Aquarium Floating Island Planter

Yeah, its been a while since i last posted on this blog... i figured it would be a good time to update it with a project that i tried out a year ago. I only got around to writing up a guide for it recently. :)

The majority of plants that we use in our aquariums can be grown both emersed and submersed, hence there are many online guides on paludarium and riparium setups, using containers, sponges or foam walls attached to the sides of aquarium tanks.

That got me thinking... maybe i could create a sort of floating platform for those plants to grow emersed too? This would allow the floating plants to be easily shifted around and transferred from tank to tank. 

As i researched further, i discovered that there are already lots of ready-made floating island planters available online for ponds and hydroponics setups. Just google "floating island planters" to see all the various interesting designs.

But so far i haven't seen small scale versions done for aquariums yet, so i decided to just DIY a few to try out. Here were the steps i took to make my own aquarium floating island planters...

I use 5mm thick foam mats that are typically used as under tank foam bases, and then cut out 5-6cm diameter foam discs with a compass circle cutter.

 

Then i drilled a few evenly spaced holes into the foam discs.

Next, i prepared the plants by separating them into individual short stalks and removing the bottom leaves, so that they can be inserted into the drilled holes.

In this example, the plant i'm using is Staurogyne repens... a popular aquarium plant that grows well both submersed and emersed.

Stick all the stalks into the foam disc, make sure the bottom sections of the stems protrude from the foam disc.

Put into a container of water and test to make sure it floats.

Now repeat with all sorts of other plants... here i use nice plants like Rotala indica and Hygrophila pinnatifida.

Once done, just place them on the water surface of your aquarium. Provide ample sunlight and nutrients. You now have a variety of floating plants!

As these plants grow, their extensive water roots will also grow out too. You can easily move them around or shift them from tank to tank.

Emersed plants tend to grow faster and healthier, without requiring additional Co2 injection and without all the pesky algae issues.

These plants will help to soak up excess nutrients and provide an additional layer of lush aquascape on top of the tank.

Enjoy!

27 Litre "Anubias Garden" Outdoor Tank

Yet another re-scape of the outdoor tank again...

The previous batch of moss-on-rocks matured and were transferred out, so i had to fill this tank with other plants. Decided to do a very simple low maintenance layout and just tie anubias plants to branchy wood pieces.

Its been running for almost 2 months now and the anubias plants seem to be doing okay. The bunches sprout visible new leaves every few days so it's slowly growing in density.

Current tank residents comprise of 40+ cherry shrimps, 2 horned nerite snails, 2 otocinclus and 5 chili endlers, along with dozens of tiny endler fry.

Still no additional fertilizer dosing, just the usual 30% water change every week and feeding the tank inhabitants some micro pellets and mini algae wafers regularly.

I'm guessing the tank isn't getting as much indirect sunlight nowadays (its currently been raining during most afternoons) which probably explains the relatively algae-free tank glass and plant leaves at the moment.

Maybe the floating plants are also soaking up most of the excess nutrients too, so that may be helping to keep nutrient levels under control (i usually have to remove handfuls of them every week during water change).

Anyways, i have very limited control over the light levels in such outdoor tank setups and local weather conditions can change quickly... so my trusty algae scraper is perpetually on standby. :)

27 Litre "Moss Garden" Outdoor Tank

I decided to change my outdoor tank setup... again.

This time round i'm preparing plant decor in advance for an upcoming aquascape project, so the tank was converted into a simple moss grow-out tank.

Thin layers of christmas moss were tied onto lava rocks and just placed into the tank, then left on their own to grow (i forgot to take the initial setup photos, but it was just mostly bare lava rocks with bits of moss).

This tank still gets indirect sunlight, but since the moss are not fast growers, i added various floating plants to help soak up any excess nutrients that will invariably build up in the tank. No additional fertilizers dosed, just regular weekly 30% water changes and a mini algae wafer every alternate day for the resident group of hardworking cherry shrimps. :)

Current moss growth (around a month after setup)...

There are still some patches of moss yet to fill in, but the growth rate so far has been quite encouraging. The ones on the right side of the tank get more light and flow than the left side, so they are growing noticeably faster... i'll have to start swapping their positions periodically to balance out their growth rates.

Hopefully the tank can maintain this way until the moss fully grow out. :)

27 Litre "Grassy Dune" Outdoor Tank

I decided to upgrade my previous 18 Litre "Glass Planter" Outdoor Tank which has been running for the past 2+ months. Surprisingly with slow growing plants and lot of indirect sunlight throughout the day, not much algae appeared (other than some green algae on the glass which was easily cleaned off), i guess the low-bio load and minimal nutrients probably helped to ward of algae issues.

So i got a longer tank custom made to utilize the shelf space more efficiently, yet still keep to the low-profile style. The new tank dimensions are L60cm x D25cm x H18cm, quite similar to the ADA 60F tank design in terms of dimensions (though with slightly less depth).

