Caring for house plants in a HOB Filter

[Michael W]

I recently got my hands on two HOB Filters for my shrimp tanks and I'm thinking about buying and placing peace lilies in with the filter media for extra filtration and for appearance. After some research in how to care for these plants I found that some people will treat these plants with pesticides and obviously this is out of the question for my shrimp's and other inhabitants in the tanks-my lovely "pest" snails. So my question is what are the chances of bugs developing in the setup since I wont be using soil etc in the HOB (keeping in mind that one of the two tank is placed in my bedroom)? I have plants in the house without bugs etc these include types of orchids and aloe vera without any signs of pests if that helps in eliminating the possibility of contamination from other plants.

I am also open to other suggestions for suitable plants to use in a HOB.

Thanks,
Michael.

 

[Henry]

The only pests peace lilies tend to suffer with is black fly, since they both like moist soil. Spider mites etc tend not to bother these plants. Just dunk them in and watch them grow 🙂

 

[BigTom]

Never noticed any infestations on the pace lillies and other plants growing out of my tank. Should be fine, and easily enough to remove if they do develop anything.

As for other plants; plenty of ferns should be suitable. Paulo (LondonDragon) has a very nice fern hob setup in his shrimp nanos, if you can find the thread. Pothos makes a good trailing plant and is very easy to keep.

 

[Michael W]

Thanks for the replies Henry and Tom. I have one more question regarding positioning the peace lily. Do i just want the roots in the filter or can say around 1/4 of the plant be in it. I'm asking because the plant is only about 30cm or so and I have no way to keep just the roots in the filter.

UPDATE: I managed to raise the plant so that the bottom is about 1 1/2cm in the water by using some ceramic filter media hopefully this will work once the new roots grow in to adapt a new environment.

Michael.

 

[BigTom]

That sounds fine. Prepare for some serious growth though!

 

[Henry]

The plant won't mind how deep the water is, as long as the leaves and most of the stem are above the water. I've had them grow in a shallow tank before, and the leaves don't have much trouble starting life underwater, as long as they reach the surface after a couple of inches.

 

[Michael W]

Thanks for the assurance guys.