I was thinking of using the sump area in my wet/dry as a plant refugium. The tank is a 125 fish only with messy eating preds. The sump holds around 14 gallons operating. What are some good plants that will absorb nitrates. I was thinking that floating plants would be best in this case. Can someone suggest a type of floating plant I could use? Would I have to worry about the growth of algae by using a plant fuge?
Good plants for a refugium?
- Thread starter Im a Pisces
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if you are meeting the needs of your plants, in terms of CO2 and nutrients, I don't think that you would see algae. However, sumps don't often get special CO2, so you may indeed get algae. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
The plants I'd recommend are anacharis, hornwort, water sprite (Ceratopteris cornuta), java moss, perhaps water wisteria. All of those are low maintenance, can be grown floating, and are great absorbers of nutrients. In fact, they are known to be "nutrient hogs" in the presence of other plant species.
good luck. p.s. I'm a Pisces, too
The plants I'd recommend are anacharis, hornwort, water sprite (Ceratopteris cornuta), java moss, perhaps water wisteria. All of those are low maintenance, can be grown floating, and are great absorbers of nutrients. In fact, they are known to be "nutrient hogs" in the presence of other plant species.
good luck. p.s. I'm a Pisces, too
i read somewhere that floating plants get their co2 from the air outside and not from the water. is that correct? I think i'll try anacharis it doesnt like it would make too much of a mess if it were to not make it.
pisces in the house :sim:
pisces in the house :sim:
I've never thought of that. I guess that could work, since some of their leaves are exposed to the air.
Anacharis can be messy if it dies. The leaves are really tender and small, so will make kind of a mess. But I've never had anacharis die on me. Only time I've seen it suffer is when I used Excel (carbon supplement) because it tends to melt leaves of tender plants. I've got a bunch of anacharis, hornwort, and watersprite floating in my snail breeding buckets and they're all doing great! No heat, no ferts (besides snail waste) and no light fixture, just ambient from the window. In fact, I need to go trim my hornwort in the bigger snail bucket. They're starting to grow out of control, strands like a foot long!
There are a lot of Pisces on this site. Weird, huh? Maybe we're all just water babies with a connection to the fishies
Anacharis can be messy if it dies. The leaves are really tender and small, so will make kind of a mess. But I've never had anacharis die on me. Only time I've seen it suffer is when I used Excel (carbon supplement) because it tends to melt leaves of tender plants. I've got a bunch of anacharis, hornwort, and watersprite floating in my snail breeding buckets and they're all doing great! No heat, no ferts (besides snail waste) and no light fixture, just ambient from the window. In fact, I need to go trim my hornwort in the bigger snail bucket. They're starting to grow out of control, strands like a foot long!
There are a lot of Pisces on this site. Weird, huh? Maybe we're all just water babies with a connection to the fishies
water lettuce huh. it will be in my sump which is heated. i dont mind buying an extra light for it if i have to. i'll look into all the suggestions above. i want something that wont be messy because although my magdrive has a sponge over the impellar area i don't want anything accidently getting caught in there and ruining my pump. thanks for the input everyone
although I do not have much experience with fuges, I agree with the others. floating plants like duckweed or water lettuce would work well in there, and some other good floating plants you might consider include frogbit and common salvinia.
would i have to worry about lighting with water lettuce? would ambient lighting work well enough? also is 14 gallons enough space for this plant?
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well, maybe not water lettuce, I think it is a pretty light-needy plant. however, duckweed will grow in any light, and is the perfect choice IMHO.Im a Pisces said: