has there ever been any studies that show plant nutrient use, specifically around aquariums???

[Magnum Man]

I think the general consensus is, the faster growing plants need more nutrients, but I don’t believe that is specifically true, after watching some plants growing well in just tap water, ( like my celery experiment ) from watching this, one would guess varying plants have different needs…

looking at plants as filter assistants, aquatic plants, and terrestrial plants are normally put in different classes I would suspect slow growers like anubias, while pretty, probably remove less from the water than faster growing aquatics…

as far as terrestrial plants, it seems as pothos vines are king, and while they are one of the more aggressive growing, do they really remove more from the water, than other occasionally used plants like peace lillie’s???

Oh, to be a college kid today, with all the tools they have available to them… a real world thesis on which plants remove more impurities from water sources…

 

[GaryE]

Forget the idea of plants. Species by species... all are different, many have different needs, nutrient uptakes, etc. I suspect the real hardcore plant people have species studies about what nutrients they need to grow plant A or plant B best, but then you'd need to know what nutrients are in your water to compare.

 

[Magnum Man]

Google Search

plants that help purify water

a little www. dive… revealed a plant I had never heard of…

water mint… ( Mentha aquatica )

 

[GaryE]

If the mint is actually anti bacterial, would that be a good thing? What would it do to the cycle in the tank? If it did nothing, I'd question the source that says it's anti-bacterial.

I looked online and see it as mainly a pond plant. That often says its light nights are beyond what we can manage indoors. Again though, a general statement with no direct experience.

It seems like a potential invasive in North America too. But lots of plants take up nutrients. Duckweed, the dreaded duckweed, is a great one for that.

 

[Magnum Man]

I agree on anti microbial… is it pulling it from the water, or the soil… and what kind of bacteria, as there is also a wide variety both beneficial and detrimental…

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello. The Chinese Evergreen will keep tank water clear of all forms of nitrogen. This is really all you need to keep fish healthy. I've used the "Aglaonema" plant to keep tanks free of dissolved fish and plant waste material for years and only replaced water lost to evaporation with distilled water. This solved the problem of figuring out what plants required what macro and micro nutrients. Also grew some nice Anubias and Anacharis plants in the same tank. Below is a photo of a couple of small Chinese Evergreen plants in a 45 gallon tank.

10

 

[fishorama]

Wow, those Chinese Evergreens look great! How are you lighting them? I always try to keep sunlight away from my tanks due to algae. I know they are pretty low light plants, what's your secret?

 

[Magnum Man]

I used to use them, and I found them susceptible to white fly infestation, and I could not get rid of those bugs… I had peace lily’s at the same time, and no bugs on the peace lily’s, so I replaced the Chinese Evergreen with more peace lily’s

 

[fishorama]

Peace lilies were not happy at my DE house. No bugs, but not in a tank. Maybe better window light? Too long ago to remember...

 

[GaryE]

I have a Chinese evergreen in an aquaclear on a 75, and another on a 20. It's good. It's not a miracle plant and

This is really all you need to keep fish healthy.

is overly optimistic. It helps, grows in low light and looks very good. You still need other elements and a knowledge of what fish and what nutrients we're actually talking about. The devil's in the details.

I have filtration supplemented by roots in the tanks Chinese evergreens, peace lilies (large ones now), Pothos of several types, ferns, snake plants, calla lilies, Bacopa, pitcher plants and spider plants. I haven't seen any studies on what nutrients they remove, although they do well in general, and most seem to be supporting the nitrogen cycle. What they do with other cycles and processes isn't clear.

You'd probably need a passionate hobbyist with the right background to design and carry out a plant by plant study. It would be pretty complicated.

For my low waste producing insect eaters, I have the strong impression all of these plants are helpful. On their own, they solve nothing. With space and light, I think you could have entirely plant filtered tanks for some of the species I have here. For others, the need for moving water makes water flow very important. If we don't want to be limited to a tiny range of possible fish in our tanks, we can make hybrid systems involving plants and pumps. Putting a wide pored sponge into a filter gives more benefits than a pump or powerhead alone and still moves the water.

I used to grow Basil on my tanks, and there, there were proven benefits to the pesto. But I think we're still at the trying things out, falling in love with one plant or the other and not having a lot of research to go on phase. I like those Chinese evergreens. They do well away from a window and I have no doubt work with the fish @10 Tanks likes to keep. I don't think we have an answer to the original question though.