As i wasn't planning to create an elaborate scape (and i prefer it to be easily setup and taken down if required), i chose to stick with sand substrate and use the same types of small volcanic rocks.

This time round i was inspired by the grassy sand dunes at beaches which just feature a simple combination of beach grass and rocks.

The sand was piled up higher in the middle of the tank and the rocks were scattered down the slope.

I choose to use Blyxa Japonica to recreate the beach grass look (it coincided with a plant trimming harvest from my other tanks). What i like about Blyxa Japonica is that its an adaptive plant that can grow well as a water column feeder and its easy to get an instant nice grassy hedge with just bunches of them.

The tank is filtered by an Eheim Ecco Pro 130, which is in turn connected to Acrylic Lily Pipes. I adjusted the flow rate to around 70%-80% to regulate the current, to the point that there is good overall circulation and all the plant leaves are swaying gently in the current, but not too much that they get uprooted.

I'd have to say that this tank is one of the fastest i've ever setup, from empty tank to hooking up equipment to hardscaping and planting to completion, all in it only took less than 30 minutes.

A group of 20+ cherry shrimps (aka maintenance crew) were introduced a few hours after tank setup, the filter already contains a portion of cycled bio-media and the sand substrate is inert, so the parameters stay relatively stable for the fauna.

I'll probably add more smaller and shorter plants in between the rocks as accents, perhaps some Eleocharis sp. 'Mini' or maybe some Micranthemum 'Monte Carlo' could be nice. Will see what i can harvest from my other tanks. :)

18 Litre "Glass Planter" Outdoor Tank

I recently got an outdoor shelving system from IKEA to put some potted plants... as usual i ended up filling the extra shelves with aquarium-related items too. :)

My original plan was to just use a normal planter box for terrestrial plants, but then i remembered that i had a spare low-profile glass tank (L40cm x D25cm x H18cm) that was able to fit nicely on the shelf, so i cleaned it and filled the bottom with a simple sand base, then planted it with Anubias Barteri var. Angustifolia (glued to individual small rocks) and further surrounded with more rocks.

Filtration and oxygenation is supplied by a small sponge filter (its sitting just behind the plants).

Some of the anubias plant leaves currently poke out of the water surface but parts of it are still underwater so the leaves are kept hydrated. Hopefully by the time the leaves start to grow taller out of the water they should have adapted back to emersed form.

No fauna at the moment... though i'll probably add in a few small hardy fishes soon to prevent mosquito breeding.

The tank is positioned in a shaded area and blocked by other plants but it still gets indirect sunlight for most of the day.

With slow growing plants in a full glass tank outdoors, i guess it'll probably be a count down to algae fest in 3... 2... 1... *fingers crossed*. :)

Outdoor Plant Grow Project - Fissidens

I started this outdoor project a month ago, it was originally meant as a way to keep excess harvested fissidens and get them to continue growing outside without taking up valuable space in my indoor tanks (and with minimal attention required).

Here is my setup...



To start with, i layer strands of fissidens on pieces of coconut shells (didn't bother to manually tie them on, the fissidens will eventually root in and attach on their own anyways) and then add abit of water into the container.

I prefer to use coconut shells as the base as they have a more natural curved shape once the fissidens establish (like small green hills), compared to using steel meshes which tend to create a rather flat artificial look.

This process is sort of like a "dry start method" (aka DSM) whereby the plants are grown emersed for a while before being submerged. The bottom layer of water will naturally wick up the coconut shells to keep the fissidens hydrated during this period of time.

The containers i use are just transparent IKEA plastic boxes. The lids are kept closed at all times to retain high humidity in the container (very important for fissidens undergoing DSM) and also to prevent mosquito breeding.

In the photo above, the top container  has fissidens growing on coconut shells, while the bottom container has loose fissidens just grown floating in the water. The containers are stacked up to save space.

After 1-2 weeks, once the fissidens attach to the coconut shells, i fill the container with water and they will continue their growth submerged.

On a weekly basis, i do a full water change with de-chlorinated water, no fertilizers added. So far, i've not spotted algae in any of the containers, even in the presence of direct sunlight. Most likely the limited nutrients available are all used up by the fissidens and the sealed environment probably helps prevent external contaminants/spores from being introduced too.

Here is a batch showing the growth rate after around 1 month...

As you can see, there is "pearling" (excess oxygen bubbles from active photosynthesis) even from the fissidens... sunlight is a very powerful light source indeed!

Due to direct sunlight exposure and the covered container environment, the water temperature in the containers can often times reach 31-32°C, but interestingly the fissidens didn't seem to show any signs of deterioration and instead seem to grow even faster and greener (compared to my indoor tanks), so i guess fissidens can adapt and thrive in high temperature conditions too.

Looks like growing aquarium plants outdoors can be a useful method to cultivate them... sometimes even better than growing them indoors. :)