Science Forums 2

[Ganoderma]

i am talking about growing plants in your fish aquarium filter. the 2 HUGE advantages are they take not floor space as they are in your fish tank...and you never need to water them (thats good for all the black thumbs out there)

the plants i have found to work well in fish tanks are: philidendrons, pothos, ficus (can be tricky at times), african violets, betel leaf, money trees, lucky "bamboo" (other dracaenas will probably work well too) and am trying a few new ones.

the thing is plants do take IN oxygen through the roots, which one at first might think is bad. and i would say its bad to grow land plants in an aquarium as only the roots are in the water. but oxygen mostly gets put into the fish tank through surface disturbance, which means water leaving the filter. so the plants would only take it out *before* the water falls to the tank and puts more O2 in there. thats just assuming the plants even take enough out to matter, which they likely wouldn't.

2 considerations. light is a big issue. they will grow towards it and may shade your fish, no biggy unless you care about the looks of the tank or the plants in the tank.

also they should be able to handle their roots being wet all the time (ie root rot prone plants are bad).


i would estimate i have an additional couple square meters of leaf area inside my house jsut from a single 20gallon tank. i am now trying to get our 90gallon tank setup, but there is less light so more problems.

but think about it. no extra work (self watered and fertilized from fish piss/poo), and more clean are and green stuff in the house....without sacrificing valuable floor footage. i also assume it helps get rid of some of the nitrates/ites in the water...but am not sure on that one...seems logical...?



suggestions for plants
-low light requirements
-water tolerance
-branched/bushy/vine as to not get a large single stem that will likely fall over and kill your filter/tank (use common sense)