# plants in a hob filter?



## mbunas4me (Mar 13, 2013)

anyone here grow plants in their hob filter.i have seen videos and pics of this and i think it looks good.could you just stick some anubius in there and it would grow? i dont think people are planting (in gravel) their plants in the hob they just seem to place them in there behind the filter pads and let the roots grow out.i just though of anubius because it doesnt need high light to grow and it does need buried.let me know what you think.


----------



## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Be careful it does not slow down your filter output. Why would you want the plant in the filter and not in your tank?


----------



## cichlid-gal (Apr 27, 2012)

My anubias and java ferns are in my tanks but I also have pothos and bamboo in some of my HOB's (pothos have roots submerged and bamboo just are stuck down in the filters behind the sponges as far as they will go).

I actually was very interested in ripariums but not ready to commit to planting up a tank that way yet. So when I saw some videos and articles on plants in HOB's I decided to give it a try. The theory is that the roots from the plants will suck up nitrates. I have also seen an entire sponge filter covered/surrounded in bamboo plants.

I'm trying the HOB thing to see if it does make a difference in nitrate readings as I feed lightly a couple of times a day and my nitrates reflect that. I do enough water changes to keep things under control but I am looking to see if the plants will decrease nitrates even further. I need to do a water test to see how things are going as so far I have just put the plants in and been letting them establish themselves. I have seen the roots on the plants getting larger and they have been trying to attach to the sponges in my HOB. I am uncertain how many plants might be needed to make a difference so I just started with a handful of pothos and a single lucky bamboo in each HOB. I have not noticed slow filter flow from that amount of plants, at least I don't see it.

So for me, its more of an experiment than anything else right now. If it works out for the best, I'll be certain to let you all know :thumb:


----------



## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

If you are trying to reduce nitrates, you want a fast growing plant as opposed to anubias.

I will tell you that a dozen vallisneria (each plant is just like 3 leaves) took nitrates to zero in my tank within a week. But zero nitrates cause other problems, so I don't keep vallisneria any more.


----------

