Terrestrial plants In aquarium

[Guyb93]

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 ?

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

I was looking into this a little while ago and I think I can be done, someone more knowledgeable will come to give you the details I'm sure but from what I've seen pothos is supposed to be good?

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

There are many terrestrial and semi-terrestrial plants recommended for aquarium use.
There are many purely aquatic plants that are actually raised out of any depth of water.

All of these quickly begin to die off, when submerged.
The aquatic plants recover, but the rest do not.

I recently tried some Hemigraphis exotica. This is a non-aquatic plant, recommended by some for use in an aquarium. To look at, it looked as good as it did when I planted it, a couple of weeks prior. When I touched it, it was mush. Whilst my nerite snails might've been happy, such a quantity of decaying plant matter could've caused an ammonia spike and harmed my fish.

To summarise, if you're going for plants, go aquatic...you'll have a much greater chance of success.

 

[Guyb93]

There are many terrestrial and semi-terrestrial plants recommended for aquarium use.
There are many purely aquatic plants that are actually raised out of any depth of water.

All of these quickly begin to die off, when submerged.
The aquatic plants recover, but the rest do not.

I recently tried some Hemigraphis exotica. This is a non-aquatic plant, recommended by some for use in an aquarium. To look at, it looked as good as it did when I planted it, a couple of weeks prior. When I touched it, it was mush. Whilst my nerite snails might've been happy, such a quantity of decaying plant matter could've caused an ammonia spike and harmed my fish.

To summarise, if you're going for plants, go aquatic...you'll have a much greater chance of success.

Between my Severum and silver dollars having any greener in the tank isn’t really an option , they may even eat the roots of any plant I even try and semi submerge lol I don’t know , I was thinking maybe a type of monstera is worth a try hooked over the tank with just the roots in or alternately is there any plants you could suggest that will grow with just roots in the water that could help soak up some of my no3

 

[Wills]

Ah good a guinea pig haha I want to try this in a cichlid tank soon too.

From what I’ve read and seen peace lillys are the best option as pothos can be toxic and I’d be worried your severum would eat it. You just need to work out a way to get it to keep the majority of the plant out of the water and just keep the roots under the stems in the water. I think you can get some hydroponics stuff and I’ve seen some acrylic hangars you can get too.

You can get peace lillys from any garden or home shop they are pretty common - interested to see how you get on. Is your tank near a window btw if not you might need a clip on plant light for it too

Wills

 

[Wills]

The other thing to look at is an anaerobic trickle filter - I’ve not looked at them properly yet but a few people have mentioned them before basically growing a colony of bacteria that converts nitrate to nitrogen that then just gasses off in your tank.

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

Between my Severum and silver dollars having any greener in the tank isn’t really an option , they may even eat the roots of any plant I even try and semi submerge lol I don’t know , I was thinking maybe a type of monstera is worth a try hooked over the tank with just the roots in or alternately is there any plants you could suggest that will grow with just roots in the water that could help soak up some of my no3

I understand the problem.
Be aware that whilst most, if not all aquatic plants are deemed safe for fish, this isn't the case for terrestrial plants and you may add unknown toxins into the water.
Plants CAN be secured in a tank, even when you have prolific 'diggers'.
Plants can be secured in small pots and, if the substrate is deep enough, buried.

Plants getting eaten is another issue, but we used to have access to very cheap Elodea, which did eventually get eaten and replaced. Before it did get eaten, it did perform it's planty duties.

Another solution is floating plants.
I have a particular fondness for Salvinia.

 

[Guyb93]

Ah good a guinea pig haha I want to try this in a cichlid tank soon too.

From what I’ve read and seen peace lillys are the best option as pothos can be toxic and I’d be worried your severum would eat it. You just need to work out a way to get it to keep the majority of the plant out of the water and just keep the roots under the stems in the water. I think you can get some hydroponics stuff and I’ve seen some acrylic hangars you can get too.

You can get peace lillys from any garden or home shop they are pretty common - interested to see how you get on. Is your tank near a window btw if not you might need a clip on plant light for it too

Wills

Always good to have a guinea pig ahaha and my plan was to try and hide the roots behind a large bit of spider wood I have , iv saw a bloke on YouTube MD aquatic I think and nearly all his tanks have a plant growing out the top , peace lolly will probably be my first attempt as it seems to be best chance of success ahaha my tank is between two windows so I’m not worried about light plus my tank light is actually designed to grow terrestrial plants rather than aquatic species , il keep you posted with the outcome and weather it fails on it’s own or my fish help it on it’s way lol

 

[Guyb93]

I understand the problem.
Be aware that whilst most, if not all aquatic plants are deemed safe for fish, this isn't the case for terrestrial plants and you may add unknown toxins into the water.
Plants CAN be secured in a tank, even when you have prolific 'diggers'.
Plants can be secured in small pots and, if the substrate is deep enough, buried.

Plants getting eaten is another issue, but we used to have access to very cheap Elodea, which did eventually get eaten and replaced. Before it did get eaten, it did perform it's planty duties.

Another solution is floating plants.
I have a particular fondness for Salvinia.

I was having good success with hornwort until it became a buffet ahah I here duck weed is almost indestructible, might be worth a try as well

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

I was having good success with hornwort until it became a buffet ahah I here duck weed is almost indestructible, might be worth a try as well

Indeed.
Personally, I think it can be managed, but it IS difficult to eradicate.
P'raps you could demonstrate a solution!
That said, before it does get eaten, it'll done some good for your tank.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

pothos can be toxic

Well there you go then! I know even less than I thought

 

[FishHobby99]

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 ?

Everyday I get photos from Pinterest of tanks with many terrestrial plants & some aquatic. Appears the terrestrial have roots only inside. I do have a few pothos roots in one tank, not much. A few leaves dropped in & went white, unable to photosynthesize. I am saving these links for future reference. Many tanks appear heavily over-planted to my untrained eye.

 

[FishHobby99]

Well there you go then! I know even less than I thought

Thought pothos roots are beneficial, but are debated. I’ve seen some fine healthy tanks & fish with many pothos roots. Lots of good YouTube vids.

 

[MammaBearinTN]

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.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

I thought the same but wouldn't risk it now I know it may be harmful