Emersed Plant Filter--56K Warning!

[awesomecoolstien]

Originally Posted by Naja002

This is what I hate about the internet: I do A which leads me into B which requires research and causes me to stumble across C which leads to new, more and exciting projects. Enter: Upside Down Tomatoes!

Hahaha the internet's great, I just started my first upside down tomatoes this year,


I can't wait to see how this emersed filter works out. as for the aquarium gravel I think it is great, I would think you will want the substrate completely inert so the plants pull the maximum amount of nutrients out of the water, if they are pulling their nutrients out of the soil your water quality isn't benefiting.

[Sponsors]

[pittiepride]

A little off topic, but I heard that pothos plants (is it the same as philodendron?) have toxic sap and that you must be careful to never cut the roots that are exposed to the tank water. Anybody know anything about this? I would love to grow philo's in my tank.

kara

[Wasserpest]

Pothos (Epipremnum/Scindapsus) is related to Philodendrons which contain oxalic acid/calcium oxalate which is poisonous if you eat a lot of them. Not sure how dangerous this is going to be for aquatic inhabitants...

FWIW, I used Monstera deliciosa roots as a plant filter in an aquarium years ago. That plant is considered somewhat poisonous. The roots took over a big part of the tank, making it look like some mangrove setup. Don't remember if it was causing any problems (I was a kiddo then) besides when removing it the entire substrate came out along with it.

[vidiots]

Originally Posted by typically

this is pretty sweet once i finish the basement i might try to set something like this up. grow tomatoes, and cucumbers and other plants all year round!

I've been growing chives on top of my plant tank, now I have fresh chives year round for my baked potatos. I've been growing them all winter. I just have them in a pot sitting on top of my tank below the hanging light fixture. I don't circulate the water thru the pot, just scoop some out of the tank with a cup and water them while I feed the fish.

This thread is giving me even more ideas for future projects!

[Naja002]

Just a quick pic comparison update:

Pic 1 from Last Week, then Pic 2 from Today:




Plants still look good. Can't really tell if there has been much growth--but they are not declining.

What's everybody think?

[sandiegoryu]

How effective is this filter? And its only biological isn't it. Does it contribute to any murkiness in your aquarium water?

[Johnnnn_h]

What will work are drip emitters, the emitters come in different flow rateings, I think gal per hour??? from .5 to about 4 or 5, and can be run off of a powerhead. Time them on for 15 min, off 15 or 30 min, need time to let air get in there. As far as a medium, Flourite might work on a bog plant, annything else will need a lighter and larger medium, the roots need to breath,and with more off time,,, try a google search.


And hey pretty neet, and Looks great!

[Naja002]

Originally Posted by sandiegoryu

How effective is this filter? And its only biological isn't it. Does it contribute to any murkiness in your aquarium water?

Hi San,

I don't know yet--its only been a week. I assume the plants are still acclimating to their new setup. There's no soil in the pots to cause murkiness. Just plain ol' aquarium gravel. I may switch it out to ADA AS, but I am going to wait a while to see how well this works. There is Some new growth and the plants are not declining at all. So, I figure after they settle in things should get better. Plus its been a mix of Cloudy and Sunny over the last week. Low light is one of the reasons I chose the Peace Lilies.

Originally Posted by Johnnnn_h

What will work are drip emitters, the emitters come in different flow rateings, I think gal per hour??? from .5 to about 4 or 5, and can be run off of a powerhead. Time them on for 15 min off 15 min, need time to let air get in there. As far as a medium, Flourite might work on a bog plant, annything else will need a lighter and larger medium, or try a google search.


And hey pretty neet, and Looks great!

Hi John,

Thanx! I have drip emitters and have considered going that route--and I may in the future, but right now I am going to check things out the way they are. The water level Looks higher than it actually was for the pix and I have since lowered it another 3/4". The bottom of the plants are up toward the very top of the pots. The roots extent to the bottom, and only ~1" or so is actually in the water. The rest is exposed to air and there are 2 airstones in the reservoir running 24/7. The only timer that I currently have available only offers 4on/4off settings, so right now its off and drained for about 20 mins/6hrs. Everything seems to be doing OK so far. There are plenty of roots above the "Full" water-line.

As stated above--I'm going to leave things how they are for now. The pump is currently pumping through 3/8"ID tubing with 42" of head and through 3 elbows, so I don't think there are any actual "Powerheads" that can cover that kind of resistance. With the Aquarium Gravel, the roots above the water-line have access to 02 24/7 and the roots below when its drained. Again--they're only an 1" or so in the water.

The Nitrates do seemed to have dropped by about 5ppm, but with these hobbiest test kits--who knows?

[Mori]

At least it's pretty! Now I'm thinking...hmm...I can grow house plants just fine...

(My apple snail (P. canaliculata) once ate a big chunk of pothos. She was fine. But it might have been a pleco. Probably the snail. Maybe the cat. But nothing really mows through a leaf like a snail. Anyway, nobody was harmed.)

[Naja002]

Its been just over a yr, so here's an update pic on this emersed plant filter:



This setup is pretty much "Auto" these days--all I do is feed the plants and feeder fish, and I haven't been doing a real good job at that. I've "Trimmed" this thing 3-4 times already, but haven't done so in a few months--it definitely needs a trim now.

I don't know what the Nand P are right now. I switched back tap hard tap water in ~Sept. Comes out of the faucet at ~300ppm. TDS just read 380ppm--that's an "over-the-long-haul" reading. Means my aquarium water is 80-100ppm over the tap. I don't think that's bad at all. If I did a better job of keeping up with adding K and micros--I assume--it would be a bit lower. Yeah, been slacking quite a bit..... Also, I've done away with the aquatic plant filter, so the few plants in the main tanks and the emersed plant filter are the only plants in the setup.

For the Emersed Plant filter part--Its a very low light setup. Its basically a dark room with the 15 watt CF and indirect sunlight through that part of the blind. The lilies like it. The bulk of light that you are seeing is from the fill flash of the camera....

[Archerofthemoon]

Haha, looks like you need a larger Tupperware. If you are interested on trying other plants for your veg filter water lettuce is amazing. The plant is like a sponge, only problem you might find is that it shoots off too many runners. Aside from that pothos is a great vine that you can do the same thing you have done with your peace lilies.

[Naja002]

Hi Archerofthemoon,

The tupperware is ~3ft long. Not sure if the scale is off in that pic. Its an under-the-bed storage tub. I'm actually thinking of picking up 2-3 10-12" pots and consolidating the plants into those. I have some that are in use, but I could take some measurements on them.

Water lettuce requires way too much light for this setup. The room is pretty dark during the day. Plus they are more what I consider a "pond plant". If I wanted to go that route--I'd just grow Duckweed! I would like to add some pothos, but--being a vine--the downward growth wouldn't work real well....

Anyway, I'm going to see about doing some testing here in a bit. See where my N and P are mainly. I haven't tested them in months. The overall setup is 110-120g. I do get a precipitation cloud when I add micros and extra Fe (10ml each ~1x/wk). Little doubt that I should be dosing those 2x/wk, but that would require thought, effort and just all that kind of stuff...... So I expect N and P to be fairly high, maybe not.....we'll see.....

[BiscuitSlayer]

I find your setup/experiment to be very ineresting, but I am not totally sure what the point or goal is. Are you using the plant filter to suck up excess nutrients (mainly)?