Planting Hang-On Filter :P

[Aloysius13]

Ah-ha, the aquaponics have come up again! Well, I was feeling restless and decided to try out the idea I saw in another thread (don't remember where, sorry. But credit to the original idea!) of putting plants into a hang-on filter.

My el-cheapo fry tank is set up with a tiny aqua-one filter because that's all I had at the time, and I thought I'd just test out a few things and see if there was anything to it.

So here's the little filter, and I grabbed a shoot of lizard's tail out of our goldfish pond to go inside.



It actually grows just fine with no substrate at all, but I thought to help things along I'd put a single dino dung in the bottom, and cover with a layer of gravel, just to give the plant something to anchor itself to.



Then I added a little baby fern of some type I found in a damp pot.



Then I went crazy and added another (different) baby fern, some clover type thing, some moss, and a droopy thing. These are all very technical terms you understand.





I found this plant growing out of one of our staghorns, and decided to put it down the outlet to stop the annoying dripping noise. Can anyone id?



I fully expect everything but the lizard's tail to die, but I thought I'd just stick them in there anyway and see what happens. :P

This is now a super high-tech system, complete with a cheap LED pannel propped up on a lemonade can and everything! The blue and yellow aluminium just adds that little bit of extra class... ;{P

[seanyboyrulz]

Cool. Although I thought the whole point of the filter was to suck out nutrients from the water? If you've added dino dung it'll probably take a while for it to have a positive effect.

[Loach]

Looks very cool! I used to have mosses growing ontop of my lava rock in a HOB.

[Aloysius13]

Cool. Although I thought the whole point of the filter was to suck out nutrients from the water? If you've added dino dung it'll probably take a while for it to have a positive effect.

Hahaha, I thought about that, but then decided that I didn't care and would see how it went anyway! :P It's a super clean tank thanks to all of the red-nose shrimp in it, and I don't really worry about it too much. I'm more interested in how the plants go than anything I think. :P

I have to say I thought the constant flow of water might disturb the dung a little and turn the water cloudy, but it's still crystal clear.

[swampy1972]

That's very cool

Just imagine having a large acrylic overflow for a sump planted out along the back of a tank.. now that would be going all out

I'd love to see a photo of the tank. The Red Nose Shrimp have always interested me, but I've never got around to getting any. I may need to find a 'reason' to buy some plants and shrimp from Aquagreen

[Aloysius13]

Oh swampy, you never need to find a reason to buy from Aquagreen! If anything, I'm always trying to convince myself there's a good reason not to!

Sorry, I'm an amateur photographer at best, but here you go! This tank is nothing to write home about. I tend to neglect it because I don't like it very much; it's a cheap plastic container with one of those stupid 'feeding' bulges in the side.



Current occupants are my 3 week old BN fry:



And the red-nose shrimp, which I did my best to catch a couple of quick shots of for you swampy.





Quick update: The clover-type things are already starting to droop slightly; I don't think they like it in there! I'm going to update this every now and then, good or bad, because I think it's interesting.

[swampy1972]

Very nice

If you ever have too many RN shrimp you know who to call.

[septhen]

Wow, I never thought of planting a cheap filter like that for emergent growth! I love this idea! *copies* :P

Might plant some Hydrocotyle in mine!

Stephen

[seanyboyrulz]

you know who to call.

Ghostbusters?

[Aloysius13]

Wow, I never thought of planting a cheap filter like that for emergent growth! I love this idea! *copies* :P

I know right?! Whoever I stole this idea off was a genius. I was actually thinking this would be great for growing anubias, since they've always done better for me with their leaves above water.

[Chandler]

Hey its a great idea and i'm looking foreward to seeing how your one goes once its grown should look great! i put one together about a month or so ago heres how it looks now, seems to be going alright.

[septhen]

Hehe, a huge Anubias barterii in one of those, LOL. :O
And Chandler, I LOVE it! did you use glossostigma?
also dumb question, does the filter stay running with plants growing in it? or does it get turned off first?

[Aloysius13]

Running, so that the water circulates through it.

Nice dude!

[Chandler]

hello,
Its Callitriche stagnalis that i found in moving water at the local creek so i thought it might work well in the filter, and yes the filter is running all the time the water trickles down the plant

[Chandler]

The way i see it, it works as an extra part of the filter sucking out any left over impurites/nutrients.