And, I was just thinking about mounting one of those things next to the kitty litter box… I need to step up my game and develop a planted aquarium.

Those pump bottles are prone to siphoning, so make sure the pipe is oriented somewhat ‘uphill’.

When I had a planted aquarium I never had to add fertilizer. That’s the only productive output of the fish, and you’re going to just take that away from them?

It just gets easier and easier to grow weed, doesn’t it?

A soap bottle? Doesn’t soap like that kill fish?

Speaking of killing, would it kill you to turn the Rod Stewart down for a second while you make the video? Just cause you’re living in 1988 doesn’t mean I want to.

Oh and, no arduino, no care.

@Bill D. Williams STFU troll.

As a fish keeper and member of an fish club I would strongly recommend against the use of any container that has contained soap. Soap residue damages the natural slime coating of fish and allows illnesses to make it’s way through. As well, if there are enough fish to plants and gravel, the plants will get enough nutrients to thrive. For light support you can utilize a shop light – one warm and one cool colored bulb. In addition to the utilization of shop lights and gravel and fish, live fish food such as Daphnia (Water Fleas) and tubiflex worms will introduce plenty of nutrients to keep fish highly colored and the plants growing hardily. If the planted tank does not have fish, the output of the fish bearing tank (minus detrus) a very fine infusion of carbon dioxide gas canister will sustain the plants; however make sure that the surface of the tank is not disturbed by the infusion of gas as surface disruption will counteract the infusion of carbon dioxide.

Winter and Summer?? More Water in Summer…

Add this, and (A) and (B) in the potting soil. So the System only works, if the water to low.

+9V
(A)—————|——(+)Relay(-)—|
| |
(B)-150Ohm-| | 470Ohm
| | |
| 5,6KOhm |
| |——(C)—| (C)
| / | /
|———(B)| |–(B)|
| \ \
0V–|–100KOhm—-(E)———(E)

Relay = for the control of the Air Fresher.

Ups:

(A)—————|—-(+)Relay(-)—–|
………………|………………..|
(B)-150Ohm-|……|………………470Ohm
………..|……|………………..|
………..|…..5,6KOhm……………|
………..|……|——(C)—|……(C)
………..|…………./…..|……/
………..|———(B)|……|–(B)|
………..|………….\…………\
…….0V–|–100KOhm—-(E)———(E)

Great idea, favorited! Seems great for some green stuff ;).

What’s so hard about keeping plants in an aquarium? And seriously… fertilizer? Who does that? That’s what fish poo is for. In other words, I agree with Sam.

I don’t understand the whole term ‘planted aquarium’. In my world, there is no other kind.

Ascii schematic FAIL :-)

This is a brilliant idea, could also be used to regularly add small amounts of anti-ich treatment to an aquarium…

FWIW this happens to everyone sooner or later, there is no specific fix and changing the water too often just stresses the fish more.

I did wonder about using a slow water change mechanism so that the water is mixed with 0.1% treatment then circulated through a salvaged germicidal lamp housing (via glass tube) before entering the tank to kill any bugs therein..

@zeropointmodule:

We have one aquarium with four newts, and some fifty newt larvae at some point. To have an easy way to take water from the parent’s tank (cyclops as food for the newtlets requires a water change afterwards) I just positioned a plastic jerrycan behind the tank, with a small pump and a siphon. The pump sends water to the jerrycan, the siphon is the other half of the circuit. A tap valve in the bottom of the jerrycan allows you to take water, and you add back fresh water via the filler cap.

The advantage is that you don’t have to disturb the main tank (only the water level will change a bit between tapping and replenishing), and any fresh water is slowly mixed in (not really necessary, newts are very tolerant there, but it doesn’t hurt).

You could easily expand this setup to have the pump routed through the steriliser, and a widget like this that drips treatment into the jerrycan at the right rate.

@majstor76:

you can easily make a doser from a syringe, a small motor with reducing gearbox and a long-enough bolt with a nut. You couple the nut to the gearbox output shaft in such a way that it can turn but not move axially; the bolt presses against the syringe’s plunger and hey presto, every time you turn on the motor, some amount of whatever is in the syringe gets squeezed out. Because of the reducing gear and the further reduction because of the thread lead, the amount can be determined sufficiently precise by simple timing.

Seems a few otherwise experienced aquarists have never encountered a high-tech planted tank.

These tanks have more (sometimes *much* more) light than an average tank. Which allows you to get spectacular growth with easy aquatic plants, and also grow more challenging kinds of plants that would otherwise be impossible.

Of course, all that light makes plants hungry. They need extra CO2 and frequent fertilization, much more than fish can produce. Let either run out and the algae moves in, so they require some extra care. Autodosers make that care easier.

High-tech planted tanks can be absolutely stunning. Look up some pictures of Takashi Amano’s tanks for some examples. Whether it’s worth the extra effort is a personal choice. I have high and low tech tanks, and love them both.