras must be fed appropriate foods. These will sometimes be the same foods as upper fish, but sometimes not. Ensuring they have sufficient when there are large ravenous fish present is a concern. As you asked the direct question, my advice would be to separate out the cories. The upper larger fish getting more food than they really need is only making the water quality poorer, and that affect the cories as much as the upper fish.

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