Plant only filtration (why not popular in the hobby???)

[ITHURTZ]

Update grass pic



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Inside view of the forest.



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The fern died, I dont think it was ment to be The "tiger lillies" or so I call them are still doing great, growing.

The hosta maybe not enough light. Hosta sites say they like morning sun, and afternoon shade. I dont think it is getting enough light from 16" total bulb (8x2) Id really like to keep this plant. I know it will work dammit! My tallest arrowhead is approaching 18" with 7"x4" leaves. Love it.

I have been severly neglecting the girlfriends 55 gallon lightly stocked id say with, 2 dalmation mollies, 1 syno decorus, 1 glolite, 1 clown pleco and what I think is a siamese algae eater. I think I went 5 weeks without doing anything to it, and got a 5ppm reading HA. Check it today and got 0. I also found a 5' pothos vine hiding behind the tank, so apparantly this tank is "self" sustaining

I did a 50% on the main tank last week, today it read 10. Ill do a little water change on it tonight just to refresh the water.

Id love to get a nitrate reading on the snappers tank, but he wont allow it

 

[JK47]

How is the grass working out? I am really wanting to try it.

 

[ITHURTZ]

SO far its doing great. Tallest piece is 5". I wonder how it would react with more light. Nice and green though like a downpour in the summer!

Oh and the grass I have it was growing on top of part of the gravel driveway so it didnt require a shovel. I just basically stuck my finger a little below and carefully tugged up a mat. When washing it free of dirt it was no longer a mat haha.

 

[kamikaziechameleon]

love this thread!

 

[Ickey09]

what light are you using?

 

[ITHURTZ]

Dual 4' T8

Im either going to switch to 4-5 13watt spirals over head, or if funds allow possibly 4-5 10 watt Led flood lights, the ones that go for $20 on ebay. Still undecided. If anyone has input on that I would love to hear which is better. With the lights I want to have them not directly above so the overall of the plant can recieve more light instead of everyone competing for whats above. Not say 45degrees, but not directly above. If I did 5, 1 could be on top while 2 would be off set to the front, and the other 2 offset to the back. Make sense? With sprials it would be easier to upgrade from a 13watt to a higher bulb if the plant requires it. And I already have the aluminum reflectors for it when I put sprials on the once 330gallon few years ago.

 

[Ickey09]

do you have a link for an example of what your going to use? I'm currently using a 150 watt metal halide with a 20k bulb in it (im trying to source a 10k or even 68k bulb) and the plants i've tried using don't seem to like my setup. I've tried some grass. I'm currently redoing everything.

 

[ITHURTZ]

Something like this. I currently draw 64watts. 5 spirals would run me 65watts. If I wanted it more even, which imo would be better I would run 78watts or 14watts over. I know 14watts aint crap and probably wouldnt cost me more than what a buck a month? But Maybe it kind of defeats the purpuse imo to do less water changes but increase the electric consumption.

The led I could run 6 leds @ 60watts and save 4 watts in power, but at the cost of $120 id rather run 6 spirals.

This would be a top view of the tank/setup. Green are the plants, yellow the light, square around everything the tank.



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Just like that, the lights would be placed 21" apart from each other, the 2 end lights 4" from the end... But then there would be to much spacing.... Hold on I just boggled my mind LOL. I have to think, I guess its true pumping iron takes the blood from the brain HAHA. Im gonna go look at 36" single shop lights and see what damage 4 of those would do. I need help.

I should have put the tank on the other side of the room in front of the window haha.

 

[ITHURTZ]

do you have a link for an example of what your going to use? I'm currently using a 150 watt metal halide with a 20k bulb in it (im trying to source a 10k or even 68k bulb) and the plants i've tried using don't seem to like my setup. I've tried some grass. I'm currently redoing everything.

a link for what? the reflectors?

what dont your plants like? to much light, not enough? to much heat?

 

[crazysteve]

Cool.