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

[carsona246]

Hey I don't want to hijack any threads, but I got pretty inspired by JK47's idea so i tried it out for myself, thought I'd share my method. I have a 40 breeder so the width is 18". I went out and found a $4 plastic planter bed that was 18" wide, and just put a hole in the side for my canister filter output, and I just dumped some peace lilies, and golden pothos in there. I still need to go out and find some river rocks to keep the peace lilies standing up straight, but you get the general idea.

I know my tank doesn't look nearly as good as JK47's, but i've never really had the artistic touch.
99% of these plants are all new, so I'm expecting some die-out from the transition, but I think all together the plants were like $15, plus $4 for the planter box, for a grand total of $19.

 

[pjsmetana]

Hydroponics FTW! I'm following your lead! I just added 4 pothos to my 150g last night. The root system is already showing noticeable growth! Amazing plants.Next time I'm in mall-mart I'm grabbing some peace lillys!

 

[JK47]

Hey I don't want to hijack any threads, but I got pretty inspired by JK47's idea so i tried it out for myself, thought I'd share my method. I have a 40 breeder so the width is 18". I went out and found a $4 plastic planter bed that was 18" wide, and just put a hole in the side for my canister filter output, and I just dumped some peace lilies, and golden pothos in there. I still need to go out and find some river rocks to keep the peace lilies standing up straight, but you get the general idea.

I know my tank doesn't look nearly as good as JK47's, but i've never really had the artistic touch.
99% of these plants are all new, so I'm expecting some die-out from the transition, but I think all together the plants were like $15, plus $4 for the planter box, for a grand total of $19.

Looks like an awesome experiment/project Carson! You sir hijack all you want and keep the updates coming. My threads always end up that way, I am the worst haha! Don't bother straightening the peace lilly's, they will straighten out on their own in a week or less. Water movement to the roots is the best method I have found for good growth.

Hydroponics FTW! I'm following your lead! I just added 4 pothos to my 150g last night. The root system is already showing noticeable growth! Amazing plants.Next time I'm in mall-mart I'm grabbing some peace lillys!

Sweet! Post pics Pete!!!

 

[spirofucci]

Good on you JK! I don't have a reef tank but I like to lurk on Reef central. As you know water quality is king with these guys and they are always discussing/debating what is best.

I think us FW guys and gals don't do enough of this. Most of what eventually works for water quality is ultimately mimmicking mother nature ie, light, plants, algae, bacteria etc.

Not only does your system work to improve water quality, but I think it looks very cool as well!!!!

Thanks,

mark

 

[pjsmetana]

Sweet! Post pics Pete!!!

Mmm Kay... its nothing huge and special yet, I just took throw-away clippings from a friends house plant, plunked then into a vase with tap water, saw they started roots, plucked them out, tore their roots off, plucked them into back of tank.

2 left corner

2 next to over-sump

roots from the left side 2

roots from the 2 next to over-sump

Nuth'n special yet, as you can see, but when they get large enough I'm gonna run em over everything, then start doing the same to my smaller tanks.

 

[Pyramid_Party]

This is basically like aquaponics right? I wanna try this one day.

 

[JK47]

This is basically like aquaponics right? I wanna try this one day.

You guessed it! Just doing it on a smaller scale.

 

[Arthur]

I've had similar results with experimenting with plants and tanks. I stumbled into aquaponics, and was kind of interested in what I could pull off.

The few times I did it I had too much plants for the volume of waste that was being produced. I intentionally skipped water changes to see how well the plants would work and I was getting close to 0 ppm nitrates, and on occasion 0ppm nitrates with a small amount of ammonia present, say .25 ppm. I also had plants starting to whilt, so now I am starting small and seeing how well a smaller volume of plants does.

 

[brich999]

going to try a lot of plants in my sump for my 500g sounds like a good idea

 

[roacan]

Search for beaslbob builds in http://www.*************.com/f15/

http://www.*************.com/f15/beaslbob-builds-reference-10056.html

He does not do WC, just top up the water and no filter on fresh water tank.