I was hoping to get some opinions on an overhead pothos filter I am about to start. I have a 90 gallon sunfish tank with two longears, a warmouth, two redspotted sunfish, and a bluegill. I have a sunsun cannister filter and a fluval 406 cannister filter, so I believe I have plenty of filtration. I was hoping to add a houseplant filter to help reduce nitrates, similar to what I've seen in the sticky in this forum. My plan is to use an inline Cobalt EXT pump in the water, pushing the water up through a 35 watt uv sterilizer, into a 30 inch plastic planter on a shelf about 24 inches above the tank. Pothos and arrowheads will be in the planter. An overflow will be installed in the planter using a 3/4 inch bulkhead, allowing the water to gravity flow back into the tank. This will be my first indoor DIY aquarium project, and I have assured my wife this will work. Will it? Am I missing/overlooking anything? This forum is great, y'all have a ton of information on here. Thanks!
First DIY build-Overhead Pothos filter
- Thread starter yakin ag
- Start date
The pump has a max flow rate of 210gph, and I will be pumping the water about 2 feet above the tank. Is a single 3/4 overflow enough?
I did a similar thing with a 185gph pump and pothos. I did 3 drains in 3/4"
The risk for overflow is high once the roots really start to take off. I put a mesh (craft canvas, needlepoint whatever you call it) in front of the 3 drains to keep the root systems at bay.
Sent from my SCH-R950 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
The risk for overflow is high once the roots really start to take off. I put a mesh (craft canvas, needlepoint whatever you call it) in front of the 3 drains to keep the root systems at bay.
Sent from my SCH-R950 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
update?
I completed the filter at some point in January. It is a submersible pump pushing water thru a 36 watt uv filter, into an overhead 30 inch window sill pot containing pothis and arrowhead plants, gravity flowing back into the tank. I went with two overflows, 3/4 inch, and I check them every time I do a water change on the tank. The plants' growth has been slow, and I don't seem to be noticing much of a nitrate reduction. The plants get indirect light from several windows, but probably not enough light with the container being so far up the wall. It would probably perform better if I added a grow light of some sort, but I just haven't gotten around to it. As a side note, I used flexible, clear tubing for the plumbing. It is working great, but it has some disgusting stuff (mold, green, bright red) growing in the tubes that gravity feed back into the tank.
Late reply, but I had to chime in. I used to have a native tank with the exact same stocking minus the bluegill. I had a beautiful warmouth, 2 super colorful longear and 2 very pretty red spot. You made me miss that tank, I'm not in a place where I can have anything bigger than about a 20 long right now.
