How to: Pothos Plant in Your Aquarium

Adding a pothos plant to your aquarium can greatly benefit your fish tank. The pothos plant removes nitrates from the water which helps the fish live a healthier life. By removing the nitrates in your aquarium water you will also have to change the water. But maintenance will be a lot easier. A Pothos plant can also add a majestic jungle affect to your fish tank.

Products:

Step one to adding a Pothos plant to your fish tank is to purchase the plant itself. You can either purchase a plant from a store or find a friend with a plant that you can clip off a section of the plant. As long as you have a stem with a couple of leaves and a node it will work.

Step two is to insert the Pothos plant correctly into the fish tank. You want to make sure that the water level is correct and the leaves of the plant are not touching water. The leaves of the Pothos plant do not like water whatsoever.

Step three is to raise your aquarium light so that the Pothos plant can absorb some of that light from the fixture. A lot of people make this mistake and the plant doesn’t receive enough light. Pothos plants actually love lots of lighting. The plant is going to do much better with adequate amounts of light and your fish tank light is perfect for that.

Step four is going to be to give the plant time to grow. Pothos plants in water do grow a little slower than what you might think. It will probably take a couple of months to see progress. Once the plant gets adjusted to its scenario after a couple of months it will grow a lot faster after that.

0:00 - Intro
0:22 - Pothos Plant Aquarium Benefits
0:55 - My Experience with Pothos Plants
1:44 - Types of Pothos Plants
2:16 - Pothos Plant Roots Explanation
3:14 - Remove Pothos Plant from Pot
4:14 - Using a Clipping vs Entire Plant
4:49 - Cleaning Pothos Plant Roots
5:28 - Separating Individual Plant Stems
5:50 - Preparing Pothos Plants for Aquarium
6:09 - Placing Pothos Plant in Aquarium
6:30 - Lighting for Aquarium Pothos
7:20 - Reasons Aquarium Pothos Plants Die
7:40 - Best Lights for Pothos Plants
7:50 - Outro

More Fish Tank Talk:

When I had a LFS years ago, people would buy everything at Walmart, then carry it to my store and ask me to teach them how to set it up. At first I just sucked it up and helped them, thinking maybe they would come back, but they never did. After a while I started telling them that I only offered that as a free service to my own customers, and the consultant’s fee for everyone else was $150. A few people did actually take the cheap a$$ Walmart stuff back and buy from us.

We also once did an experiment where we put some nicely colored large, healthy Swordtails from a great wholesaler in a tank and put some other inferior specimens from a lousy wholesaler, (anybody remember Gators of Miami, from the 70s, they sucked), and priced them at a 3 percent differential. The vast majority of customers chose the underweight, sickly ones that were 3 percent less, even when told we could only guarantee the more expensive ones.

Frustrating for small businesses focusing on quality. We finally just gave up on Freshwater fish altogether to focus on Marine, because those customers understood the concept of value. I hated to do it, but it relieved a lot of anxiety. Finally with pet superstores, we threw in the towel. I don’t know how anybody makes it anymore with those and online sales to compete with.

[LeeDfined]

Been doing this since 2017. I grew a one leaf cutting in HOB filter into a 30 foot vine, so I know it works. When I took water sample to store she said "How do you have no nitrates. All tanks have some." I didn't tell her my secret.

[TheMedwoman]

Tried the method of using a whole pot of queen pothos in my 40 gallon breeder tank and loving it! Thank you!

[markfranklin]

I can say I've been growing pothos for years and everything you said is correct in growing pothos plants

[MFCOOL]

I'm so glad you've touched base on pothos. I've been growing them for over 20yrs and I've great success with them. I'm so glad I'm joining my 2 hobbies plants and fish into one fantastic ecosystem. Keep up the great work, have an awesome day. 😎👍

[alexjohnson]

Only 1 minute in and I'm genuinely excited for the information. Haven't started my aquarium because Id rather not spend another small wad of cash on aquarium plants—I've already got 4 thriving pothos in the room anyways. Knowing I can use what I already have to get this tank started... Huge step forward my man, thank you!

