The "Water Changeless" FW Tank
As long as it does not include adding jello powder to the tank I am in. Please...
Hello again orion...
Never heard of the Jell-O thing. Must be real messy.
I used to change out half the tank water in my planted tanks. Did it for years. Every week, 125 gallons of new water was carried up and down flights of stairs. Frankly, I got a little too old and for lack of a better word "stove up" to do it.
I researched a plant that would thrive with the roots under the water. Plants thrive on nitrogens, like ammonia (NO), nitrite (NO2) and nitrate (NO3). See how I added a little chemistry lesson?
Anyway, the land plant is called "Chinese Evergreen". Aglaonema is the fancy name and it comes in varieties like Cutlass, Gemini, Modestum, etc. The plants are very cheap, You rinse off all the potting mixture and emerse the roots in the tank water, with the leaves above.
This sounds like it can't work, but the plant roots take in nutrients from the dissolved plant and animal waste and the water stays pure and crystal clear. No water changes necessary. You can have a little standard mechanical filtration, but it's not necessary. You just need to emerse several plants.
There is one maintenance step. Because the tank is open, to allow the plant leaves to be above the water to take in CO2 from the air, you'll have to replace any water lost to evaporation. The larger the tank, the more evaporation.
That's the "skinny". The tank has a very different look, but I love not having to do the large, weekly water changes. The fish provide the nitrogen for the plants and the plants use it so quickly, the water stays totally pure for the fish. So, "0" ammonia and nitrites. Last time I tested one of the tanks, the nitrates were at 5 ppm.
B
