Tank inside aquarium to keep plants

[litigator666]

I found a lace fern at my local shop and I was interested on adding it on my display tank. The problem is, I have fish that seems to nibble on my anubias. Initially I thought they won't touch it, but Ive been noticing missing leaves. I want to add the lace fern and enclose it - like a tank inside the tank just to prevent the fish from getting it. Have anyone tried something similar? I still need the water to flow through asI'm running CO2 on the tank.

Getting rid of the fish is not an option and I don't have a spare tank/space to place the lace fern. Any suggestions?

 

[FJB]

You night want to check this - My Silver Dollar Sp's, by Fishguy1978.
In post #26 and beyond he described his experience, which I thought was very interesting.
Good luck!

 

[GolemGolem]

I'd likely put the fern in another tank, rubbermaid if nothing else was open. No reason what you suggested wouldn't work though, Wal-Mart had some clear acrylic baskets the other day that could be drilled full of holes. . .

 

[litigator666]

yes, the concept i was thinking. will have to do more research. I also have a few ornates and endli on the tank so it'll need to be stable enough to hold its place.

 

[duanes]

This was one of my dilemmas for years, because the fish I normally keep are cichlids, but I am also very interested in plants, and many cichlids use the most expensive aquatic plants as a salad bar.
My solution is to use planted sumps as filtration. The plants are safe in a sump/refugium, and cichlids get the benefits of the plants nitrate removal ability, albeit, not where they can destroy them.

Above 180 gal cichlid tank left, planted sump refugium right
This also allows for small critters and fish that would be eaten by large cichlids to live among the plants, and only get eaten by the cichlids if they get swept into the main tank.
Planted refugium below.