Terrarium questions
 

:helloagain.

I've been looking around for external water pumps and filters for my aquarium but all I've found so far are submersibles, it seems they no longer make the external types. Does anyone know where to find the externals? I want the pump and filter on the outside of the tank. It's necessary since the tank is only 12 inches deep i.e. front to back.

Five "Mini"-Phals and one Bromeliad presently inhabiting the tank.

There are two tops with florescence lights with T8 (full spectrum) bulbs. They are on during the day and off at night. So far there are no apparent sunburns.

As it stands now there will be between one and two inches of water in a "pond", a waterfall in one corner and a couple of "springs" somewhere in the land-form.

Are Phals able to be mounted horizontally and vertically?

Haven't decided on branches/limbs yet as I understand any mounting medium needs to be sterilized.

Haven't decided what other plants to include, that will come later.

Well more later.

Robert

Do you have any pictures of your setup? It would help give an idea of what you are trying to do. I'm having a hard time picturing how a pump or filter will work with 1-2 inches of water.

You seem to be looking for an external canister filter. There are many different brands and sizes readily available. The typical "hang on back" filter won't work with low water levels. As long as you can keep both the intake and outlet fully submerged any canister will work. They're not designed to pump water up, but rather to circulate it. Once all the air is purged from the system, that's what they're doing. If you plumb it so the outlet is above the water line, say to create a waterfall effect, you introduce what is known as "head pressure" into the equation and will need a much larger unit than you would normally use for your size of tank.

So far there is only the bare 55G tank. I'm still at the designing stage of the background, haven't even committed it to the drawing stage.

Since the tank is only 12in deep (front to back) it is necessary to maximize the growing space.

The water level may have to go to 3in but I hope not, the height of the tank is only 19in.

I do have an unused pond pump but it to is submersible so I'd have to pump water out, design some sort of bypass to reduce the flow rate then send it back into the tank. Might be a big problem.

Robert

---------- Post added at 07:49 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:44 AM ----------

Subrosa

The waterfall feature along with a couple of springs is what I intend so much planning and investigating is still ahead. (Also see #4 above).

Robert

Why would you want an external pump for a water feature? External pumps do exist, but they are expensive, generally in the hundreds of dollars and they move way, way more water than you need for water features in terrariums. We're talking hundreds of gallons per hour. That's reef aquarium flow. You don't need that kind of power in a terrarium.

Given your desired outcome, you should look at using MaxiJet 1200 powerheads. They'll pump water high enough to run a waterfall in a 55, and are very inexpensive. One important caveat! There are currently two different manufacturers making them, Marineland and Cobalt. Marineland's are about 1/2 the price of a Cobalt ($20 vs $40) and are what is known as a "new style" Maxijet. They're junk! I got failure rates approaching 20% in the first year using them to run auto top offs for my customer's reef tanks. I use only Cobalts for my customers now and have no issues at all with them. I believe it's something in the design, because I have a couple of "old style" MJs made by Marineland that are at least 20 years old and run like new.

They replaced the ceramic impeller housing with plastic, that's why the marine land MJ's break.

MJ's are submersible the impeller will shred if they are ever run dry and they are noisy, but they would work.

Years ago I bought a Beckett G535 submersible pump for a pond I planned on but never got around to making. At about a 5ft head of it is supposed to deliver approx 300+GPH which is probably more than I need but I can, and will if necessary, divert some of the output back into the tank it will be living in. Too, the instructions state a restriction can be placed in the feed side of the pump. I suspect I will have to adr a ball valve somewhere in the feed pipe to to adjust the flow back into the tank. (The tank the pump will be in will be on the floor rather than in the terrarium).

Robert

"external water pumps"

https://www.google.ca/#q=windshield+washer+pump

You sound like you're describing a system with a sump. Is this correct?