That was me. I got it from Diana Walstad's book 'Ecology of the Planted Aquarium'.Flippercon said:I don't remember who told me but I was told house plants are the best at this. I was told to put the roots in the water and it should do the trick. I have not tried this yet,but will be as soon as I get to my mothers to steal a few plants. I too am trying to find some way to reduce nitrates. Keep us posted on progress with this.
I'll check it out this weekend, but I'm sure they're thinking of the plant being poisonous when eaten, particularly by pets. I really doubt that there are plants that release toxins through their root system.Flippercon said:Hey Tim can you go in your book and name a couple of these house plants? I was talking to someone at work about this idea and they said to be careful cause some house plants viny ones have poison.
No, please do. Very interested in hearing the results. Thanks!Flippercon said:Not to Hijack rgr4475 ,but I finally got over to my moms and she gave me a bunch of Pothos ivy (devils ivy) and I stuck it in the tank. I have seen her from these things out of cups after they were clipped. I have them on 4 of my tanks at the moment. All 4 tanks are different in many ways : substrate,plants ,fish , and filters. So I will revisit this post in a months time to update the outcome.
Some confirmation there ! The plant idea is looking good. Thanks for the post fishflakeFishFlake said:I set up a 10g just to see how well some plants removed the nitrates. It has 2 red mangroves and every inch of the surface is stuffed with water lettuce. I started with just a few lettuces, but now it's a carpet. There are no fish. Each week I drain out about 1/2 - 2/3 of the water and replace it with the water from my CA tank water change. Afterwards the nitrates in the 10g measure about 10. By the next water change the nitrates are at zero.