Plant Filter

[carsona246]

Hey just wanted to share an experiment that has worked wonders for me. My tank became uncylced in January for reason's i'm still not entirely sure about, but I've been having trouble cycling my tank because I have extremly soft water, and I kept having accidents happen (a tank cracked, so I started over on the cycle). I started a plant filter with some golden pothos, and peace lily, and I havn't had any toxin in my tank for 1-2 weeks now. I recently just restarted my cycle, as I had to move everything in my old tank to a rubbermaid bin, and I cleaned out my filter, because it had been off for 24 hours, and I didn't want to risk hydrogen sulfide getting in the tank, so my tank was 100% uncycled. I was just getting ammonia in my tank when I started this experiment and now you can't even tell it's not cycled.
Just so I don't make it seem like this idea was mine I thought I'd post the thread that inspired me to try it out.
Plant only filtration (why not popular in the hobby???) - MonsterFishKeepers.com

I just got a window planter from walmart for pretty cheap, put a hole in the side, and stuck the output from my canister filter in there. Then I got a pot of peace lilly and pothos from krogers, and rinsed off all the dirt(that part took forever) and just threw them in the planter box. Really simple, and it works great. Took about 3-4 weeks for all the plants to acclimate, but I noticed my ammonia was getting lower after a week or so. Anyways here's a before and after picture. I think the thread describes how I set up the filter in a little more detail.

Heres right after I set it up, plants look pretty droopy

This is what it looks like now

Peace lilly even started flowering

Don't mind the rubbermaid bin, still looking for a craigslist replacement tank

 

[Skilly]

This is really cool! So the plants are not anchored to anything in the planter? They are just sitting in the water right? I think I may have to try this for my new big tank!

 

[carsona246]

yea I thought I would need some river stones or something to keep the plants down, but after they acclimated, they just uprighted themselves

 

[Skilly]

Cool, I will try this

 

[iChris]

this looks like a fantastic idea.

my axie tank has a built in wet/dry trickle filter in the hood, I'm keen to try something like this. I could simply put the plant into the filter box. it would also make for a striking feature in my bedroom.

what other plants could be used?

 

[carsona246]

Besides pothos, and peace lily, I've heard of using spider plant, and many types of ivy. I know theres a ton of riparium plants that you can find, but I was just looking for something that I could find pretty easily, and would suck nutrients out of my tank. I've also stuck some pothos/peacelily in my hob filter, and it's doing great there as well.

 

[Skilly]

You can use potato vines.. not the food potato ones though. You can get them at garden centers. They are usually bright green heart shaped leaves and there are purple ones too! I saw this on a site dedicated to pond filter plants. :wink:

 

[blackdog]

Are the plants you've all mentioned reasonably low light plants?

I like the look of this, and forgetting the filtering properties of the plants, i think it just makes the tank look nicer - i think She who is to be obeyed would like it too.

Trouble is, my tank is in a room that is't particualrly bright, good for axies, not so good for plants - i'd probaly have to rig up a grow light of some description

Hmmmmmm, more aquarium projects, she who is to be obeyed will be ever so pleased!

Bren

 

[carsona246]

oh yea, my tank isn't very close to my window, and I only have a 18w lamp on the plants. They're doing pretty good so far. I keep the window open the majority of the day, but my tank is across the room from the window, so I think the majority of the light is from the tiny little desk light.

 

[iChris]

I've decided to give this a go.

I went to bunnings today and picked up a potted peace lilly for $8 and it's a rather large one too. how would I do this? is it as simple as taking the plant out of the pot, washing the dirt off and "planting" it in my trickle filter? do I have to leave some of the plants roots above water?

 

[carsona246]

Ok, getting the plant out of the pot is actually trickier than you would think. I soaked mine in a bucket for an hour, and I still had to destroy a ton of roots to get it seperated from the dirt, because I wanted to make sure no dirt got in the tank. I think regardless of how you get the plant out of the pot, your gonna have to rip some roots, but I think only a couple leaves of mine died, so don't be too worried about ripping the roots. I basically ripped the whole root mass in half, and then seperated the plant into groups of peace lilly stalks. I then rinsed the roots off really well, and basically just threw them in the window box. I put the roots below water, and so long as the leaves stay out of the water they should do fine. It took a couple weeks before I really started to notice an ammonia drop(my tank was uncycled), but once the plants get acclimated you should notice a significant drop in nitrate. Peace lilly is a lot hardier then I thought it would be, I think mine started a flower within 4-5 weeks, and I havn't done anything but throw it in the tank and put a lamp light on it.

