[Wet Thumb Forum]-Current pics of the goldie tank

[DataGuru]

I've been gradually adding more and more plants potted in topsoil to the goldie tank. Now potted are: swords (Amazon, oriental, radican, red melon and brasil), jungle val, wysteria, hygro, and sunset hygro. It now has about 4 watts per gallon over it. Did a major rearrange recently and after deciding I didn't have the time to monitor, etc, I kept the UGF and HOB filters. Maybe over christmas, I'll try to go natural with it. Anyhow, here are some recent pics.







I set up a DIY plant filter for the goldie tank to add water volume and help suck up nitrAte.







The plant filter has pothos, peace lillies, duckweed, frogbit, salvenia, and water hyacinth growing emergent and bunches of submerged plants along with ramshorn and pond snails to help with any debris from the plants. I harvest a couple of tablespoons of the floaters to feed to the goldies daily. It has 225 watts of compact fluorescent light over it (5000 and 6500K).

[dwalstad]

Great tank! Looks like fun, and the fish look very happy.

Filtration system reminds me of Dave Schuck's "10 Percent Solution". For his ponds (Maryland Aquatic Nurseries), he sets up a small filtration pond (1/10 size of main pond) using emergent plants just like you've done.

I prefer to have the emergent plants in the main tank itself. Nevertheless, using emergent plants to purify water is a wonderful tool for aquarium hobbyists.

[WolverineFan]

Love that plant filter! What a great idea!

[DataGuru]

I've been gradually adding more and more plants potted in topsoil to the goldie tank. Now potted are: swords (Amazon, oriental, radican, red melon and brasil), jungle val, wysteria, hygro, and sunset hygro. It now has about 4 watts per gallon over it. Did a major rearrange recently and after deciding I didn't have the time to monitor, etc, I kept the UGF and HOB filters. Maybe over christmas, I'll try to go natural with it. Anyhow, here are some recent pics.







I set up a DIY plant filter for the goldie tank to add water volume and help suck up nitrAte.







The plant filter has pothos, peace lillies, duckweed, frogbit, salvenia, and water hyacinth growing emergent and bunches of submerged plants along with ramshorn and pond snails to help with any debris from the plants. I harvest a couple of tablespoons of the floaters to feed to the goldies daily. It has 225 watts of compact fluorescent light over it (5000 and 6500K).