filtration for planted tank

[sardesign]

i was thinking about building a wet/dry to work in tandem with my eheim 2028... but a thought crossed my mind. will the gas exchange in the trickle from the overflow to the wet/dry work against me for growing plants? i want to keep as much CO2 as possible in the water [have trouble enough keeping levels up].

are there other solutions with a wet/dry to make it work with a planted tank?

 

[WyldFya]

If you are injecting co2, then a wet/dry will work against you. In order to maintain levels with a wet/dry, you have to do 8-12 bps to keep up. It is a huge waste of time and money, as the plants themselves should filter out most of the nitrogen.

 

[Jkoziatek]

yeah instead of filtration invest in a CO2 injector if you dont have one already!

 

[sardesign]

thanks for the info everyone. i will invest in a co2 injector [mazzei] and also another eheim to match the one I have instead of building a wet/dry

questions, to reduce the amount of equipment in the tank, is it possible to run to supply lines and return lines with one larger pipe in the tank and then T off them to each cannister? do you think i may end up burning a motor out because one filter takes too much of the water?

 

[Nic]

i ran a planted tank with a wet/dry and no co2 for a awhile never had a problem till i got tired of it and shut it down....

 

[TEL]

I ran a co2 setup with a wet/dry and had to prun the plants. All I did was set up the co2 right next to the return pump of the sump and pointed the spraybar down towards the opposite end of the tank and I used ferterlizer balls tuked in the roots and the plants went wild.

 

[WyldFya]

If you have co2, and a fully planted tank, then don't worry about a second filter. One will suffice.

 

[WyldFya]

i ran a planted tank with a wet/dry and no co2 for a awhile never had a problem till i got tired of it and shut it down....

w/d filters help if you aren't injecting co2. If you are injecting co2, then a w/d will gas off a vast majority of the co2.

 

[WyldFya]

I ran a co2 setup with a wet/dry and had to prun the plants. All I did was set up the co2 right next to the return pump of the sump and pointed the spraybar down towards the opposite end of the tank and I used ferterlizer balls tuked in the roots and the plants went wild.

Without the w/d your co2 bottles would have lasted 4-6 times longer.