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SamsonNY
02-13-2003, 8:13 AM
My planted sump next to my w/d is pretty much set to go.
Please advise on what kind of plants would work best.

Criteria:
-150 gallon tank (with rays and arowanas).
-Amiracle MR 400 w/d.
-Rio 2500 pumping water from the w/d thru a U.V. and then to the plant sump which then will feed back into the w/d and get pumped to the main tank.
-Plant sump is 24"L x 12"W x 16"H (20 gallon).
-Light is a 24" flo. strip with a 18W plant gro bulb.
-Light will be on from noon to midnight.
-White small-medium size gravel

-Looking for low-maintenance (no fertilizer, no CO2, etc.) plants.
-Main goal is lowering Nitrates, lowering DOCs, increasing O2.
-And, looking thru E-Bay at what is offered:

Anacharis
Cabomba
Coontail (says it is great also at fighting algae since it gives off a toxin that kills algae but is safe for fish)?

How many plants can I place in the 20 gal. sump? How much spacing in between?

Thanks for any advice.

Richard.

somefinnfishy
02-14-2003, 4:48 PM
I would consider doing a bog plant water depth instead of submersion.
I use peace lillys (spathiphilum(sp?)
All the alge I can manualy remove from the main tank go's in the sump.
Allso duck weed thrives in there then feed that to my gold fish.
You will draw 5 times the nutreants out with bog plants aposed to the true aquatic plants.
I use a cheap hanging standard socketed reflector with a 26w screw in spiral type CF bulb.
I time minefor a reverse light cycle as my main lights.
For me the timeing thing was so the unlight sump wouldent pull co2 off during the day and would "blow it off" at night.
Others that might work for you are java moss,money wort or any free floating plants