22 replies to this topic

[effan07]

Hi just wondering what plants would be the best for my Lake Malawi cichlid tank, as my nitrite levels are always getting to high, I have cut down the amount of fish I have and I'm pretty sure its the pleco in there, he does a lot of crap and its annoying as I have to do 1/3 W/C twice a week so thinking plants will help reduce the need for so many W/C.
Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers Evan

[dazzabozza]

Gday

What filter/s are you running? What size tank and how many fish? How often do you feed?

The pH of your water may determine what plants you can have. Malawis are also notorious for feeding on plants and uprooting them. Vallis with the assistance of gutter guard under the substrate (to keep it rooted) has worked well for some people.


Daz

[effan07]

Gday

What filter/s are you running? What size tank and how many fish? How often do you feed?

Hi Daz
I have a aqua one aquis 1000 canister filter, I have no ammonia, or nitrite and about 40ppm nitrate doing W/C to get rid of it my tank is 4ft long by 1.5ft width by 2ft high I have one pleco that was added recently, 5 C. moori juvies, 4 N.venestus, 4 p. crabro, 2 L. cerulius (electric yellows don't think spelled correctly), and some others that I will be trading in tomorrow they are all pretty small maximum size about 13cm average about 9cm and I feed them once a day.
Hope this helps you to help me lol, and I might try vallis thanks for reply.
Cheers Evan

[dazzabozza]

Gday

In your first post you said high nitrite, did you mean nitrate?


Daz

[effan07]

oh (edited) sorry yea i meant nitrate
sorry

[dazzabozza]

No worries. I'd expect that you'd need a lot of plants to make an impact on nitrates. Hopefully one of the planted tank gurus can be of assistance.


Daz

[Warby]

You say you only have a CF1000 on a 4x2x1.5 ? According to the Aqua One website the CF1000 is rated at max 330L tank at 0 head height and 200L tank at 1.4m head, your tank would be 324L so that filter isn't really sufficient.. I actually got sold the same filter for a similar size tank and ended up purchasing a CF1200 to sit alongside the CF1000 to help battle my water quality issues.

HTH

-Dave

[effan07]

thanks for the help dave i will probably be getting an internal filter to help out with the mechanical filtration and add some more water movement.
Cheers Evan

[dazzabozza]

If the CF1000 wasn't coping I'd expect to see ammonia/nitrite levels in the tank (worthwhile retesting a few hours after a feed and later again). Still worthwhile having a second method of filtration on the tank in case one was to fail/crash.

Doesn't matter how many filters you hang off it the end result is always going to nitrate, and the level will depend on stocking / feeding levels.

Paul from Morley aqua just covered this at the last meeting actually. Only way to lower nitrates is -

• water changing
• anaerobic bacteria (using a denitrator filter or live rock (marine))
• lots of plants
• absorbing pouches such as Nitra-Zorb or Purigen

Daz

[Cicolid]

All this talk of filters, flow rates, lighting and fish stocking levels all seems pointless because I have never had any success with growing plants in Malawi tanks.
Even the hardy plants don't last long and they definitely don't grow. I have tried 3 species of anubias, 2 species of Java Fern and several species of Crypt's.

To get over this I just use plants that are tied to rocks or wood, they can then be removed when they start to deteriorate and put into another tank while they recover.

This is only my opinion and I have no doubt that others will disagree.

Col

[MadMoorii]

I have never had any success with growing plants in Malawi tanks.
Even the hardy plants don't last long and they definitely don't grow. I have tried 3 species of anubias, 2 species of Java Fern and several species of Crypt's.

Yeah - I agree. The only plant that has survived for any length of time in our cichlid tank has been some broad-leafed vallis, but that gets manky and gross after a couple of months. Now we just have 2 big silk (fake) fishtank plants for colour and hiding spots. Definately no effect on water parameters.

[the pulpican man]

good plants for a malawi tank, hmmmmm plastic ones, all cichlids tend to dig up real plants and you end up with them floating around, you can get some really nice quality silk plants off ebay (i just bought 4) only cost me about $29! with postage. just search "aquarium silk plants" on ebay.com.au

tom

[dazzabozza]

Lets not all forget that Evan's goal is to reduce nitrates. Plastic plants might not cut it

If you can't keep up with the water changes and want to reduce your nitrates I'd spread out your feeds to every 1.5days (e.g. feed in the morning the first day, afternoon the next day, miss the next, feed the following morning etc).

Else look at getting absorbing pouches such as Nitra-Zorb, Chemi-pure or Purigen.


Daz

[the pulpican man]

woops i forgot he need to reduce nitrates, sorryy, but i am right about the digging thing sure of that.

tom

[effan07]

cheers everyone for responses
hey Dazza where do u get these absorbing pouches such as Nitra-Zorb or Purigen, do most fish stores sell them and are they very big and unsightly.
Thanks for help everyone.
Cheers Evan

[the pulpican man]

i've seen them at most LFS they are a common thing to stock.

[dazzabozza]

cheers everyone for responses
hey Dazza where do u get these absorbing pouches such as Nitra-Zorb or Purigen, do most fish stores sell them and are they very big and unsightly.
Thanks for help everyone.
Cheers Evan

Hi Evan

They're fairly small and can go into your canister or an internal filter.


Going from memory -

Chemipure - Age of Aquariums (OLS)
Nitrazorb - Aquotix
Purigen - Malaga, Midland, Vebas


Daz

[effan07]

thanks for that Dazza

[sajica]

I've had good success in my Malawi tanks with big clumps of Jave Fern potted into pots (not ideal) with a large river pebbles on top to stop the fish digging. I found in my case keeping Mbuna, they only liked to dig in the pot which caused the plant to float around... The river pebbles sorted that out. I've seen plenty of nicely planted Malawi tanks with Anubias congensis as the main plant, barteri would work well too.

Not malawi related but I remember seeing a few pics of Noddy's Tanganyikan tank (before he moved over east) with Crypt crispatula var "Balansae" growing rampant. Another candidate would be Crypt aponogetifolia if you're lucky enough to know someone with some

[effan07]

I've had good success in my Malawi tanks with big clumps of Jave Fern potted into pots (not ideal) with a large river pebbles on top to stop the fish digging. I found in my case keeping Mbuna, they only liked to dig in the pot which caused the plant to float around... The river pebbles sorted that out. I've seen plenty of nicely planted Malawi tanks with Anubias congensis as the main plant, barteri would work well too.

Not malawi related but I remember seeing a few pics of Noddy's Tanganyikan tank (before he moved over east) with Crypt crispatula var "Balansae" growing rampant. Another candidate would be Crypt aponogetifolia if you're lucky enough to know someone with some

thanks for all the info Saj will try some of these for sure.
Cheers Evan