Filter ?

[WhiteDevil]

I read FORTS signature and found the very helpful fully compiled link list for planted tank( great sig by the way)

My question is this, I have a carbon filter, HOWEVER, I do know how to sew and have a ton of fishing line here to sew with. Now what filter media is best, as in carbon,ammonia,ect that I can insert into one of my filter bags to better help the plants AND fish flourish?

Do they make a filter bag cover about 4"x6"'s?

The more pics I take the more I hate my fake plants, I almost got all my ducks in a row to go LIVE in this tank with plants.

I have this sand

in white( need some more if someone has a partial bag lying around please PM me with a price. I dont need 20 pounds laying around when I got a daughter who thinks everything is hers.)

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[mgamer20o0]

you can make your own media bags. just find a fine mesh to make it out of. heck i dont even use carbon in any of my tanks.

in a planted tank filters are more just to use particles out of the water. with a heavy planted tank they take care of a lot of the bio load.

 

[WhiteDevil]

So basically my pantyhose idea is ok for a filter bag or should I actuallt get the bags from the LFS?

I have fish in there too so I want to have the water they need as well as what the plants need. Its not going to be heavy, maybe some small for the front and middle and MAYBE 2-3 tall ones for the back of the tank.

 

[mgamer20o0]

yea that should be fine.

 

[WhiteDevil]

Sweet.

I just realized I got 21 fish, in a 26 gallon, oops. well when the angels get bigger they got new homes already.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

The only problem with pantyhose is that they will disintegrate over time. You should be able to find a media bag at an LFS pretty cheap. I use Seachem Purigen in my canister for absorbing dissolved organics, some of it is as small as grains of sand, so I am using cotton tea bags until I get their bag, which Seachem appropriately calls "The Bag" because it is 180 micron mesh and is made with welded seams and withstands bleaching, because Purigen is rechargeable with bleach.

 

[cloudgazer]

Something I've done before is taken those kitchen pot scrubbers made of that sort of plasticy nylon material. These work great as biological filter media on their own (especially useful in sumps) but if you unravel them, you find out that they are essentially very long sheets of this mesh rolled up and such. These work great as filter media bags for less fine particles (such as those bio-rings and other bio filter materials).