FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I'm a big fan of goldfish and I've been planning on creating a moderately-sized pond this coming spring. I've been considering incorporating an island plant filter (also called a bog filter or veggie filter) in the pond, based on the principle that the plant roots will absorb some of the nutrients (nitrates, nitrites, phosphorus, etc) created by the nitrogen cycle that fish produce. Here's a kind of visual representation of how the system ideally works.

Now, when someone so much as says "plant" my mind automatically jumps to CPs, and when someone says "bog plants" I start to get a little overexcited. So, I naturally started wondering about the possibility of including some carnivorous plants in the filter. Because the pond is outdoors, I know there would be a lot of available sunlight. An appropriate peat/perlite mixture can be used, and it will be kept in moderately damp conditions because of the pond. My main concerns are how the nutrients will affect the plant, water parameters, and fish/plant interaction.

I know that CPs mostly eat insects to seek nutrients, largely nitrogen depending on the plant. This need seems, to me, to fit with the idea of the nitrogen cycle. However, in water where nitrogen is constantly being cycled through their roots, I am worried that this would create an environment where the plants would have too many nutrients, and so this is my biggest concern. I am worried that some of the waste products of the fish would result in the roots being burnt. I suspect that because of this it would not be possible, but I would be interested in hearing the opinions of people who know more about me.

Furthermore, I know that I will have to be careful about the water I use. I haven't tested my tap water for TDP yet, so I suppose I may be jumping the gun, but beyond that, distilled and RO water are not acceptable for fish. i am looking at buying rainwater but I worry about pollution. I live in a rather unpolluted part of the world so I am going to look at the possibility of filtering rainwater through carbon for pollutants and using it for both. Even if I can use tap water or rainwater, I would have to treat it for the sake of the fish with other chemicals and I don't know specifically what is in those chemicals or how they would affect plants. I suppose if I ever needed to use other products like ich treatment, too, that it would pose significant problems.

And then there's the fish themselves. If goldfish can eat it, they probably will, and are notorious plant nibblers. I've heard some people with planted ponds say that they just never feed their fish; they get all they need from the plants (and pond algae). In many cases this doesn't seem to have been a terrible problem and people who describe this situation still have happily growing plants. However, I know CPs are finicky--would this likely pose a problem? You know, if the above two things aren't problematic.

There's probably at least ten problems that I've overlooked, but nonetheless I'd love to hear people's ideas. And you have to admit, if this could work, it would be a little more interesting than your standard water lily and lotus ponds. Thanks so much in advance ~

I don't think that putting "chemicals" in the water is neccessary, even with sensitive fish, one of the only minerals dangerous to them is chlorine, which shouldn't be in rain water, RO or distilled.

As far as the Cps, they can't grow in standing water, even if placed in media, I'm sure a few might but they would probably have some issues with constantly being wet. However, some Sarr. species might enjoy this, given that they are able to tolerate slightly higher nitrate levels in their medium, and they enjoy being wet, some people keep them in water trays constantly.

Depending on the size of the pond, there might not be any nitrate cycles, since this cycle relies on high oxygen water, high circulation, and high bacteria count, not to mention if algae were to cover it, it wouldn't matter anyway, there would be to much algae to success any cycles, since during the night simple algaes devoid the water of O2.

You might want to take into account what fish you do end up putting in their, depending on your climate, gold fish can't stay their year round, or maybe even your plants might not be able to stay their year round.

Pollutants in rainwater is only an issue if you collect strait rain water, I know this is a problem for fish. After a little while raining, the air has been mostly cleared, and the rain is for the most part, clean.

You also wouldn't want the pond getting very dirty, say if the trees have leaves falling, or dirt getting blown in there, can really add up.

There are other carnivores that would love that type of environment, such as ulcs, AKA bladder Warts, most of the genius lives under water, or on top of water.

Not really Feasable, keep your CP’s away, Pond water is great for other garden plants, but will probably kill your CPs. I put Water hyacinth & Water Lettuce in mine as shown; although they have some of the strongest “filtering properties” of pond plants, they overall, really do very little and you need to set up REAL filter systems to keep your fish healthy & happy. As far as water, most use Tap Water, but TREATED! there are chemical treatments for that, and you need to use a good one that has “Cloram-x”, as your tap water probably has Chloramines which is trickier to remove than chlorine. Setting up a healthy pond is a very involved process, and takes some maintenance. You really need to do a lot of homework, and from the right places, or your gonna have a lot of dead fish. I suggest you visit the “Koiphen” website, it has tons of info there on ponds.

Water lilys & Lotus are interesting in their own rights. You could also plant a bog garden “close” to your pond.


Good luck

Bud