# Plant lighting question - water lettuce in a sump (refugium)



## Steve St.Laurent (Oct 2, 2008)

I'm planning on adding plants to my sump to help reduce nitrates in my 90 gallon Mbuna tank. It has a built in overflow running into a 15 gallon long sump that has about 10 gallons of water in it when it's running. I'm considering water lettuce as it's locally available and was suggested by the LFS. I'll have 12"x12" of surface area that it will be floating in. So my question is how do I know how much light in watts to use? The guy at the LFS suggested a 13 watt fixture. I've found info on water lettuce online but I can't find anywhere that gives suggestions on amount of light. I've never been able to keep normal plants alive and this is my first try at putting plants in an aquarium of any kind and welcome any suggestions.

Thanks


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

I'm now looking at trying some plants also. I'm getting anubia and java fern as recommended plants. I have to question whether you are going the right way on your problem, though. Are you currently having high nitrates or are you doing this to head off a future problem? Reason for asking is that I found in other tries at plants that they created far more water quality questions than they solved. If you have a current problem, dying plants might tip you over the edge. Many years ago, I tried plants as they were recommended. Found it led to more fish trouble than it was worth. I'm now willing to play in the fire again, hoping that I now can handle the water quality issues better. Be aware that the hobby is full of well meaning folks who recommend things to people without thought of whether that person has the same situation and can handle a crisis in the same way. My situation is -- Keep the fish healthy, then maybe do plants. Can I handle both???? :-?


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## Steve St.Laurent (Oct 2, 2008)

Oh, everythings healthy and fine. I keep my nitrates at or below 20 ppm by changing out 50 gallons weekly (tank is heavily stocked). I'm just hoping to reduce that 50 gallon weekly change down to 30 or so if possible. Everything I read on having plants in the sump says it will help reduce nitrates. Just trying to make things a little easier.


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## gnomemagi (Jun 13, 2009)

Basically - to everyone but us, watter lettuce is a weed. It can grow in almost all conditions outside (temperature/ph/etc.).

Because it is free floating, the light does not have to penetrate the water to reach the plant - so this will help wattage-wise.

I feel like a solid 15-20watts or so will indeed be enough for you. If you have any problems growing it, introducing a liquid fertilizer will probably help it grow. It would seem to be a fairly difficult plant to kill. While each sump is different, my worry would be how fast-moving the water is - as it is a pond/muck living plant, it would seem that it prefers stagnant/slow-moving water areas. I might be wrong there though having never kept it.


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## lmhollist (Aug 7, 2009)

I grew both water lettuce and water hyacinth in a small stock tank on my porch all summer long. Had absolutely no luck with the lettuce... seems to disintigrate fairly easily and may be a little more picky about water and light conditions (some varieties prefer constant shade, bright sunlight will burn the leaves). However, the hyacinth flourished and went absolutely nuts inside the stock tank. When I moved everything inside for the winter I had to trim all the root systems because they had taken over the bottom of the tank and created a thick mat. That's one thing you would need to keep up with if you did do a floating plant ... those root systems can get very long and will easily tangle.

The only caution I have with the hyacinth is that it does need warm water to flourish ... found that out when the stuff I moved inside started to die in spite of bright lights. Without some sort of heat it just can't survive.

Another reason to like hyacinth more than lettuce ... it has extremely beautiful purple and blue blooms that last for about 48 hours. For several months this summer I always had a few plants blooming and they are a joy to look at.

If you can get water lettuce locally, you can probably find hyacinth pretty easily too.

As a side note, these floating plants are like giant sponges, their roots catch all sorts of dirt and debris so I'm certain they must be wonderful for picking up nitrates and other aquarium pollutants! My boyfriend and I keep them for our turtles to eat and it seems like he's read on various reptile pages that they are great plants for keeping your water clean.


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