Filter for terrarium

[Clint]

I had a barely used (like 1 month) HOT Magnum and a NASTY water reservoir in the bottom of my terrarium. I hooked it up so that it sucks water from one side, filters it through a filter pad and carbon (that I plan on replacing once every 2 weeks) and then squirts it out on the other side through a tube like a little water fountain! Hurray! Circulating, filtered water now! No more green slime tannin filled stagnant nastiness! Or worms! The filter also takes a micron filter so I can get almost every last particle out.

To see how much water-cooling would help, my terrarium was at exactly 80 degrees and I put an ice pack (I'd estimate that it holds a quart of gel) under the output so that the water runs over it, and I put the hygrometer on the OTHER end of the tank and it cooled it by 5 degrees so far, and the ice pack is only... maybe 20% melted. I bet this will come in handy in an emergency heat wave!

No more nasty swamp water! And now instead of siphoning it , I can just put the output tube into a bucket and pump it out with the filter. Hurray! Since the filter is an external filter, I'm not worried about it heating the water at all since it's in the basement. Or at least the temperatures are normal so far. I put some small leaves in the water to see how well my plan worked, boy did it ever! They were all sucked up.

How satisfying. Now that I'm going to have clear water (replacing 5 gallons every week is my normal routine, so that should get rid of the tiny amount of tannin's that aren't absorbed by the carbon) I was thinking of putting mylar on the bottom of the tank.

I wonder if I can rig it up to make a sort of wet-wall. Or maybe try growing something hydroponically with the output water flowing through a pot of clay media or something.

The only thing that worries me is that one day I might clean it and leave town, and then it quits on me after I leave because it didn't prime properly and the motor burns out. That would suck pretty bad. It's a 250 GPH filter, and there is probably only 20 gallons of water in the terrarium, so the filter filters all of the water 12.5 times per hour.

There is a small amount of splashing, and surprisingly the humidity rose a whipping TWELVE percent! It's now at 92%.





















EDIT: Don't get the impression that the filter cleaned the nasty opaque water and made it clear. I have the tank a thorough cleaning before I refilled it

[jm82792]

Neat !!!!
I have yet to buy the loghts for a nep tank,
I need a large terrarium so I can fit in a grow light('s)

[wadave]

Brilliant!!!!

They just keep getting better and better. Those plants obviously love it in there and the moss looks very lush.

What did the unit set you back Justlikeapill? Can you give us any details of the model number etc?

Cheers,

Dave.

[Clint]

Thanks. The below is what I bought (there are only two models, and the only difference is that one comes with a biowheel. I've never seen a clear housing like what is featured below. Could just be for demonstration.) I didn't buy it for the terrarium, I just had it lying around from an old fish tank.

In the store, it's like $130 or so. If you print off the online Petsmart price and go to Petsmart, it's the company policy to sell it to you for that price. I paid like $67 for it. I don't know if they have Petsmart in Australia, but I'm sure if you want you can find it in that country somewhere. Especially online.

www.marineland.com/products/consumer/con_hotmag.asp

[wadave]

Thanks for that mate,

I've added it to my favourites list.

Dave.

[sadsoul]

Hi there it's a great filter but if you want to steralize the water not filter it , a UV steralizer of 14 watts will do a great job steralizing the water from bacteria ect....you can find them in ebay .But your plants are beatyful and the sphagnum moss looks even better , it looks fake because of there healthy plants . Sincerely ..........//////////

[Clint]

Thank you. I get more compliments on my moss than my plants lol. I don't think I need a UV sterilizer; I don't think I'm quite that eccentric about my plants yet lol.

[kby]

I would think the tannins would be helpful--they are bog components after all, no?
I use a similar kind of setup although modified a bit for the fact that I use it as a Heliamphora/highland Nepenthes tank.
I use a fairly cheap filter--maybe about ($30-50--can't remember for sure), but one of those that sucks the water in through a tube that's normally stuck in the aquarium, then pushes it back in via a wide spout that just pours back into the tank. Since the intake isn't in water, it's connected to a tygon hose that connects it to a fountain pump (about $30). This sits in the water on the bottom of the tank. The water rather than spilling directly back into the tank is sent over a piece of cut-to-your-liking filtration material (from PetSmart) that drips into a 6oz yogurt cup with an ultrasonic nebulizer (aka mister/fogger) that is turned on at night and about 4 times for a half-hour during the day. The circulation happens always. The excess water spills out of the cup and goes to the bottom of the tank.

The highland part is an adaptation of someone else (Dick Tran)'s setup in that the evaporator part of a disassembled bar fridge is used to cool the tank at night. I have the type with the "solid metal" condensor, but one with piping that could be gently bended would be better--the solid kind looks ugly and blocks light, plus there's a part of the tank that's distinctly colder than the rest (but that's where I try to put the more temperature-drop demanding species). Insulation would help some. The whole tank is covered and the fluorescent lights are on top as normal. The filter does have to be cleaned of algae, but at least it's all in the filter and not in the water. There is peat and perlite in the water, unfortunately, but it doesn't really hurt anything. It's a bit of a trick to keep the flow rates right but not so much that it requires constant fiddling once you get it right.-kby

[Clint]

Helpful for what? Once the water passes through the pots it's not used again. I mean there's now an ultrasonic fogger (that rise in humidity was temporary apparently ) but that's it. I guess I could recycle the water for my CP's but I don't.

Add a fan and your temp. should be uniform unless you like a colder area. We'd all like pics!

[kby]

Actually I added the fan a while ago and it does help but not completely. Perhaps "helpful" was the wrong term. I meant that they are a natural part of the ecosystem of many of the plants, so I meant that in the terms of "the more like the wild the better, or certainly not harmful--except maybe to some pathogenic species"--but that is admittedly speculation on my part. Actually the ultrasonic fogger is the way the plants are watered. I don't water the pots (unless something has gone wrong; I just fill up the bottom of the tank (the pots are mostly hung except for the large ones that are on containers which raise them above the level of water).

Pictures are tough because I've not yet invested in a particularly good photo setup (had a film one long time ago but it got...uh...borrowed and I've not decided what I want to do digitally yet. But I'll see what I can do.-kby

[kby]

Well, assuming that a bad picture is better than none, here's the setup (and yes, it needs cleaning; the algae pretty much all winds up here):


And here are some shots of the way the rest of the tank looks. Again, sorry for the poor quality:

[sadsoul]

Those are happy plants KBY and Pill you have a nice setup , with beautyful plants and the spaghmoss is green and healthy , i wish i could get atleast 2 square 2" of healthy moss like yours .
God Bless ! Sincrely .........//////////////

[sadsoul]

Pill !
What medium you are using ?
Sincerely .........../////////////

[brokken]

Mar 12, 2008 17:15:42 GMT sadsoul said:

Pill !
What medium you are using ?
Sincerely .........../////////////

Seriously.

That's perhaps the healthiest, most beautiful sphagnum that I've ever seen!

[sadsoul]

Hi !
Whats the name of the specie of sphagnum moss you have , it's all green and beautyful and i love your plants and setup , the plants says it all , they are healthy and beautyful ,Sincerely .
God Bless ...............////////////////////////