Building a "Land Plant" Filtering System

Hello TFF. Found an old photo of a "TerraPhyte" tank I put together several years ago. I've posted on this subject before, but I don't believe I had a picture of the finished tank. This one ran without water changes for roughly four years. The plants finally got too large for the tank and I decided to rehome all the plants and moved the fish to some other more traditional tanks that required large, regular water changes. This was a 60 gallon tank, but the system will work for most tanks. If you're interested in something a little less traditional. You can certainly have one.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

10 Tanks said:

Hello TFF. Found an old photo of a "TerraPhyte" tank I put together several years ago. I've posted on this subject before, but I don't believe I had a picture of the finished tank. This one ran without water changes for roughly four years. The plants finally got too large for the tank and I decided to rehome all the plants and moved the fish to some other more traditional tanks that required large, regular water changes. This was a 60 gallon tank, but the system will work for most tanks. If you're interested in something a little less traditional. You can certainly have one.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

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Hi I’d love to know more about this please I notice you have them in baskets but could you let them just be on the water too?

I have heard of this and the idea is interesting . Tell us more . Was it a still tank ? I think I see bubbles in the picture .

Wills said:

Hi I’d love to know more about this please I notice you have them in baskets but could you let them just be on the water too?

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Wills and to Back in the Fold. The baskets support the plant root system. Without good support, the plant is top heavy and will tip over in the water. As long as the root ball is supported in the tank water, with the leaves above the water, you could use something else. The "spa baskets" had holes in them to allow the water to move through the roots. By providing oxygen to the plant roots, you duplicate the oxygen environment the plant would have in soil.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

Back in the fold said:

I have heard of this and the idea is interesting . Tell us more . Was it a still tank ? I think I see bubbles in the picture .

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Hello. I placed a large air stone attached to an air pump in the bottom of both baskets and then put the plant on top of the air stone. The plants are land plants and came in large flower pots with soil of course. I rinsed all the soil off the roots before putting the plant in the basket and right on top of the air stone. The oxygen moving through the plant roots duplicates the oxygen environment the plant would have in the flower pot. You have to remove all the soil, or the plant will suffocate and that type of soil doesn't do the water chemistry or the fish any good.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

Hello again TFF. As I was looking through my notes on this filtering system, I realized that most public water systems are going to have some mineral content. Since this system doesn't require water changes, we're not going to be able to use treated tap water to top off the water that's lost to evaporation. There's going to be a lot more evaporation in our open tanks than a standard tank that's covered. So, we need mineral free water, like distilled water. Distilled water is cheap around here. We use mineral free water so we're not continuously adding minerals to the tank water, which will build up over time and make the water unlivable for the fish. So, don't top off your tank with treated tap water, ever.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

That’s a good thing to bring up. That might be a lot of distilled water every week. I’ll have to watch how quick it evaporates.

Endlersendlers said:

That’s a good thing to bring up. That might be a lot of distilled water every week. I’ll have to watch how quick it evaporates.

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Hello. I don't know about Florida, but distilled water here is cheap. About $.90 per gallon last time I checked.

10 Tanks (now 11)

Thats a great idea putting the airstone in the basket I hadnt thought of that.

In terms of water changes, I would still do water changes and have external filters on the tank I'd do this in so I think as long as I kept up with it, the plants will just deal with the excess nutrients from my tap water and fish while the main part of the filtration comes from the external filters.

Is this plant specifically known for its ability to take up nutrients from water or would any riparian plant behave in the same way?

I have had versions of this for years. However, I don't do water testing. Do you? If you are more concerned with skipping water changes, could you provide a log of readings over a few months? We always report impressions with these old systems, but we never seem to provide data. I am as guilty as anyone else there.

I like to use sponge or air filters with these systems, as my "anecdotal eye" says they are needed. A few heavily surface planted tanks here have a canisters.The fish I keep come from water that moves, and water changes can be as much about adding depleted resources as about removing wastes. I know my root in terrestrial plants give me good water, and some of these sets are a decade old, only disrupted and set up again due to a move.

I filter, and water change. I see the root systems as excellent for egg layers in long term colony breeding set ups, as eggs adhere to roots and fry get a head start in them. I still observe problems with adults if I don't do my water changes though. I don't overstock, and I choose my fish carefully.

There's a natural phenomenon I don't want to replicate. When the dry season comes, many fish are trapped in pools as water ceases to flow in small rivers. They go into a kind of biological holding pattern as they try to survive until the rainy season reconnects the pools. I think a lot of no water change systems play on that biological state - the fish go into their slow metabolism energy saving mode, but the rains never come. It's our job to provide them. In the wild, the pools can dry up and everything dies. They're spared that, but the good times never roll for them.

I stopped using baskets except to start the plants. There is a transition period when bog plant roots change to deal with being underwater. I use heavy gardening wire (with a rubberized coating) and hold the large plants in place by hooking them above the waterline and attaching them to the rim. I also have partial tops on those tanks, to keep the humidity down, contain any jumpers and to allow the tank to have a light. Undemanding plants have their places in these systems, along the bottom, and it is kind of nice to see your fish. I also paint the back of the tank, and find these tanks thrive best if they get window lighting. The front glass needs cleaning, but algae isn't an issue.

