Plant only filtration?

[knifegill]

WTF, people?
Muni, Your brace is broken. The tank should not be used until this is corrected. If you fill this tank, the front and back pieces will bow and eventually the tank will break. That aquarium was designed with thinner glass, that's why it has a rim and had a brace. You cannot convert it into a rimless tank without adding some sort of center brace. It can be done with a simple piece of glass and clear silicone for a refined look, but you will need a brace.

Oh, unless you only fill it partially! My bad!

 

[aspen]

if you are willing to use an airstone for circulation, then you could do about the same as any other tank. but as for whether it will support fish without an air bubbler, then yes but it'll depend on how much o2 is injected from the roots of the plants.

just off the top of my head, with a 55 gal riparium, with say, 25 gal of water, you'd be able to do a pair of apistos and 5-10 medium tetras easily. but i'd also say that you'd need to monitor the o2 situation carefully. (are the fish gasping for air? then turn the air on.) i use the red sea o2 test kit and it seems reliable.

as for the centre brace issue, if you aren't filling to the top, don't worry about that.

and as for a bio-filter issue, well, you'd need to make sure that you don't ever clean the tank out too well, to preserve that. i've found though, that plants make a good seed for a fishless cycle.

rick

 

[Muni]

I'm not concerned about the top brace. In fact I have de rimmed the tank already. It will only be getting filled about 1/2 - 2/3rd full and I'll be keeping an eye on it.


I'm going for this. A well planted tank. It will probably house a pair of Kribensis I have. I have 2 mated pairs. Thinking about trying both of them in there since its 4 footer. dunno yet. Got a lot of work before then.

 

[south coast nelly]

I was wondering would something like this in the bottom instead of gravel help in any way?
This is what ive been using in my fluval fx5 now for nearly three years and is working a treat....

 

[knifegill]

Replace every six months!

 

[south coast nelly]

haha yea,thats a load of bull...had it three years nearly n works a treat...like they say on filter sponges,keep changing...dont think so,they need to make there money some how

 

[kzimmerman]

I would start with one pair first, and maybe an ottocinclus or two. Your gonna have to be vry diligent with the water changes and gravel vacuming. A sponge filter isn't really necessary in a tank like this, but a powerhead would be useful. You could even put a small creek in the dry section. I used pvc pipe for this, coated with silicone and then embedded rocks into it. In the dry section, I had mostly ferns and Pathos, with some stemmed plants in the wet. This was a ten gallon tank with mudskippers, way back in the day. It was very easy to get very dirty.
Another thing that you should think about is the frequency of feeding. I would cut back to once every other day on something like this, it would help preserve the water quality. Plants really don't do much for filtration, but the rocks, bogwood, gravel ect. will.

 

[Muni]

Theres no dry section in this kind of set up. The plants are planted in basket that sits at water level.