 

[iChris]

Ok, I'll try this when I get home from work (lunch hour ftw) the plant I have is rather large, it's well over 60cm tall and very bushy. How would i go about deviding this peace lily into say 2 plants? If I need to trim the roots of the plant back, which, which probably will need to do, could this harm the plant? And after doing some research online, ive read that only the roots should be submerged, and the crown of the plant should be left above the water line.

 

[carsona246]

Not sure what the crown is, but my window planter isn't too deep. If your pot is anything like mine the roots will be really packed in the pot and tangled up. I seperated mine into tons of stalks, and it recovered fairly quickly, so i think splitting it in half shouldn't be too bad. I just ripped it apart, and did my best to keep as many roots as I possibly could. I ended up with a decent handfull of roots, and I don't think more than 1-2 stalks died, and I had a bunch of stalks.

 

[iChris]

The crown is the part of the plant were the roots join the stems, or were the soil level should be. I can almost expect the roots to be tangled, so I will have to cut the roots back.

 

[iChris]

just a quick update, I set this up today, the peace lily plants you see in the pictures of my tank in this thread, after I "planted" them: http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-beginner-newt-salamander-axolotl-help-topics/f48-axolotls-ambystoma-mexicanum/f62-axolotl-gallery/75911-new-tank-arrangement-experiment.html#post281727 were actually 1 plant, I had to separate them! I un-potted the plant, washed all of the potting mix off the roots (with the help of my 5 year old nephew), and I had to trim some off, then I separated the plant in 2. I then removed the carbon I had in the trickle filter, and cut 2 slits in the top filter pads on each side, and poked the roots through them, and left the crown (the junction between the roots and the stems) above the waterline, sitting in the filter pads. so the roots will always be submerged, but the crown won't. I read during some research online that the crown should be kept dry, but time will tell. I also put large river pebbles on top of the filter pads and around the plants to make it look better, so no ugly filter pads are showing. if the lilies do well this week, I may even try a lucky bamboo plant too.

 

[iChris]

A quick update on my plant filter.

It's been going very well, all my water readings check out well (ammonia, nitrates) are all 0.

the lilies have taken off too, I had a few leaves turn yellow, but I just snipped them off. the plant(s) were originally 1, - I split it in half, and they are now sending out new stalks alover the place!

 

[mamatoulouse]

i was thinking of putting some bamboo in my tank in like glass mugs or something i wonder if they would serve the same functions...

 

[carsona246]

Hey I know this thread has died, but I thought I'd update with an easier way(at least for me) to set up these plants and to report that I've still yet to find any ammonia/nitrite/nitrate since this got up and running. Still running this on an 18w desk lamp I found at walmart. Plus my axolotls seem to really like the space between the glass and the eggcrate as a hiding spot.

Eggcrate makes it much easier to just stick the stems through the holes, and just stick enough stem groups in each hole to keep just the roots in the water. I had very little roots when I started this, and now the roots are going crazy, some are even rooting in the sand at the bottom.

plants are just thrown in the eggcrate holes. I also put a bubble wand under the roots for aeration.

 

[blackdog]

i was thinking of putting some bamboo in my tank in like glass mugs or something i wonder if they would serve the same functions...

i have lucky bamboo in my tank.

I'd say it's "surviving, not thriving" It is still alive about 2 months after i put it in, but it is decidedly more yellow than the bamboo on the window sill in full light.

I think the low light conditions of the axie tank are not quite enough for the bamboo.

It is surviving long enough that i will leave it there and swap it out when it gets a little too raggedy looking. If you have a thriving bunch on your window sill like i do, replacing it or swapping it out shouldn't be an issue.

It does look pretty good in the tank

bren

 

[JP100]

hey
How easy are the lillies to prune? they seem like they could grow huge and take over the tank. Have you trimmed yours at all since you first put them in?
Looks awesome I will have to try this soon. thanks