For years I have been dreaming of a TRUE ecosystem in my tank. I recently discovered that the oceans etc ARE NOT filtered by bacteria....THEY ARE FILTERED BY ALGAE...bacterial systems like the bog standard fluvial filters are basically a cut down version of the filtrations systems used in municipal sewage processing plants....

I have decided to GROW algae in my tank on upside down hand scrubbing brushes (the kind u use to scrub floors). I am going to turn them upside down so the plastic fibers stick upwards and bury the handle in the gravel. Beforehand I will soak the spunges in water to remove the majority of components that might pollute the water.

Hopefully I can get a forrest of algae growing at the back of my tank where my airstones are...I think it will provide amazing oxygenation, filtration and not to mention a delicious snack for the blighters. Slow growing plants will provide a mask to hide the majority of the algae from general view....

I recon it will also cut down massively on the glass cleaning I have to do because the algae in the brushes will basically outcompete the glass for nutrients.....22 I will even be able to remove the brushes, clean them and put them back in the tank (removing a TON of waste nutrients.....22 once I get things running the level of oxygenation will be so extreme that I can double my fish stocking level with no negative effect whatsoever....

My new rule:

Bioload (fish) < Primary organisms (plant life)

No more of this ammonia -> nitrite -> nitrate -> disgusting glass, disease, cleaning

TIME TO STOP FIGHTING NATURE AND EMBRACE IT!!!!!!!

Interesting .....I would like to see some updates of this. I myself have a marine tank and I know about the refuge tanks we use for the filtration, so in a goldfish tank it should work

I KNOW THAT THIS IS REAL BIG IN SALTWATER TANKS. THE WAY THEY DO IT IS THEY HAVE A SPECIAL MUD THEY USE IN THEIR SUMP LEAVE THE LIGHT ON OVER THE SUMP TO AID IN GROTH. ALL OF THIS HAPPENS UNDER THE TANK OUT OF SIGHT. THERE ARE LOTS TO READ ON THIS ON-LINE AND ON THE PRINTED PAGE. YOU CAN ALSO CALL PET SUPPLY COMP. TO SEE IF THEY HAVE ANYTHING FOR FREASH WATER. I HAVE USED BIG ALS ONLINE AND PET SOLUTIONS,HAVE NOT USED THAT PET PLACE THEY ALL HAVE PHONE NUMBER FOR TECH HELP. I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF AN IN TANK ALGAE SCURBBER. YOU COULD ALSO E-MAIL SEA WORLD AND LARGE AQUARIUMS FOR ANY INSIGHT. GOOD LUCK. :goldfish :monkey

I have both my 20 gallon tanks sitting by south windows. I have trouble with hair algae in both. When I did my partial water changes this weekend, I found a mat of hair algae along the window side of a large piece of slate that I have java fern tied to. I used it as worm food in my red worm composter. Maybe next time, I'll see if I can contain it in a mesh bag or something. I just hate it when it matts all the plants together. I suppose I should find something that eats it to keep it pruned down.

I set up a plant filter this weekend for my 55 gallon goldie tank. It's a 30 tub, loaded with plants.

I'm running about 4 watts per gallon on the goldie tank (40 watts wide spectrum grow lite, 115 watts 5000K and 75 watts 6500K). Have quite a few plants in it now. Potted up the three new swords (amazon, brazil and oriental) this weekend. which are on the almost bare bottom side along with 2 pots of wisteria, 3 jungle vals in a pot, a red melon and a radican sword sharing a utility basket, scarlet hygro in another utility basket.. all potted in topsoil with a gravel overlayer. I'm hoping the topsoil will get some extra denitrification going. some java moss attached to some of the pots and some java fern tied to slate. On the UGF side, there are two big bunches of hornwort and a bunch of anacharis tied to small pieces of slate.

The plant filter adds probably 25 gallons to the goldie tank. I think I have enough leeway in either tank, in case something gets stopped up, tho I need to take some measurements, calculate water volume and make sure rather than just eyeballing it. Used a powerhead with a prefilter to pump the water to the tub thru 3/4" pvc with a one way valve, as it's connected lower on the side of the tub than is the pipe that moves water back to the 55 and I don't want backflow. The pipe back to the 55 is set about an inch below the water level in the tub and drains back into the 55 via gravity. There's only one way that I would have a small flood... maybe 5 gallon overflow *if* the tube taking water back to the 55 got stopped up. Need to build a cage out of mesh to make sure that doesn't happen.

The plant filter tub has 150 watts 5000K and 75 watts 6500K over it which is a bit much. I probably need to move one of the 5000K lights over another tub to try and get some green water going for the daphnia as I think that much light may get me green water in the goldie tank. That might be an interesting experiment tho. Could put daphnia in the plant filter and it might be a nice balance--algae chows down extra nutrients, daphnia chow on algae, fish chow on daphnia that end up in the water flow back to the 55. That'd be cool if it were balanceable. The water lettuce has been outside in the daphnia tub and it had babies, so it's in the plant filter now. along with all the hornwort and anacharis I could dig up from the daphnia tanks. and duckweed, frogbit, hygro, ambulla, dwarf anubias and misc other cuttings. Oh yea.. the water celery cutting is in there potted in topsoil. That one is emergent. I may try and rig up something to hold pothos or peace lillys with their roots in the water.

I plan to run the lightsin the plant filter on the opposite schedule as the goldie tank. That should keep the pH swing (from having it heavily planted) from happening and should keep O2 higher at nite as the tank with the lights on will produce O2 and use up CO2 from the tank with lights out. Hopefully it'll also keep nitrAtes from building up as much. We'll see.

Hi this sounds interesting. It would be useful if we could be kept up with how this goes and perhaps all this info can be then pinned on the site.

Facinating: I have been doing a lot of reading up on natural filtration systems. Your setup intrigue's me. Please keep us posted as the system develops.

That sounds like a nice setup... nevertheless, you will grow algae on those brushes but bacteria will still make up a significant part of your biological filtration. Yes, nitrification (ammonia-nitrite-nitrate) will still be taking place. This is a natural process and is part of all natural aquatic ecosystems.