# Sump Plant for Filtration



## Marowana (Jul 28, 2009)

hi, i'm setting up a FW tank with sump. i want some plants that can grows in low light, eats nitrate, does not require pruning and doesnt drop leaves. is there such plant out there? 

Thanks


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## Calmer (Mar 9, 2008)

Cryptocoryne wendtii would work well. They can withstand low or high light. A very tough plant. They can be grown emersed in moist conditions and are excellent substrate feeders as well. The somewhat tough leaves withstand a lot. The more light they receive then the more nutrients they will use.


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## Marowana (Jul 28, 2009)

thanks, im going to look for that. is it a common plant that i can find in most LFS?


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## Calmer (Mar 9, 2008)

Yes it is a common plant. Nothing exotic and easy to care for. http://naturalaquariums.com/plants/cryptwendtii.html
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/myplants/57-Crypt__Wendtii_Cryptocoryne_wendtii.html


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## coryp (May 28, 2008)

why not use java moss like you would use cheato in saltwater?


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## gucci17 (Oct 11, 2007)

anubas and a java ferns can handle very little light.


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## bae (May 11, 2007)

Plants will only take up substantial amounts of nitrate and other nutrients if they are growing. Most of the plants recommended don't grow very fast. 

You don't say how much light is low light here, but if the only objective is to remove nitrates, etc, I'd suggest you go for duckweed. As a surface floater, it will be close to the light, it will get CO2 from the air, and it grows faster than anything else I can think of. Let it cover the surface, then remove 1/2 - 3/4, repeat indefinitely. Duckweed is 80% protein dry weight, so you can see that there's substantial nitrogen uptake here.

Another possibility is to grow plants that will root in water, like pothos. Pothos is one of those hanging basket vining house plants with heart shaped leaves, usually with yellow or white markings. Cuttings will root easily in warm water and produce lots of roots. the leaves will get even closer to the light than duckweed. 

Note that plants prefer ammonia to nitrate, because they have to reduce nitrate back to ammonia before they can use it, which takes energy. They'll compete with your filter bacteria for ammonia, but while the filter bacteria release nitrate, the plants just grow.

Every plant will drop leaves, but you'd be scooping off the duckweed before it gets a chance, and pothos will drop its leaves outside the sump.

Btw, if your tank is within a couple of meters of a window, you can grow pothos in it or in a HOB filter, roots in the water, tops in daylight.


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## Marowana (Jul 28, 2009)

bae said:


> Plants will only take up substantial amounts of nitrate and other nutrients if they are growing. Most of the plants recommended don't grow very fast.
> 
> You don't say how much light is low light here, but if the only objective is to remove nitrates, etc, I'd suggest you go for duckweed. As a surface floater, it will be close to the light, it will get CO2 from the air, and it grows faster than anything else I can think of. Let it cover the surface, then remove 1/2 - 3/4, repeat indefinitely. Duckweed is 80% protein dry weight, so you can see that there's substantial nitrogen uptake here.
> 
> ...


im going to have a flourscent above the refugium. if it compete with my filter bacteria is it even a good idea to put plants in my sump? should i only have it in the beginning as back up while my bacteria is getting established in the new tank? won't floating plants like duckweed float over the edge of the refugium?

this is my first time running a sump. thanks for everybody help


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## Calmer (Mar 9, 2008)

The plants that are submerged will have nitrifying bacteria on their leaves. If there is a current passing through the leaves then the bacteria on the leaves will consume the waste. That way you have bacteria and plants consuming fish waste. The only negative part is that there is less co2 in the water than in the air. Independent of the light the bacteria will still consume the fish by-products. As long as the plants get enough light and nutrients to survive then it should work well.


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

Is your goal to use the plants to filter the water in the sump?

If it is, you need some fast growing plants (and duckweed is a great suggestion).


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## bae (May 11, 2007)

It's not clear why you want a sump, rather than just growing plants in the tank. Sumps/refugia are not often used in freshwater systems. What are you trying to accomplish?


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## Marowana (Jul 28, 2009)

the reason that i dont want to have plants in my tank is i have a 30" high tank on a 36" stand. it will be diffcult(lazy) to take care of the plants. plus the fish i keep is going to destroy them.
i have big fishes that eats and poops alot. i only wanted plants to help with water filtation is not for decoration.


do you think its not worth the hassle to do it in FW? should i just fill that section with some more bio media instead?

thanks


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## Mr Fishies (Sep 21, 2007)

Marowana said:


> do you think its not worth the hassle to do it in FW? should i just fill that section with some more bio media instead?


If you had sun to grow the plants, I'd say go for it, but if you are going to spend the electricity to grow plants just to remove nitrates/ammonia, you might be better served with a larger or 2nd filter heavy with bio media IMO.

