Hiding equipment-any ideas?

[neelhound]

Im just wondering how i can minimize clutter as much as possible with my tank that im settign up. I know i can get inline heaters, but im worried about aeration. To get the look im wanting i want quite a lot of floating plants(also to give shade to some fish) and with a spraybar this would prove difficult. Is there a way of seperate aeration? I know eheim wet/dry filters do this but i have heard stories of this going wrong after a while. Thanks.

[Kenny]

Drill your tank, have a sump an hide all your heaters etc in there lol... Use air stones for aeriation.

[neelhound]

thanks, i might, but it would have to be a really really small one as i dont have the space, and i probably wouldnt have to drill and just use intakes and outputs with a return pump, in addition to 2 large filters with their intakes etc

[Rick Thibert]

Behind large bits of wood?? Plants?? Etc..............

[neelhound]

thanks,yes tehres a lot of wood, but im just worried about aeration and floating plants. i suppsoe its not that big a deal but it just bothers me a bit that theres no way of aerating thats friendly to floating plants

[Rick Thibert]

Aeration requires turning over the top layer of water continuously. I've seen people not aerate that kept dwarfs and plants (assuming the plants oxygenated the tank enough so sustain little fish) ????????????????

[neelhound]

its unplanted with big fish lol.i might aerate on a seperate loop in like a mini sump. I migth try heaters in there but it probably wouldnt work

[Dan s]

Hello Neelhound,

I have in my big tank a kind of wier in the corner, its abit like the filter box that you get on a Juwel tank but I made mine and in that I hide all my Eheim pipes, heaters, airstones in it, Ph probe and most importantly it adds another place to put filter media to much increase the media capacity of the external filters. Also, if you place the airstones in the right place you can have the media in the wier aerated, probably not as effective as a wet and dry filter but certainly cant hurt. Also this would seperate out your aeration from your floating plants in the tank. (Hope that all makes sense).

Dan

[neelhound]

thanks, that seems like a great idea, was it simple as in just a box with holes( so as if part of the tank with a little barrier) or was it with a circulation pump to draw water in? Also how big was you tank as i would probably need a heater on the other side of the tank too as itsd 6ft.

[Simon Morgan]

A simple fix is to use those silk plants they sell for reptile keepers. They have a little sucker which you stick to the glass, they hide heaters and filters quite well and look quite good too. Mo (aquamojo) uses them in most of his tanks as far as I can tell.

[neelhound]

thanks, im not ignoring or anything i do have them i used to use them with a great effect in my smaller tank until i changed it to a proper planted, and sometimes in the larger tank before the crash. I dont think it would go with the rooty scheme that ive done tho. (I still have lots of it left over in the garage that i would give away if people wanted the exo terra caves with it etc)

[Dan s]

Hello Neelhound,

Much easier than a box, Ive attached a photo below, that panel was glued into the corner of the tank. I would if doing it again make one alteration and that would be to put extra slats in at different heights.
I used a router to make the slats, the hole at the top is for the water flow back into the tank (you can make out the pipe work in the second photo).

My tank is 6' and i have one at each end, I run a Eheim Pro 3 at each end of the tank and have aeration at each end of the tank.

Dan