Hello Gary. I set this up in 2018, so I'll need to rely on my recall. This project was intended to be fun and interesting, not work. So, I wasn't interested in keeping a log or journal. I simply wanted to see if the experiment worked. And, it really does. You never have to change the tank water, ever. I tested the tank water periodically, when I set up the system. I never changed any tank water, but I had just a few fish in the beginning. All I can tell you is this, the plants kept the tank water within acceptable limits for the fish. I knew that if the nitrates got too high, the fish would stop reproducing. That never happened, the fish population grew fairly rapidly. The interesting part was, as the fish population increased, so did the size of the plants. In fact the plants got so big, the roots grew through the holes in the baskets and then the main roots, grew roots of their own. After a few years, the root systems got too thick. Thankfully, I kept very small fish, so where still enough room for them to swim. As you can see in the photo, I didn't take out the bottom plants, they grew fine. Had I realized how much the "Ag" plants would grow, I'd have removed the bottom plants to provide more room. This was a fun and interesting project. I believe I have some other photos of some of the other tanks I kept with these plants. I decided to go to more traditional tanks, because I was going through 10 to 12 gallons of distilled water a week, because of all the evaporation from the open tanks. It wasn't the cost, it was going to the store to get the distilled water and the store would be out of stock. Got tired of that.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

I get roots settling in to the gravel, as well as drawing from the water.

I had a tank that Xiphophorus variatus kept breeding and growing in when I was a teenager. It had no plants and no water changes for 6 years, and I am mightily sorry I kept fish that way. It was plain wrong, as I learned when I started doing water changes and saw the differences in fish vitality and behaviour. So I don't consider fish breeding, especially livebearers breeding, as a valid indicator things are going well with the water.

Many egg layers tell a different story and can indicate how things are.

Someone (not me) is going to have to do these tanks and run a serious series of water tests on them - not just the API Master Kit - before I'll believe that the plants replace filtration and more importantly, water changes. I bet with water changes, I replenish the minerals that the terrestrial/bog plants are drawing from the water column, and that I probably get better growth for that. But again, it's untested.

Hello. Here's a picture of a 55 gallon "no water change tank". Has a couple of different species of the Aglaonema plant. Adding a little florescent lighting really works well. Add the 24/7 fertilizers provided by the fish and the plant just thrives. The plant on the left outgrew the basket.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

Wills said:

Thats a great idea putting the airstone in the basket I hadnt thought of that.

In terms of water changes, I would still do water changes and have external filters on the tank I'd do this in so I think as long as I kept up with it, the plants will just deal with the excess nutrients from my tap water and fish while the main part of the filtration comes from the external filters.

Is this plant specifically known for its ability to take up nutrients from water or would any riparian plant behave in the same way?

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Wills. You can certainly perform water changes and use mechanical filtration. However, the "Ag" plant will grow more slowly. Because, you're removing nutrients from the water by doing the water change. Nutrients are also being removed by the bacteria living in the filter media in your mechanical filter. The "Ag" plant will remove ammonia from the water as soon as the fish make it, so there won't be as much available for the bacteria colony to turn into nitrite and even less nitrite for the bacteria to turn into nitrate. So, as you can see the two are really working against one another. The idea of using the "Ag" plant is so you don't need to perform a water change. But, play around with the system and learn about it. If you have questions, please feel free to post them.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

10 Tanks said:

Wills. You can certainly perform water changes and use mechanical filtration. However, the "Ag" plant will grow more slowly. Because, you're removing nutrients from the water by doing the water change. Nutrients are also being removed by the bacteria living in the filter media in your mechanical filter. The "Ag" plant will remove ammonia from the water as soon as the fish make it, so there won't be as much available for the bacteria colony to turn into nitrite and even less nitrite for the bacteria to turn into nitrate. So, as you can see the two are really working against one another. The idea of using the "Ag" plant is so you don't need to perform a water change. But, play around with the system and learn about it. If you have questions, please feel free to post them.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

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I think for me using riparian plants like this is what I need to do to offset the nitrate and phosphate in my tap water, nitrate for the fish health and phosphate for the algae. My next project is most likely a Malawi tank so it means no aquatic plants (as they eat them) the tank will also be quite densely planted, plus with the tank being 220 gallons (hopefully) I want to make sure I've got as many tips and tricks in place like riparian plants, nitrate removal resins, perhaps a deep sand substrate? Plus water changes - but if I can get the tank to a point where I can get nitrates to 0 - 10 ppm I'll be very happy, I would still do water changes as there are so many other benefits to them, growth hormones, general hormones and pheromones and as a way of keeping the tank clean, I'm not talking 50% weekly but 20% 10-14 days sure.

My main question at the moment is does this plant you have here have any specific advantages over other plants we can use like this? The big advantage for me with this one is that it is a clumping plant rather than a vine like pothos so you don't have to worry as much.

Found this video recently just to show where the concept ends up haha


Wills