Nano, Filterless Plant tank

Angel079

I want to set up a small tank with a substrate method I been recently reading up a lot on.

The idea is to have a layer of organic top soil used as nutritional ground topped off with play sand.
There will be no fish within the system at all and from what I been reading up, I am hoping/ expecting the top soil to be sufficient enough for the plants.

To top this off, I'd like to run it filterless - That part I'm unsure atm thou....alternatively I am thinking of adding a SMALL air stone for aeration.

What's your guy's thoughts / input / ideas / experiences on this???

teddyzaper

no airstones in planted tanks! i think its posible, how little?

Angel079

Sorry I guess I should have explained myself somewhat better there
I was thinking either A) no filtration whatsoever or B) a mini version of a "filter" much built like a hybrid under gravel/ sponge filter that allows for circulation a TINY bit. (I hope anyone but me understand this idea now LOL)

The one I'm having my eyes on is like 1.5 or 2 gallon (would have to exactly measure amount of water that fits in it.

Have you ever set a nano tank up?

Mikaila31

You could say I have a nano planted tank in the water side of my paludarium. Its maybe a gallon. Theres a filter, but it hasn't been on in months. The filter actually pumps water over to the land side and down a waterfall/into the dirt. There are snails, cherry shrimp, and two endler fry in it. No regular water changes. I only top it off. Substrate is a little ecocomplete mixed with fine gravel.

The above 5gal tank is very stable and flourishing, but I would not compare it too a small planted aquarium. The wall that separates the water and dirt is not water tight. The land side holds a couple pounds of black dirt. Light is 26 watts of sprial compacts. This tank was a idea I was testing, and amazingly not a speck of algae except for some hair algae that grows right next to the filter. Why IMO it works as well as it does is because the land plants play a role too. It is excessively planted. Its not the plants you notice though, its the roots. Roots, roots, everywhere. They are from the land. They go over the wall and into the water in great great numbers. There are from the for-get-me-nots that grow on land, but they will also grow into the water then grow out of the water. Their roots go everywhere, in the dirt, up the sides of the tank, in the water.

Basically my one gallon unfiltered body of water has more plants and roots in it than actual water.

Angel079

Uhhhh that sounds nice!!! I had actually been starting to read on paludarium's because my neighs gave me a 10g with another equivalent size screen top on it that she'd used for frogs before so I was wondering about the set up in this for a paludarium, but I have too lil info there yet IMO to do this (I prefer to know all I can FIRST and then go out start new stuff if its involving animals lol).
Do you by chance have any pictures of it on here? And/ or maybe a description how its set up, what plants are used, critters that are housed? That would be REALLY interesting to me.

Mikaila31

Its a 5 gallon bow front I bought for $2. The rock wall I made by breaking slate and using A LOT of aquarium sealant. A airline hose was attached to the out put of a little submersible pump, it goes through the slate wall and dirt to come up on the other side of the tank. Plants are natives and aquatics. Native are moss and forget-me-nots. Aquatics are a little crypt, H. polysperma, subwassertang, little moss ball. There are emersed anubis "petite" and a bit of pennywort. Making it took a while, it took another 6 weeks for the plants to root in enough to solve the dirt runoff problem. Along with the other inhabitants there is a little native toad. Who is very confused right now. He was born this spring and I've probably screwed him up. They are suppose to hibernate, but he doesn't seem aware of the snow outside.

Theres a build thread for this tank on aquaticplantcentral.com in the forum. Its in the aquascaping section, in paludarium sub-forum. About half way down the page. Same user name. It hasn't been updated in a long time, but has lots of pics of the build process. I'm not sure what this forums rules are regarding linking to similar sites.

This is an old pic. Currently there are twice as many plants. You can see the roots though, already going into the water.

Angel079

DANGGGG!!!! That is nice work, check out the DYI thread with pictures, that is so awesome! I love this set up. When I started researching I often found these half water with plants coming out but no "levels" integrated in them just all flat and I didn't like that at all, I REALLY like your set up there!
What plants are the one's that are half in the water but grown to the top of the tank, they look real nice!
Hey and $2 for a 5g can't beat that...love it when folks wanna get rid of their tanks

Just curious but do your shrimp actually leave the water part and go up on the moss?

So really the only circulation you have is the water fall set up, but no real filtration neither right? And even that's been off w/out issues caused by that now for a while?
So maybe I CAN do this set up w/out any filtration/movement to it...hmmmm....

Mikaila31

Those plants are forget-me-nots they are wild flowers in Wisconsin, but I think you can get them at a lot of plant nurseries. Specifically they are water forget-me-nots. I couldn't find any pics online, but northern Wisconsin they are all along the edge of every stream. Thick mats full of little blue flowers. They grow on the muddy shore and into the water so they are almost fully submerged except for their tips. They would probably make great "edge of pond" plant. They are considered bog plants. Pic

My forget-me-nots flower easily, but they have to grow to the top of the tank first. It seems they like to be a certain height before flowering. I think theres a purple violet in there, it flowered once but I don't think it cares for the all the moisture.

$2 was a good deal, but it came with about 50 dead ladybugs.

No the shrimp won't leave the water. The toad always stares at the water though. Watching the fish, shrimp, and snails. Occasionally he goes for them, but ends up just going for a swim. Its important to keep the water level very close to the top of the wall so he is able to get back out.

There is no electric filtration in the tank. The plants will/do filter the water they way they do in nature. Any ammonia is consumed by them. The waterfall is turned on very rarely, usually only to add extra water to the soil side of the tank. Currently its too over grown to work. Usually the stream bed fills with roots and plants. The waterfall hasn't been on in over a month, when it is on its only for a hour or two. I haven't had any problems with the water having no movement. It does get that oily layer on the surface, like some tanks do. Its very minor though, I think the snails and fry eat it.

My waterfall is rarely used, because the pump cord is 5" too short to reach the power strip. Those little things you over look. The plan was to set it on a timer so it came on occasionally during the day.

Angel079

I couldn't really say I seen them here in TN along the Rivers but then I hadn't really looked for them neither....Def hadn't seen non along our big ole pond, there's been no flowering nothing around it since we got here....hmmm now where would I find these plants i really like them ...

Yea I know what ya mean about the lil things getting ya in the end - Been there & done that with SO MANY tanks

Now you REALLY got me going about this 10g with the "10g mesh top" to set up for a paludarium. The water part is clear to me from the tanks...then I had thought about adding a tree frog in there (or better 2) and that's the 'scary' part cause its 'new' to me...but i think it would be so cool to have like the lil nature piece with water & "trees" and "land" all in one and not "Only" terrarium or ONLY fish tank...hmmm....

Mikaila31

I would go with a glass or plastic top if you can. The plants will like it more if the air stays humid. My tank has plastic wrap with a few holes keeping the moisture in.