house plants in your aquarium???

[Magnum Man]

so... I was heavy into fish 15-20 years ago, had lots of tanks, & in our living room, in the house we lived in, at that time, we had 2 walls in the living room, that were 1/2 windows, on the east, & south sides... bear in mind, this was a long time ago, but we had a lot of house plants, because of the windows, & it wasn't much of a stretch to combine them... maybe the philodendron vine crossed one of my tanks, & then drooped or grew into the waters surface, & started rooting... I don't remember how it started, but I began putting them into my hang on tank filters, & sometimes just sticking them inside the tank covers & letting them root in the aquarium water... when we moved, we had to chop up some of the vines that were 50 -75 feet long, so we could move them...

fast forward to today... I started up into fish, after a 15 year break, & I'm thinking plants again... most of my aquariums are in the basement now, so any house plants would need to stay small, to keep below my LED plant strips I've been using for tank lights, most of which are hung 12-18" above the tanks... so I'm thinking about looking at some dwarf plants for the tanks running right now... ( suggestions )

in the next 6 months or so, I'm going to start setting up a 120 ish gallon tank in our living room, that would easily be viewed by guests ( I don't usually have guests in the basement where all the other tanks are )... so I don't live in the glass house anymore, but I do have a set of sliding glass patio doors, on the east side, close to where I want to set up the new tank... so I'm back thinking bigger plants, as we already have many growing in that area...

I've watched a couple videos, & apparently the practice of putting house plants in aquariums has gotten popular... one thing I noticed in the videos, is many of the plants roots were taking over the tanks, I also noted that back when I used to do it, which is why I started putting them in the "hang on the back" waterfall style filters... at that point I modified the filter cartridges , so they wouldn't clog, & would hold the roots back from the impeller, & from going into the aquarium... there was maintenance involved, but having them really allowed me to cut back on water changes... in fact, on the one that had the long vines in, I no longer did water changes, I only refilled...

was just wondering how many of you guys are doing the house plant thing???

to restart, & with the bigger tank, I'm thinking about some ornamental plastic vases, that I would drill holes into, to root the plants into, then put the vases into the tanks in higher water flow areas, I may even run a hose or tube from the filter into the vase... with the goal of somewhat containing the roots from overtaking the tanks, & improve the water flow across the roots... to start with, I'm thinking clear plastic containers for the plants, but really anything would work... if I could find a plastic container that looked like rocks, it would look more natural...

I think in reality, any plant you can cut off & root in a vase of water will work... there were several for one reason or another rooted, but didn't work out as well ( I didn't like the purple velvety vines, & I think they called them wandering jews??? but the issues I had with them, may have been lighting or they got icky if actually exposed to the water... we have a hoya vine already growing around the Livingroom, & used to have a few other varieties ( curly leaf, & variegated, that we have since lost, from lack of a regular watering schedule... may want to try those again, but this time as tank grown house plants... also would like to do a nice Monstera

 

[Wills]

Me I'm into it, my tanks have gotten so much better since I started doing this. Lucky Bamboo and two types of Pothos growing out of the tank.

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello. Several house plants work well in a water environment. Chinese Evergreen, Pothos, Arrow plants, Impatiens and Prayer plants. Just keep the roots immersed and the leaves need to be totally out of the water. Tanks really need to be larger if you use the Chinese Evergreen.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello again. Almost forgot the good old "Onion" plant too.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello. If you're aiming to remove forms of nitrogen from the tank water, then the "Aglaonema" is the best. Here it is in a 60 gallon tank with a couple of small sponge filters. No other form of filtration other than the root system of the plants. No ammonia or nitrite. Just a trace of nitrate. If you're wanting to remove nitrogen from the tank water, this is your plant. Just for the record, with the plant getting ferts 24/7, the plant will get a little large!

10 Tanks (Now 11)

 

[Magnum Man]

coincidence... I was already looking at this one....

Amazon.com

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello again. You may want to rethink the use of the Chinese Evergreen. Since the roots take up most of the ammonia at the beginning of the nitrogen cycle, there will be a small bacteria colony. So, as a result, there will be very little nitrite and nitrate. The plant will get extremely large and the root system will take up most of the tank. This will mean less swimming area for the fish and so you'll need to plan accordingly and keep smaller fish. The plants have really outgrown this 55 gallon tank. Fortunately, the fish are very small, but since the water is nearly nitrogen free, the fish breed very quickly.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

 

[Magnum Man]

I’ve been considering a couple ideas…
1st…some sort of container to limit the spread of the roots… if done outside the tank, a pump or filter could pump water into the container ( if these were plastic boxes for example ) they could line along the back top edge of the tank, and drain back into the tank

Also have found some resin drift wood looking pots, that could have holes drilled in it, that could be placed in the tank, to try to contain the roots a little, and at least look like drift wood… I didn’t find any actually made of driftwood, but I would guess that wouldn’t be a huge project, just finding the right pieces

 

[Magnum Man]

I found a line of small submersible aquarium pumps, that could pump the water into the plastic boxes lined along the top back of the tank( right now I’m thinking something along the line of a plastic shoebox ) positioned with drip holes to go back into the tanks… those pumps have a covered inlet, safe for fish, and range from 4 size pumps from 50 to 400 gph

This setup would be similar to the hydroponics, that I set up on my Tilapia aquaculture setup

I still wouldn’t pond just placing some in the tanks, just any that are likely to overgrow the tank, could be housed in the boxes, to get the benefit of those plants, without losing room for the fish

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello Magnum. I used "Spa Baskets" in this tank to keep the plants more secure and limit the spreading of the roots. The roots eventually grew through the holes in the baskets. As the plant matures, the larger roots begin to grow many, smaller roots that grow through the holes. What you end up with is a balanced water system, with no traces of ammonia or nitrite. The nitrate will eventually fall to less than 5 ppm. The terrestrial plants are much more efficient users of nitrogen than aquatic plants. This is due to a root system that's much larger and can absorb much higher concentrations of nitrogen from the dissolving fish waste material.

I also placed an air stone attached to an air pump to increase the oxygen going to the roots. The added oxygen and the constant source of fertilizer makes the plant grow much larger than normal.

One more thing. You'll want to use a sponge filter to house the small bacteria colony. The bacteria colony will use the small amount of fish waste during the dark period when the terrestrial plant rests.

10 Tanks (Now 11)