Spartina alterniflora

[Norberg]

Hi !

Is there anyone who has any experiens of Spartina alterniflora as a nutient remover in marine tanks. I have seen that people uses them for wastewater treatment in some places. I am interested in trying these since they can tollerate the salinity in a SW tank.

Tommy

[Will]

I tried this idea, too. The biggest problem I encountered was that I couldn't pull the Spartina out of the ground. They have very long roots (at least a foot or two), so I don't think they're very useful in aquariums after all. It did sound like a really great idea at the time, but I just couldn't get the Spartina to come up hehe. :rolleyes:
-Will

[billsreef]

I don't see why it wouldn't work. You'd need to make a nice marsh set up ;) Use of marsh grasses does have a long history in waste treatment. Might take some experimentation to come up with the right recipie of how many for a tank etc. The only problem I could see is temperature. Mid 70's is probably OK, but not sure if warmer would be a problem. Worth a try if you can get your own ;)

[Norberg]

You have to try some steroids, hehe!!

Yes i know they have very powerfull rootstructure, so they can realy outgrow anything. I think that you only need a smal pice of the rihozome to start with, it will rapidly grov to a mature plant from that. I belive that you must keep them separatly from everyting else in its own refugium with som sand on the bottom. But if they like to be in the refugium they should pull out nutrients better then mangrove and as good as caulerpa.'

I have seen this plants for sale as plug plants in some nurseries in USA, but i cant get them here in Europe ( Sweden ).

Tommy

[Norberg]

Sorry i missed your thread billsreef.
I dont think the temperature will be any big problem it will only grow faster and you need to take cutings from the roots more often. This is so you can keep the populkation helthy. Have you heard of any doing a marsh set up to a SW tank?

Tommy