plants (particularly hyacinth) in skippy filter?

[Philphine]

after a pretty harsh winter that cracked both of my pressurized filters, I've decided to replace at least one of them with a skippy filter.

there were a couple on youtube I remembered as examples of what I wanted to try. one of them had hyacinths floating on top. I liked that since the filter won't be hidden. it was also one reason I wanted to try a skippy filter anyway.

I couldn't find that particular video, but one other that had plants on top had a commenter saying the plants would take up too much oxygen for the bacteria to live/work properly. since I can't find the original vid I saw, I can't ask how it's working (I think it's been one or two years since I first saw it), but I also can't find anything else on the 'net to confirm what the commenter wrote.

can anyone comment on this? I really wanted the plants as part of the build, but if it's going to keep the filter from working as well as it could I need to do some rethinking. thanks.

 

[sissy]

my filters have plants in them but you do have to trim the roots often .2 filters and the pond was really clean .This is how I did mine ,may not work for everyone but sure worked for me .New pond rebuild going to be same set up

 

[pecan]

I have two skippies running that I cover with plants.

I used florescent light grating to hold the media down and give me a place to put plants on top. Because of the weight of the plants I ended up building a frame out of 1/2" PVC and placed it under the grating, to hold the weight of the plants.

Also note the connector I use has on open top. With that is sucks oxygen into the water, so much that you can see the bubbles surfacing. It also prevents any siphoning of muck back into the pond in the event of a pump malfunction.

I have tried hyacinths in there but they cook in our hot desert sun.

And here it is in the summer with plants grown in.

 

[morewater]

If your fluorescent light grates ever deteriorate due to water immersion or UV damage, you can "borrow" those large trays that grocery stores get their bread deliveries on, that's some tough plastic.

 

[tbendl]

What media do you have in your tanks and how big are they? I love this idea Pecan.

 

[sissy]

I used those bread holders .I had to cut them to fit the tank

 

[tbendl]

Bread holders? As media in the tank? I thought you had used those as a ledge for plants to sit on?

 

[sissy]

I got the big plastic ones from NC and had to cut them to fit .I use them because since my filter is a down filter the sediment settles on the bottom and I have a small pump in the bottom with a hose on it and that is how I drain the gunk from the bottom of the filter .The lava rock sits on top of the grate in dollar store laundry bags

 

[tbendl]

Ahh ok, I watched a video and got a better idea of how it works. I think Pecan built a deck over hers but I'm wondering about other ways to camouflage the filter.

 

[pecan]

What media do you have in your tanks and how big are they? I love this idea Pecan.

The media I used are the industrial floor scrubber pads you can buy in the rental section at Home Depot. They rent the floor scrubber machines so they sell the pads near the rentals.

They look like this in various colors. I cut them up to about 4" x 2" pieces. I used this only because it was what was recommended by the "inventor" of the skippy filter design and is said to last the longest. I used a jig saw to cut them, as using scissors gave me blisters. I used as many as I could to fill the void between the lower grate (just above the water inlet) and the top grate (just below the water outlet).

 

[pecan]

Ahh ok, I watched a video and got a better idea of how it works. I think Pecan built a deck over hers but I'm wondering about other ways to camouflage the filter.

I did build a deck last year. I like how I had it before (shown in this thread) but the plants only camouflaged the filters for a few months and I wanted them hidden all the time. Plus I wanted to make changes including flush out valves at the bottom so I did it all at once.

 

[tbendl]

See I'm looking at building 1 or 2 of these with the stock tanks that come with the flush out drain but am trying to find a way to hide them as well. I can't really deck over them but I am thinking I could do relatively the same set up as you,. Keeping my bog, dropping it down in height and turning it into a pool of sorts then adding the filters behind it but for the life of me, I can't figure out how to camouflage it.
Thanks for the info!

 

[pecan]

Here is a picture when I first set them up and you can get an idea of the size of the media.

 

[tbendl]

That's helpful. I do see it looks impossible to hide though.
I saw where you put plants on top but did you have to reinforce the mesh grate? I mean anything that I can think of that would get bushy enough to cover the container would also likely be pretty heavy.

 

[sissy]

pecan even without the plants your filters is pretty .
.I didn't want the hassle of a flush out valve ,the pump in the bottom works great .You would be amazed at how easy it makes the clean out and how fast it makes it .I just put the clean out hose in the bucket and plug the pump in and done .My old tank had a clean out .