hob planter concept; gutter filter?

As my avatar shows I grow Hedra Ivy out of my HOB's. You just wash the soil off the roots with warm water and hang the stocks on finisher nails against the wall using dental floss. Once established the roots will grow into the filter cartridge sponge and you will never have to replace it because it will never get clogged as the plants remove the debris and nitrates from the water. because Hedra Ivy is an amazon low light plant you need only indirect window sunlight or a 20W florescent aquarium fixture turned on its side inches from the plant. The plant will flourish and grow fast but the only problem is house plant disease namely microscopic spider mites and leaf mites for which you cannot use any insecticide and will kill an otherwise flourishing plant in a week. The only non-toxic insecticide that works that wont hurt your fish is home made garlic juice blended then strained through a coffee filter and then diluted in RO water but strong enough to smell throughout the house when you spray the plant and you must kept it refrigerated for freshness. But you have to use it almost every 3 days religiously to keep the mites from wanting to suck the plant dry. All it dose is make the plant taste terrible to the mites by putting a garlic film on the plant. If it spills in the aquarium it will not hurt the fish one bit, but if you slack off and forget to spray the plant the mites will attack with a vengeance and kill a healthy plant in a few days.
 
I've seen setups like this as well and may have bookmarked a couple. If I'm not mistaken, I believe one or two folks have done this over at ]V[onsterFishKeepers. What I have seen is having a planter run the length of the tank. The pump carries the water up into the middle of the planter where of course the water is dispersed evenly. No soil was used to grow the plants. Instead they used batting as the plant bed. The plants filter out what they want and the rest flows out of the planter in a trickle down back into the tank. The other one I saw the end process was used to create a rain effect back into the tank.
 
Well the main point I was making is that in comparison to aquarium hydroponics all cultivated land plant growing whether it be farm, hydroponics, or home ornamental, all of them have one very huge advantage that makes them successful and that is insecticides, herbicides, and even organic bug control using lady bugs to control pest. And while some might say they never use chemicals the fact is its already in the potting soil or top soil you buy. All of this cannot be used in aquarium hydroponics and as a result it makes it substantially more difficult to control pest and diseases that you cant even see. So aquarium hydroponics has a completely different set of problems not encounter in other plant growing applications, that is why they call the stuff Miracle Grow.
 
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i do like the look of the outdoor veggie filter. i never thought to associate my idea with ponds but i'm sure i can steal some of those methods. the goldfish drum system is interesting, but seems more of a system for fertilizing plants rather then filtering fish waste.

@ CWO4GUNNER: i will keep that garlic pesticide method in mind. it's good to hear from someone with experience in this. i'm thinking i will probably be getting plants for the filter planter by cultivating organic seeds indoors in the cleanest soil i can find far from my indoor/outdoor garden to avoid any chance of pesticide or other chemical transfer, as well as mites or other insects. if by chance i do wind up with any resilient pests, i can always unleash an army of hatchling mantids on the plants. :P any which fall in would make a tasty meal for the fish.

@ James0816: were the planters you've seen hung inside or outside of the tank? i am uncertain what would work best or what would look best. i am thinking of two rather different ideas, one involving a gutter hung in the tank with a pump which draws water into the center of the gutter, allowing it to flow toward either end, through the plants roots and then trickle back into the tank on either end through small holes. i would think this method would require a much weaker pump system overall. the other idea was a sump-like hob design, with draws water into the gutter, which is either provided with a stronger pump or angled downward before being returned back into the tank when it reaches the end.

i am still uncertain which plants to grow though i'm assuming any tropical plant which prefers consistently moist soil would do rather well. unfortunately, trying to find specifically amazonian plant life which maintains a reasonable size is proving difficult, but i want to keep to the theme. i have been looking specifically into plants which provide particularly good filtration and whose leaves would provide tannin to the tank water, helping maintain the acidity and color.
 
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