Allowing Plants To "rot" In Tank?

[l_l_l]

Hi there!
I just recently finished setting and stocking my 46 bowfront and I'm really proud of what I have achieved.
Can't wait for plants to fill it up completely!
I'm going for a heavily planted setup, low light, low tech as I have fish that thrive in low light setup.
 
Presently I'm stuck with a stupid 25W tube, not sure what kind but it's made in Germany, and says aquarium use on it.
I'm probably going to upgrade at some point to LED, but I already purchased a fixture last month for my 20g and they cost quite a bit.
I'm still looking for an affordable solution which will let me dim the LEDs to the proper settings.
Up till now, the only option I have is the Current-USA satellite+, which I really love.
 
My plant setup is the following:
 
Giant Val on the sides, Java Fern in middle, Crypt Wendtii in the front mid, some Rosanervig's Hygrophila, and rotala indica, and I almost forgot about the Brazilian pennywort..
Oh and also have some normal valysneria and probably a dwarf sag growing there. And a big anubia on that driftwood.
I will be adding a lot of anubia nana once my LFS has some and was thinking of almost "carpeting" the tank with those. Would look pretty awesome.
Probably going to add some xmass moss as well.
 
Anyways, here is a picture:
 

 
I was wondering what would happen if I allowed the plants to rot in my tank, of course monitoring when there are too many leaves and branches that are dying and removing some once in a while?
 
The main idea is that it would create enough nitrates to "feed my plant" and my amano shrimp could eat the decaying plant as well.. I also really like the look of a tank with dead leaves in it, it makes it all the more natural as waters and streamways are in no way "perfect".
I have also seen my gourami have at my floating lettuce as well, which makes me quite happy because they decay rather quickly..
 
What do you guys think?

 

[Tongue_Flicker]

Most dead water plants are usually eaten or filtered even before they have fully rotted. Your 'floating lettuce' decays quickly if water conditions are not right for them and if their roots can't access the substrate. I've seen those grow in the wild in shallow waters to just plain mud. The natural effect of dead leaves you are trying to achieve are by produced by the dead leaves of non-aquatic plants that fall on the water that almost never if not, slowly disintegrades in water

 

[l_l_l]

Most dead water plants are usually eaten or filtered even before they have fully rotted. Your 'floating lettuce' decays quickly if water conditions are not right for them and if their roots can't access the substrate. I've seen those grow in the wild in shallow waters to just plain mud. The natural effect of dead leaves you are trying to achieve are by produced by the dead leaves of non-aquatic plants that fall on the water that almost never if not, slowly disintegrades in water

 
It does make sense.
I know that they are decaying fast because they are in a "low light" environment but didn't know about the roots not reaching the substrate. I also know that there is so much condensation in there (I have a lid on) that it drips on the lettuce, and water lettuce doesn't like having it's leaves wet, which makes them decay even faster.
 
As for the dead leaves.. I guess I'm out of luck, unless I manually add some in there, which I'm not sure I'll do (Afraid of introducing bad stuff in there!)
 
Thanks for your advise!

 

[Ch4rlie]

Rotting leave will eventually produce nitrate but first ammonia then nitrite then nitrate.
 
Rotting leaves may encourage bacterial blooms. IMO leaves that are turning brown/dying should be pruned.
Dying leaves do actually take energy from main plant.
 
Won't cause any real issues with fish i don't think, just messy.
 
If you want nitrates for your plants, might be better adding ferts that contains nitrate would be the way to go for now i think.
 
Also, if you want natural looking leaves on bottom of tank, how about some Indian Almond Leaves?

 

[l_l_l]

Rotting leave will eventually produce nitrate but first ammonia then nitrite then nitrate.
 
Rotting leaves may encourage bacterial blooms. IMO leaves that are turning brown/dying should be pruned.
Dying leaves do actually take energy from main plant.
 
Won't cause any real issues with fish i don't think, just messy.
 
If you want nitrates for your plants, might be better adding ferts that contains nitrate would be the way to go for now i think.
 
Also, if you want natural looking leaves on bottom of tank, how about some Indian Almond Leaves?

Oh that is a great suggestion!
I don't know why I did not think of that..
 
Makes me wonder, how much does it affect water alkalinity? 

 

[Ch4rlie]

Indian Almond Leaves will soften and lower water ph a little, but not to such an extent though and i have IAL in my tank and have not seen any adverse affects.
 
This is quote from TwoTankAmin on one of my threads. Catappa is IAL.
 
Catappa leaves will help stain the water, will help soften it and also lower the pH. They will also release phenols, antioxidents etc. beneficial to fish. The leaves go directly into the water and will fall apart and become mush in 2-3 weeks. I change mine every 2 weeks.

 

[Tongue_Flicker]

I didn't knew the Terminalia catappa that i was using a long time ago before it became popular and IAL is one and the same LOL..

I was not aware of their common name up until now. This tree is locally known here as talisay and commonly grows anywhere i.e. sidewalks and beaches. My cousin and i used to eat the seeds when we were kids haha.

 

[l_l_l]

Oh wow, that is great information!
Thank you!
I am going to buy some, wondering if they have some at my LFS.

 

[l_l_l]

Oh I have CPDs, I'm wondering if they'd do fine in Tannin water, I read that they don't have any at their locations..

 

[hobby5]

Dying leaves do actually take energy from main plant.

Are you sure on this one and how shall that work? I allways thought, plants would recover usfull constituents from dying leaves, hence you harm them if you clip it too early (This is not important in a tank where plants grow well.).

 

[l_l_l]

 

Dying leaves do actually take energy from main plant.

Are you sure on this one and how shall that work? I allways thought, plants would recover usfull constituents from dying leaves, hence you harm them if you clip it too early (This is not important in a tank where plants grow well.).
 

Yeah it does make sense because they focus on getting the leaves back on track instead of growing normally.
Maybe I could cut the leaves and let them in the tank to decay.

 

[SimpleDog]

I cant answer your question as I usually keep fish that are hell on plants, but that is a very lovely tank you have going on there.

 

[SO19Firearms]

I'd feed the plants inorganic nitrate. By allowing them to rot makes for uncertainty in the oxygen theft of the Nitrogen cycle - A potentional headache you don't need IMO.
Besides that you're asking for algae one way or another, be it through ammonia or hormone release as well as any Cyanobacteria etc related to poor tank husbandry.

It's cool trying to be natural etc but we give that right up when we encapsulate everything in a glass box IMO

 

[l_l_l]

Algea doesnt really scare me really.. My amano and snails + danios would be really happy to eat it if it ever appeared..

I like what you said about giving my right of being natural by encapsuling in a glass box.. I'll think about this.

 

[Ch4rlie]

 

Dying leaves do actually take energy from main plant.

Are you sure on this one and how shall that work? I allways thought, plants would recover usfull constituents from dying leaves, hence you harm them if you clip it too early (This is not important in a tank where plants grow well.).
 

 
Yes, am sure of this, any rotting leaves will drain energy from the plant which might have otherwise have been used for maintaining growth or new leaves.
 
The negatives of rotting leaves on the plant far outweighs the advantage of the plant recovering, if any, useful constituents from dying leaves.
 
Rotting leave will affect the water quality for one, although think would have to be a large amount of die offs to have a noticeable difference in water quality, may be wrong about that but thats my opinion really.
 
I always take out any floating dead leaves and cut off dead or rotting leaves from plants every time i do my water changes maintenance.