[OhhhhhBlu]

fun fact! Pothos will actually grow underwater! Ive had 3 pothos fully grow under water, they just have to be grown in water or the tank for a while! My biggest one sprouted about 5 new leaves underwater as well!!

[lindsey]

@palmer aqutics I know this is an old video but I've got a tip for you. There's an incredible product that really encourages full plants. And full disclosure, I am not a fishkeeper but I have a bunch of houseplants and an outdoor garden. I noticed some of your pothos vines on your large tank had bare spots. It happens ALL THE TIME to anyone who keeps pothos. Lol. You could A-cut those and reroot those bare nodes and they will start new vines or B-get some crazy keiki cloning paste. It works great to get those nodes working again and will fill in the bare spots, giving you more leaves for photosynthesis. It's a paste that goes no the actual node so i don't think it would effect your fish as long as its keep out-of the water. It's also not water soluble... Also, to anyone who doesn't know much about pothos, trimming your vines encourages new vines to split off from lower in the plant. Every time you clip the end of a vine, it sends a hormone back down towards the soil and tells the plant that it needs to activate an older node. If you trim often, you could hypotheticaly have a new vine split from every node, making your plant fuller. Also, I know you mentioned your partner is the plant person so I'm sure she knows all this but hopefully this can help you or someone in your audience if they have any issues. Pothos are incredibly awesome plants....and finally, try an N'joy pothos. They are one of my favorite and SO pretty.

[amandabyrd]

Do be careful if using prepotted plants from a store—wash REALLY well. Sometimes growers use chemical fertilizers which aren’t compatible with fish. I only use cuttings from my plants, where the only fert I use is old tank water.

[lelaboston]

Thanks for all the info. Just put mine in yesterday! Can’t wait to see how they do!

I put a whole plant in my 75 gallon. I still need to put one more on the other side. My 2 goldfish seems to love it, they favor that side in just one day. I’ll hopefully keep an update

[TheReggaesunshine]

I did this with a bunch of pothos cuttings twist tied together. I draped the plant down over the side of a large terra cotta planter that became an outdoor pond. The fish fry love hiding in the roots, too! A natural decoration for the “pot pond”!

[mustachadon]

This is the first time ive ever heard a neon pothos referred to as "fancy". Lol

[colinp]

have 2 tanks w pothos plants and the water in crystal clear w little water changes ....love them and super cheap idea

[ovethompson]

I am setting up a 65 gallon and yesterday I added philodendrons. I am pleased that you perfectly agreed with what I did. I also put cuttings into the HOB for rooting and temporary holding tank. My weak spot is the lighting. I think I will add a light hanging from my ceiling.

[michaelspurlock]

just found your channel....wow, that fish room is amazing....plants & fish together....absolute heaven....

[pawelmatus]

Pothos are flexible, malleable, and so beneficial for your aquarium water chemistry! Absolute must for all tropical tanks, plus you can gift them to family and friends👍

[starshipgus]

I have grown a lot of pothos from cuttings in a glass bowl placed in the kitchen window, but I never thought I can use them in a fish tank.These goldfish eat everything, especially floating leafs, so, that’s a good idea and thank you.The roots are in the water and the plants are draped over the edges on the outside, now I have a nitrate filter without fear of being eaten by my fish.

[darren]

Just rinse off the soil and cut the roots a bit and place in the aquarium. They'll grow all over the place and watch out for salt treatments because that will kill the pothos quickly..

[thecameratherapychannel]

This is my first aquarium (I set it up 5 days ago). I appreciate your guide and tour of the Pothos!

[johnjwedrall]

Your Pathos video is very helpful and easily understood, thanks 😊

[kane]

Hey, this video on how to grow Pothos in a freshwater aquarium was really helpful. I appreciate it .