So I am looking to set up a new tank. I want a heavily planted blackwater swamp of sorts. With several schools of south asian little fish.
Not strict biotope think more dark romantic blackwater swamp garden. Lol I don't know if that's a thing but I'd like the plants to grow out of the tank so no covers. I'll gladly replace evaporation for the glorious warm humid bright growing space above the tank. I will be using ho t5 unless a need arises to do something different but I'm fairly comfortable with lighting options. No worries there.
I have currently an old Rena fillstar xp2 canister, I also have a hang on the back power filter rated for 200 gph. I know no one uses the Rena filters anymore but as it still works and I hate to replace it unless It stops working. I have a selection of bubble wands and stones And all the plumbing pieces that came with the Rena to do any number of set ups including the tray for an under gravel filter.
But I don't want to go that route. I want to use a "dirty" sand bottom with peat and leaves. I am open to other "soft and dirty" substrate ideas.
Originally I thought I would set up some kind of a drip system with a shelf of gravel to serve as additional bio filter space and double up as a shelf to water houseplants on occasionally. Hopefully this might motivate more frequent water changes. IE water that goes into a house plant is water I'm not carrying around in buckets. However it doesn't look like people use drip anymore so I am wondering how you would set these filtering apparatus up in a modern planted aquarium.
I would also love to hear how people are layering their canister filters. I have ceramic rings and gravel in mine from the last time it was used about five years ago but feel like I could probably play with this set up to make it work better. I know about foam and plastic scrubbies but is anyone using gravel, activated charcoal, peat, sand or other more natural options to increase the filter efficiency. I would like to keep plastic out of the system if possible.
Here's the catch. I have not bought a new tank yet and am open to suggestions on both size and shape. I'd like to go bigish but not break the bank on a tank. What do you suggest with the above information. How big can one reasonably go. I think my combined filtration works out to be somewhere around 350 gallons per hour maybe slightly less depending on filter media. What size and shape heavily planted tank are you filtering at 350 gallons per hour and how heavily are you able to stock it without the system collapsing.
Not strict biotope think more dark romantic blackwater swamp garden. Lol I don't know if that's a thing but I'd like the plants to grow out of the tank so no covers. I'll gladly replace evaporation for the glorious warm humid bright growing space above the tank. I will be using ho t5 unless a need arises to do something different but I'm fairly comfortable with lighting options. No worries there.
I have currently an old Rena fillstar xp2 canister, I also have a hang on the back power filter rated for 200 gph. I know no one uses the Rena filters anymore but as it still works and I hate to replace it unless It stops working. I have a selection of bubble wands and stones And all the plumbing pieces that came with the Rena to do any number of set ups including the tray for an under gravel filter.
But I don't want to go that route. I want to use a "dirty" sand bottom with peat and leaves. I am open to other "soft and dirty" substrate ideas.
Originally I thought I would set up some kind of a drip system with a shelf of gravel to serve as additional bio filter space and double up as a shelf to water houseplants on occasionally. Hopefully this might motivate more frequent water changes. IE water that goes into a house plant is water I'm not carrying around in buckets. However it doesn't look like people use drip anymore so I am wondering how you would set these filtering apparatus up in a modern planted aquarium.
I would also love to hear how people are layering their canister filters. I have ceramic rings and gravel in mine from the last time it was used about five years ago but feel like I could probably play with this set up to make it work better. I know about foam and plastic scrubbies but is anyone using gravel, activated charcoal, peat, sand or other more natural options to increase the filter efficiency. I would like to keep plastic out of the system if possible.
Here's the catch. I have not bought a new tank yet and am open to suggestions on both size and shape. I'd like to go bigish but not break the bank on a tank. What do you suggest with the above information. How big can one reasonably go. I think my combined filtration works out to be somewhere around 350 gallons per hour maybe slightly less depending on filter media. What size and shape heavily planted tank are you filtering at 350 gallons per hour and how heavily are you able to stock it without the system collapsing.