Filter Choice???

[octember123]

I'm in the process of making my 20 gallon into a planted aquarium. I have duckweed and i just ordered myriophyllum and dwarf hairgrass. What kind of filter should i use? I need one that doesn't disturb the surface. I tried a hang on filter and that just pushed all my duckweed down under water. Any advice?

 

[Cornstar]

You can try a sponge filter. It's cheap and I hear it works.

 

[Fdsh5]

Sponge filter is the way to go. Easy to care for and it will leave an area of the surface open where it bubbles up.

 

[Coursair]

I'm in the process of making my 20 gallon into a planted aquarium. I have duckweed and i just ordered myriophyllum and dwarf hairgrass. What kind of filter should i use? I need one that doesn't disturb the surface. I tried a hang on filter and that just pushed all my duckweed down under water. Any advice?

I use an HOB. I add a sponge over the intake. Some Duckweed gets pushed around. Some lives in the quiet end and hangs out in the tops of my stem plants.

You almost can't kill Duckweed. I prefer my Amazon Frogbit. Much easier to control.

I have a Eheim Ecco canister on my 10g Rimless. I have custom Lily Pipes. No surface agitation. I now hate that. I get a film on the surface. So sometimes I raise up my outflow to get some splash to get rid of the film.

I don't want a filter taking up room in my tanks. But that's me. Sponge filters are popular with many people.

My 10g with HOB filter.

 

[pbco]

I have duckweed with a HOB filter in a 14g tank. I attached a plastic cut out (from the top of a chinese food container) to the lid of the filter using duck tape so that water is blown down instead of outward, reducing surface agitation. Some water is still expelled out the sides, but it works great if you have floating plants in a small tank that came in a kit with a HOB filter. Overall, there is still just enough agitation to keep things peacefully floating around the surface, but not shooting all over the place.

I made sure to round the edges as to not create dangerous obstacles for the fish. Nonetheless, the plastic is soft and could barely cut butter. Also, I made sure there was some tension between the duck tape attached to the interior portion of the filter lid and plastic in order to angle the plastic in (if you don't, you might still have a enough forward flow to cause enough water agitation to blow floating plants around.) See the attached a picture if you want to see how I McGuyvered it.