Rain-gutters on your tank?

[Aquaman]

I came across a letter in a British tropical fish magazine suggesting the use of a piece of rain-gutter attached to the back of your tank, with the outlet tube from your canister filter attched to one end.  The gutter would be at a slight decline to allow the water to re-enter the tank at the other end, or perhaps have holes drilled in it to allow for it to act as a spraybar.  The idea is to plant normal house/surface plants in the gutter.

This idea fascinates me - has anyone seen this idea being used before? I am thinking that it might be difficult to incorporate the gutter into the tank, and that it might be noisy.

Regards.

 

[nick fowler28]

sounds pretty cool.  and i think that it could be done would u be growing the plants hydro style*thumbsupsmiley*  or would soil be incorporated somehow?   good luck if u do it tho.

peace

nick

 

[Aquaman]

The suggestion was to use rockwool or clay pellets, and not soil.  The only problem was that the letter did not suggest how to actually incorporate the gutter into your tank.  If you have one of those cabinet style tanks, there is a fairly large gap between the wooden lid of the cabinet and the glass top of the tank - i.e. a large portion of the gutter would be hidden from view.

Regards.

 

[aznpanther98]

i heard about doin something like that for but definatly not for house plants lol well when i was 16 i was a pot smoker and heard about growing hydro weed that way hehe but i was just a stupid pothead KIDS JUST SAY NO!!!!!!!!

 

[Backdraft Bagel]

Well yeah, that's how they grow most pot. But you can grow a large number of houseplants the hydro way. Also, if you really wanna get jiggy, put your aquatic plants in there. You have to "transition" them - you can't just dump and anubia in there and expect it to live. Start by moving into an aquarium where you can lower the water level slowly. Gradually make more and more of the anubia come out of the water. I'd say over a month's time - the plant must regrow some "made for out of water" leaves and stems. Surprisingly enough, you can do this with some stem/bunch plants too! That way it'll look like your aquarium plants are just growing right outta the water.