FishProfiles.com Message Forums

hi the lfs sold me some sweet flag,when i got home i posted a thread so everyone could know about my find b/c i thought it was a cool looking plant.when i got a reply i said that sweet flag is growm on land and when completely submerged it will die.So now im wonring about leaving it in the tank as a potential fertilizer for my other plants, as i have heard decaying plant matter is a good fertilizer. would this work?.

Leaving decaying plants in your tank is not good, leads to buildup of organic waste. (and looks bad too)

An established tank will have some mulm in the gravel if you don't vac it deeply. Plants find some nutrients in it.

I'm currently not vaccing my tank but I do remove any loose bits and decaying plant matter.

The Amazon Nut...

ok so ill remove it if it starts to die....i say starts because i have a book that says it some types can be submerged (just got the book from my gram 15 mins ago,she was cleaning and found it and aske dif i wanted it then brought it over.)so i guess it depends on what typ i have?thanks
Cichlid

I am in agreement with mossman. Whil decaying organics supply a wonderful ammount of orgnics in nature, they are not beneficial in aquaria (well they can be but in this particular case they are not)

the decaying plant will provide a slow release of nutrients and chemicals as it decays, which is a good thing you could say, but since you are only doing this for one plant the leaching of nutrients will be negligable and short term. the remaining organic substances, usually the cellulose of the cell wall, reamins intact and will linger around for weeks or months on end before it is fully broken down.

Now tere are some aquarium styles that have been outlined in which organics are provided by the decay of fish food and plant matter (a.k.a. Waltad's Ecology of a Planted Aquaria) but this si a continual thing not a part time i'll just let this one plan die.

Megil

P.S. I hope this makes some kind of sense I tend to ramble on sometimes