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Growing plants hydroponically out the back of your tank

frothhelmet

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Let's face it. As much as we love our pretty aquatic plants, nothing removes fish waste from water better than emersed plants - whether floating, breaking the surface from the substrate, or hung on the back with roots dangling into the water.

I am looking for some good - 'grow out the back of your tank with roots dangling down plants'. It's nice to get plants you can eat also. That said not all plants like being grown hydroponically, In the past I have successfully kept basil - but I am having trouble growing it for long now – seems to grow ok for a bit and then just stop, yellow, and wither. Regular mint also does the same.

Anyone have success stories with plants absolutely loving rooting into aquariums only? Any edible plants? What worked and didn’t work?

For me – I am growing a Brazilian plant called ‘big mint’. Interestingly, it performs like the basil and mint in a tank that has a fine sand substrate, but in my ADA Amazonia I Soil tank it’s very healthy – even though its roots don’t reach the soil.

What about you?
 
"pothos" Epipremnum aureum will work well and is a fast grower so should remove decent amounts of fish waste but isn't edible. you can just stick a cutting in the back of your tank and it will throw out roots. I've seen it used this way but never tried it myself in an aquarium.
there's a good discusion here that you might find useful http://www.crazycichlidkeepers.com/post/pothos-peace-lilly-basket-plant-7322354
 
Hi all,
"pothos" Epipremnum aureum will work well
I've got three of these rooting in the back of one of the tanks, your more than welcome to them.
It's nice to get plants you can eat also.
How about Monstera delicosa? It might take a while to get a fruit.



In the summer you can grow <"Colocasia esculenta"> (below) or <"Ipomoea batatas">, but they don't enjoy the winter, although they might be OK with a bright enough light. <"Ipomoea aquatica"> would be even better, but I have no idea where you could get a plant from. List <"here">.

image_zpsxfud6fl2-jpg.5463.jpg


cheers Darrel
 
I use pothos in all of my tanks with fish, and it is amazing; it voraciously devours nitrate, I don't think I'd want to run a tank without it now tbh; though when my gf moves in with cats it'll have to go :(
 
Parsley may do good.. I did put a little bit from the garden in the hydroponic filter i'm using to filter the goldfish pond (winter habitat).
And it is slowly comming back under the artificial light. But must say have i think 100 watt metal halide above it.. Tho i do not fertilize it, it only gets the goldfish poop. Hence it is slow. I guess that's the downfall with ornamental fish tanks, we need to keep the fertilization lean and do not overstock it and the light is relatively low for emersed growth. These are limitations in the choices of what grows very good in these conditions. Most edible plants and herbs are rather fast growers and like very rich soils and lot of sun, i'm not sure if our tank water can be made rich and light strong enough to grow this.

I also have an idea of building a hydroponic aquarium filter and would like to plant it with plants we also keep in the aquarium. So i'm still experimenting what aquarium (bog) plants can grow all year long in livingroom climate. Once i tried and know enough i build the darn thing.. :) Till now i found out Echinodorus sp. (flowers indoors), Pogestemon stellatus, Lilaeopsis brasiliensis, Bog pimpernel, Rotala indica (flowers indoors), Hygrophila Lancae (flowers indoors) and Hydrocotyl tripartita (flowers indoors) do surpricingly good and are not so fussy about humidity, colder temps and lower lights. Hairgrass i'm not yet so sure about but also seems a valid candidate.

Have a few others indoor only did good in the summer and do bad in the winter, can be light or temp i do not know, because i do not heat my house during the nights and temps go down to 15°C. HC and MC fauls away, miriophyllum brasiliensis and hygroriza aristata suffers a major set back.
:thumbup:
 
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A few years ago I set up a tank with a glass trough around one side and the back of the tank.
I filled the trough with backed clay and set up air line connected to a tiny power head. This little power head pumped the main tank water into the tough and overflowed back into the tank.
It worked really well, i tried out many types of house plants, most grew massive root systems and had to be thinned out every week.

54789e235a73eb4e8a54d248b5d2276a.jpg
 
is it possible that growing plants this way can deplete nutrients in the water too much? I could some pothos cuttings behind my hamburg matten filter so the roots are hidden and water is continually drawn over them but is there a point at which the pothos will just be competing with my aquatic plants for nutrients? it's a very low stocked tank.
 
Hi all,
but is there a point at which the pothos will just be competing with my aquatic plants for nutrients?
It will always be competing for nutrients with the aquatic plants, and it has the advantage of having aerial leaves with access to 400ppm CO2.

You can actually use it as a nutrient indicator in the same way that you would a floating plant like <"Amazon Frogbit">.

It has a very plastic response to nutrients and can survive in very low nutrient levels, where it has small leaves produced fairly slowly. Add some more nutrients (and particularly N: P :K) and it will respond with much bigger leaves.

cheers Darrel
 
Hi all,
Is located in Amsterdam (NL) no idea what the int. shipping will be.
I bought mine from the green-grocers, it was about £0.50 back in the early 1990's.

I kept the plant for about 10 years (in a pot) but it failed to survive a very cold night when the glasshouse heating wasn't working.

cheers Darrel
 
Be aware, that Colocasia has potential of severe skin irritation to some people.......
- I've been working with those, at a zoo exebition in my past - so I know, I am one :(.
 
I bought mine from the green-grocers, it was about £0.50 back in the early 1990's.
It just springs into my mind it still might be available in those small oriental grocery stores.. I don't come there often but last time i remember a lot of rare vegtables laying around..

It will always be competing for nutrients with the aquatic plants, and it has the advantage of having aerial leaves with access to 400ppm CO2.

You can actually use it as a nutrient indicator in the same way that you would a floating plant like <"Amazon Frogbit">.

It has a very plastic response to nutrients and can survive in very low nutrient levels, where it has small leaves produced fairly slowly. Add some more nutrients (and particularly N: P :K) and it will respond with much bigger leaves.

Funny you say this, i notice the Duckweed in my high tech tank growing twice as big than it does in the low tech.. But both get the same amount of nutrients both tanks get weekly around 20 ppm N and 2-3 ppm P and K i forgot but enough +/- the same as N. :) Makes me wonder why this is, i have no other idea than to suspect the extra co2 it gets via its rootsystem. Is this why those co2 tabs are also sold at garden centres for potted plants. Do plants benefit from extra co2 in the water at the roots next to the 400ppm from the air??

Here an example.. twice as big is an understatement actualy..
DSCF8060.jpg
 
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zozo I reckon that because co2 is heavier than air there's probably some accumulation in the air directly above the surface and this rather than availability at the roots is what affects the duckweed growth.
 
There are several different Lemna's, Marcel..........I have - at least - 4 recognisably different ones managed to sneak into my tanks at home :drowning:.
They grow side by side.....so t is NOT a matter of different conditions, in my case!
 
There are several different Lemna's, Marcel..........I have - at least - 4 recognisably different ones managed to sneak into my tanks at home :drowning:.
They grow side by side.....so t is NOT a matter of different conditions, in my case!

Yes i know about the different Lemna sp. in my case all that is in the low tech came as sneak in from the high with transfering plants over.. And in the high tech all grows the same size as in the picture and in the low tech dito but smaller as the picture shows and never gets bigger.. So if it are different sp. the small one came from the high tech too then. But in the high tech all lemna has about the same size there is no small one to find. I was just wondering how that could be. Only thing i can think of is the Co2.
 
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