So I've been having so much trouble keeping floating plants alive. My filters do such a nice job circulating the water that they create a lot of surface agitation. The floaters then get pushed all over and finally get pushed down into the water and usually get sucked against or into the filter. I actually had not been able to keep even duckweed alive in that tank!
I did a quick search for an easy aquarium divider that only went down the first 2 inches or so of the surface to prevent one side of the tank from getting so agitated. To make a dead spot, so to speak. I still wanted all my filtration power but didn't want to lose my floaters. I had this idea after watching my bacopa get so tall that it cut off one side of the tank from the filter outputs. The side that was cut off was almost perfectly still on the surface. My duckweed finally had a nice spot and was somewhat recovering. Then I did a trim and lost my "divider."
The idea to use plastic canvas (this stuff) and suction cups came from someone else. I don't remember where I saw it, but it was on a google search hit. Anyway, all you need is a pair of scissors, some plastic canvas (found in the craft supplies, usually by the yarn), about 4 or so suction cups (I used the 1 inch diameter ones), and some fishing line.
The plastic canvas came in a package of, I think, 10 sheets of just slightly bigger than a piece of printer paper. This was not quite big enough to reach all the way from the front of the tank to the back. This is where the fishing line comes in. I took one sheet and held it to the side of the tank. Then I marked on the tank (using chalk) where it came to. Then I re-measured from that spot to the back of the tank. Then I marked the spot on the canvas where I would need to cut. There is no need to mark a line for a straight cut as the grid is already a nice line to go by. Anyway, I ended up with about a 13" by 2" piece and another approximately 5" by 2" piece to make the front to back strip. You should make it just slightly shorter than the distance of the front to back to accomodate the suction cups. I then used the fishing line to "sew" them together. I tied a not to hold the 2 pieces together at the top and then threaded through the holes to the bottom and back up again where I tied another knot to keep it all together.
Then I attached the suction cups to the canvas using the metal hooks that were already attached to the suction cups. I did not close the hooks yet, but I do recommend doing so to prevent the suction cups from becoming detached from the canvas. You could also attach it using fishing line if you wanted, just remove the hooks first.
I took pics and a short video to demonstrate how to do this and how well it works. I need to upload them yet, and I want to remove the audio from the video also (camera makes an annoying sound when recording, ugh.) So, it will be tomorrow for pics and asap for video. In the video I dropped in fish food so that you could better see the action of the current from the filter outputs.
I did a quick search for an easy aquarium divider that only went down the first 2 inches or so of the surface to prevent one side of the tank from getting so agitated. To make a dead spot, so to speak. I still wanted all my filtration power but didn't want to lose my floaters. I had this idea after watching my bacopa get so tall that it cut off one side of the tank from the filter outputs. The side that was cut off was almost perfectly still on the surface. My duckweed finally had a nice spot and was somewhat recovering. Then I did a trim and lost my "divider."
The idea to use plastic canvas (this stuff) and suction cups came from someone else. I don't remember where I saw it, but it was on a google search hit. Anyway, all you need is a pair of scissors, some plastic canvas (found in the craft supplies, usually by the yarn), about 4 or so suction cups (I used the 1 inch diameter ones), and some fishing line.
The plastic canvas came in a package of, I think, 10 sheets of just slightly bigger than a piece of printer paper. This was not quite big enough to reach all the way from the front of the tank to the back. This is where the fishing line comes in. I took one sheet and held it to the side of the tank. Then I marked on the tank (using chalk) where it came to. Then I re-measured from that spot to the back of the tank. Then I marked the spot on the canvas where I would need to cut. There is no need to mark a line for a straight cut as the grid is already a nice line to go by. Anyway, I ended up with about a 13" by 2" piece and another approximately 5" by 2" piece to make the front to back strip. You should make it just slightly shorter than the distance of the front to back to accomodate the suction cups. I then used the fishing line to "sew" them together. I tied a not to hold the 2 pieces together at the top and then threaded through the holes to the bottom and back up again where I tied another knot to keep it all together.
Then I attached the suction cups to the canvas using the metal hooks that were already attached to the suction cups. I did not close the hooks yet, but I do recommend doing so to prevent the suction cups from becoming detached from the canvas. You could also attach it using fishing line if you wanted, just remove the hooks first.
I took pics and a short video to demonstrate how to do this and how well it works. I need to upload them yet, and I want to remove the audio from the video also (camera makes an annoying sound when recording, ugh.) So, it will be tomorrow for pics and asap for video. In the video I dropped in fish food so that you could better see the action of the current from the filter outputs.