If you do go ahead with it as an experiment or for the challenge and novelty, I'd use both the suggested Pothos/Epipremnum as emmersed growth and duckweed or salvina as a floater. Both will grow under lower light conditions, I've done something like that at work in an office with nothing other than ambient light from north facing windows and a spiral fluorescent but the 10G tank didn't have any lunkers in it!


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## Plaid (Nov 10, 2008)

Marowana said:


> i only wanted plants to help with water filtation is not for decoration.
> thanks


How about... algae?
Green, fast growing, huge nitrate sponge? You'd have to set up some simple system to hold it in place.


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## Marowana (Jul 28, 2009)

Mr Fishies said:


> If you had sun to grow the plants, I'd say go for it, but if you are going to spend the electricity to grow plants just to remove nitrates/ammonia, you might be better served with a larger or 2nd filter heavy with bio media IMO.
> 
> If you do go ahead with it as an experiment or for the challenge and novelty, I'd use both the suggested Pothos/Epipremnum as emmersed growth and duckweed or salvina as a floater. Both will grow under lower light conditions, I've done something like that at work in an office with nothing other than ambient light from north facing windows and a spiral fluorescent but the 10G tank didn't have any linkers in it!


i guess you are right its kinda like part novelty part experiment. my sump is 75g and have some extra room thats why iam playing with the plants filtration idea.



Plaid said:


> How about... algae?
> Green, fast growing, huge nitrate sponge? You'd have to set up some simple system to hold it in place.


i think i have seen something like that before, does it turn my water green?


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## Plaid (Nov 10, 2008)

Greenwater algae is a HUGE bloom of simple algae species, which people agree is caused by ammonia. I have MORE than enough algae in my tank, yet the water is crystal clear. Why? I have the filration to cover ammonia as it is produces.

So, no, it should not turn your water green. You're gonna want to get string algae growing, it shouldn't be too hard.

Basically, shine light at water, and algae will grow. If there's ammonia, greenwater algae grows.

Worst-case scenario: Your water turns green. You put a blanket over your tank for two days, and clean your nets with bleach. The green particles die, you clean your filter, you try again.

That being said, algae is just a suggestion. I saw a neat thread on another forum for an algae water cleaner... It was a white sheet, hung near a window, with the water running down it from top to bottom. The sheet got COVERED with algae, and, while evaporation rates were brutal, the nitrates were always zero.

Good luck! And go to bed. It's 2 o'clock.


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## bluekrissyspikes (Apr 16, 2009)

have you thought of using some kinds of plants that aren't truely aquatic? like lettuce can be grown floating and it will use up more than duckweed i think, since it's big and grows fast.


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## Mr Fishies (Sep 21, 2007)

Marowana said:


> my sump is 75g and have some extra room thats why iam playing with the plants filtration idea.


Holy crap.  My "big" tank is a 75. I don't think you should be allowed to call a 75G tank a "sump"... an under tank reservoir maybe.


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

For a freshwater setup, it might be a better idea to convert the sump into a wet-dry filter.


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## bae (May 11, 2007)

If anyone wants some rooted pothos cuttings, I've got lots. I grow it in a gallon glass jar on the mantle, where it gets daylight from a NE-facing window about 2 meters away. So you can see it doesn't need much light. 

Pothos used to be its scientific name, but now it's the common name. It was Scindapsis for a while, and as Mr Fishies says, it's now Epipremnum. You can see if overgrowing planters in malls and atriums.

Another possibility, if you can get the geometry right, is Monstera, that big office plant with slashed and perforated leaves. It grows aerial roots at every node, and if you lead them into water, they make a big bush of roots in no time.

As for emersed plants, with only 10w of light, many of them will get a bit stringy, and many of them need high humidity to thrive. Spathiphyllum (peace lily) will grow well in shallow water and limited light. It's sometimes sold as 'Brazilian swordplant' as an aquarium plant, but it doesn't do well completely submerged. Even the dwarf forms are rather tall for this purpose, however.


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## Mr Fishies (Sep 21, 2007)

When bae mentioned peace lilly, it reminded me of this page, see the 3rd pic down, a big rubbermaid sump with peace lillys and pothos.

http://dataguru.org/misc/aquarium/

Not the prettiest thing for a living room in that incarnation, but if executed well below your tank, I could see it looking really nice.

Check out posts on other forums on Ripariums and paludariums etc for some really nice ideas. Obviously some plants are harder to keep etc than others, some won't really do much for filtration, and there is a ton of effort to a setup like that one, but in general a big whack of healthy plants, even easy to grow ones, always looks beautiful if its in a nice pot, in your case, a glass box.


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## Marowana (Jul 28, 2009)

Chris S said:


> For a freshwater setup, it might be a better idea to convert the sump into a wet-dry filter.


my sump is a wet dry filter, it just have one more section that i use as refugium.

thanks for everyone suggestions on plant selection. i have selected a few to try, we'll see how it goes in a couple of months.


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