Horizontal flow constructed wetland system using Typha latifolia resulted removal of ammonia up to 99% on only 24 hours. From 3 mg/l to 0.015 mg/l.
Wetlands and plants rules in wastewater treatment need time to reach stability in treatment. Stability has many items such as plants growing on the media, biofilm formation on plant parts and the interaction between water, soil and plants. The initial results you have found is not the data you can make evaluation based on it. With time the efficiency will be changed worth or better the initial records depending on the stsbility state and its period the system have reached. Therfore, cpntonue the evaluation and after at least 6 months make your analysis on the data and compare it with your
initial design. Best regards.
Dear M S G, colleagues and I had worked on the effect of fishponds (i.e. shallow lakes with plants and macrophytes) on nutrients and pesticides retention. It appears that it really dependent of season (i.e. temperature, sun that modify plants growing into the lake), soil land use, initial concentrations... Therefore I really think that if you want to do some nutrient balance you really need to take this parameters into account, and to be more realistic is there is with mesocosms and/or microcosms check the process along a year and/or vary the temperature and ligth to approximate seasonal effects.
Best regards,
BF