Floating plants and overflow filters, also PP

[Jhhnn]

I decided to take the plunge into planted tanks- not so much for the ornamental effect, but rather as a water quality measure. So I've acquired some supposedly easy floating plants, amazon frogbit and wisteria, and am improving the tank lighting, too.

One of my tanks is a converted reef tank w/ wet/dry filter, and it occurs to me that the plants may have a tendency to foul the overflow... Duh!

Any tips or tricks to help w/ that?

I'm also concerned wrt sanitizing the plants, which are now residing in an aerated plastic tub in a sunny spot on the kitchen counter... I've discovered that they have snails, too. I have PP crystals- what sort of concentration and duration of plant immersion would be good to treat the plants, rid them of snails prior to putting them in the discus tanks?

My fish have been extremely healthy so far, and I certainly don't want to compromise that...

Thanks!

[pcsb23]

Not had much luck with PP and plants so I tend not to use it.

If you have no inverts in your tank, copper sulphate will work, alum will also work. You can also use a bleach solution, but this can set the plants back sometimes.

As for the overflow, if it is a weir type, use a comb on the weir, if it is in the side of that tank then you need a plastic cage type baffle - usually means making something.

[Harriett]

I vote for alum--get it at the grocery store in the baking goods aisle. Won't injure the plants at all. I have used PP at a concentration of only enough for water to look pale lavander for about 10 minutes--fine leaved or fragile plants have some risk of melt with this method and with bleach...heartier plants seem to do ok.
Best regards,
Harriett

[cmich]

To keep floating plants out of the overflow you might try using fishing line across the top near your overflow. You might have to play with it a little to get the plants to stay away from the overflow, but I know people have used this method before. Good luck, hope that makes sense.

Blake

[rickztahone]

here's a helpful link
http://www.freewebs.com/aquariumplants/plantdipsbaths.htm
i'm not to sure of what to do to keep them away from the overflow though, never had to deal with that myself. maybe the suggestion with the fish line might work best

[cyberhog05]

A couple suction cups and fishing line does work well. If I had to worry about this I would get the airline holders then you would have a place to tie the line to. These things:
http://leesaqpet.com/component/virtuemart/?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=148&category_id=6

[cmich]

Yeah, that makes sense. Suctions on the glass would hold the fishing line well. I knew it could be done, just never seen it before.

Blake

[Jhhnn]

Thanks for the input, people. I'm still working on the lights... not quite there, not yet, but the plants and the snails seem happy in their tub, for now... I may start out with something as simple as an airline tubing corral for the plants, but I suspect I'll need some kind of baffle or weir to keep them away from the comb-type overflow...

Looks like killing off the snails may be the hard part...

[rickztahone]

Thanks for the input, people. I'm still working on the lights... not quite there, not yet, but the plants and the snails seem happy in their tub, for now... I may start out with something as simple as an airline tubing corral for the plants, but I suspect I'll need some kind of baffle or weir to keep them away from the comb-type overflow...

Looks like killing off the snails may be the hard part...

ebay, aluminum sulfate. 3 tbs/ 1 gallon of water will do the trick

[Patr1ck]

...Looks like killing off the snails may be the hard part...

Yo-Yo loaches love snails.

Pat

[Jhhnn]

Just an update to let everybody know how it's going. I carefully sorted the plants as they were a little the worse for wear from spending a couple of weeks in an aerated plastic tub on a sunny kitchen counter. I picked off any snails I found... Then I treated them in a nice rosy-purple solution of PP for 5 minutes, neutralized that with peroxide, rinsed, and put them in the reef tank in a corral made of airline tubing and a splicer. That part has worked quite well so far, keeping the plants contained. They're obviously growing, and that's good...

The discus were freaked out badly for a couple of days by the greater light intensity and the weird green stuff, but it's all settled down and everything seems great so far...

If I end up with snails I won't complain, as my only concern is that they're a potential disease vector...

[Apistomaster]

I have wet/dry filters and overflow sipons on both my large planted show tanks.

My solution was to buy small suction cup hangers for their clear suction cups.
Then I cut nylon fly screen of the right size and shape(this will vary depending on over flow)
to wrap around the over flow and reach the glass sides.

I make small punctures in the fly screen to insert the back of the suction cups through it then I stitched around the suction cup ends with kevlar thread so the suction cups are firmly attached to the fly screen. I used a couple suction cups along the bottom edge of the screen, allowed a little extra screen to allow placing a short length of light weight 5/8" I.D. clear rigid tubing as a spacer near the top of the overflow inlets. This keeps all floating plants away from blocking the inlet and reduces the chance of smaller fish from going down the drain. This has worked well for me for 5 years. I have a 950 gph flow rate on both my 75 gal and 125 gal tanks wet/dry filters.
These are my preferred primary filters for Discus show tanks. I also use one Eheim Classic #2217 supplementary filter on each tank.

[Bfreeskier]

I use plastic mesh that people use for needle point. I got a sheet for 58 cent at Micheal's they have a ton of differnet sizes too these crappy Iphone pic's help.

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i179/Bfreeskier/discustankfilter.jpg
here's one of my tank
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i179/Bfreeskier/discustank.jpg