Ash Posted May 11, 2005 Share Posted May 11, 2005 Just trolling through a few old threads, specifically this one... Big Bad's pond thread As I'm planning an indoor pond of similar dimentions, though for CAs so no bufferring to make it harder on plants. I also thought for the research benefit of other forum users we could add onto this thread by limegirl on the plant filtration subject & included a link to this very helpful article... Plant Filters For Home Aquaria by Doug Dunlop My Plan I currently have a 7'x15"x15" bayfront tank that has plenty of light in the hood so I'm wanting to use it as a planted filter. right next to it is the proposed site of my indoor 7'x7'x4' CA pond (which will encompase a whole other thread later!). The pond will get a regular mechanical/biological filter as well of course! The "filtertank" will be densely planted with whatever works, however I will probably have a bristlenose or 2 in there & maybe the apistos I've always wanted but never got around to. So the plants have to be suitable to apistos and effective nitrate/other waste eaters. From my own 2' planted tank experiment, I know this number of fish will not get a nitrate reading on it's own whatsoever once established. I have 8 neons, 5 platys, 5 kulhi loaches & two false SAE in the 2' tank, filtered by an AQ mini. I do a 40% waterchange on it twice a week with my 4x2x2's water to "fertilise" it and to hlep keep the 4x2x2's readings lower. On average I get it to about 10ppm - it's back to zero within 3 days. So, with about 2000lph constantly going though the 7' filtertank with roughly the same if not less internal load than my current 2' tank it should help me out a lot, saving regular waterchanges on a ~5000l pond. (Imagine having to do 1000l every two weeks!! oh hand on, my current tanks nearly get that! ) Ideas? Opinions? Abuse? Cheers Ash Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted May 11, 2005 Author Share Posted May 11, 2005 42 views & not one reply? Is it a taboo question or something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r.d.m Posted May 11, 2005 Share Posted May 11, 2005 i grow water hyacinth in the top of my pond filter,it certainly reduces algae growth and nitrates,but you need a lot of it and harvest it to the compost regularly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted May 11, 2005 Author Share Posted May 11, 2005 hrm, a quick google & it appears the stuff is a pest in QLD & should be destroyed. Though that said, I believe this stuff is growing ape in the local river so it shouldn't be hard to "aquire" Couple of questions... How much surface area do you use with it? How often do you do water changes on this pond? Is it toxic to fish if they eat it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod54 Posted May 11, 2005 Share Posted May 11, 2005 I have a small pond in the courtyard of my townhouse...2.4x2.4x.6 Filter is a terracotta pot full of zeolite with water pumped into bottom and overflowing into a small pond(depression really) that then flows back into the main pond. I had some reeds in another pot that was too big for the pot so I replanted a small piece beside the pond filter in the depression...It has gone beserk and the water in the pond is crystal clear....The pond now contains 3 generations of goldfish and white clouds everywhere...the reeds are about 1.5 m high very thick and dark green...I'm going to have to cull them shortly. The pond contains hortwort which I have to thin on a monthly basis...never had any algae problem which I had thought would be a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlakeyBoyR Posted May 11, 2005 Share Posted May 11, 2005 This tank is going to have to be VERY heavily planted to achieve the type of bio filtration you're talking mate. I'd suggest things like elodea, hygrophilia and bacopa. They grow fast, grow easy and they'll spread like wildfire in a tank with decent lighting and nutrients. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted May 11, 2005 Author Share Posted May 11, 2005 Cheers guys. So it's not an impossible scenario, but it's unlikely to be perfect either, I can live with that. Blake - Elodia & hygrophilia were actually two of the earmarked plants for obvious reasons. I guess suck it & see applies as always. Rod - that pond you have described is pretty similarly sized to what I've got planned, & has a similar sounding bio-load - what sort of readings do you get? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ged Posted May 11, 2005 Share Posted May 11, 2005 Ash There is a bit of information around on using this type of filtration system in saltwater tanks. The system requires the setup of a mini mangrove system to act in the same way as nature intended. The Krib has some information on freashwater tanks. Have a look at the link. http://www.thekrib.com/Filters/plant.html#0 Gerard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted May 11, 2005 Author Share Posted May 11, 2005 Cheers Gerard, Wouldn't you know it - the troubles I'd had on google were because I forgot to put + between the words! I was actually reading that very page when I recieved the email notification about your reply! I'm going to give this a whirl in some existing tanks somehow & report back - just need more lights for the sump plants.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trofius Posted May 12, 2005 Share Posted May 12, 2005 we did this at uni a few years ago we had 10 X 1000l tanks on a recirculating system ( like a sump set up) each tank had different stocking densities of silver pearch, from 10-100, they started as 3cm fingerlings maybe 600 fish all up all water returned to a macrophyte bed, aprox amately 4m in diameter and 1m deap we started with elodea but it did not do so well, so we changed to a floating water cabbage lettuce looking type stuff. This worked a treat, every week we cleared an area about 2m round and hit grew back within a week, we did no water changes for a year, just had a float valve constantly topping up the evaporated water. we also filled the macrophyte bed full of red claw aditionally any excess water from th epump was diverted through a sand bed in anouther 1000l tank set up high, but about half full, this then flowed back to the macrophyte bed anyways everday water parameters were monitored for amonia, nitrate and nitrites, they were always zero even from day one... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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