• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Hanging plant wall

ScareCrow

Member
Joined
28 Jan 2019
Messages
628
Location
South west
Hi All,

I'm thinking of creating a hanging wall to hold plants and would like to get your thoughts before I create a puddle on my floor.
The idea is to take water from the tank pump it up to the top of a box that will channel all water back into the tank. Infront of the box will be a suspended planter that will rest against the box and receive water as it flows back into the aquarium below. I'm planning on using the 3x3 version of the planter below. These are made of felt and are cheaper than making something similar.
IMG_20210816_092831.jpg

I've read a similar post about this and that there might be salt build up, so I intend to flush it through during a water change or possibly use the spare channels on my auto doser. Anyway please see my 'technical' drawing below, showing front and side view.
Thanks in advance for your input.
Untitled.jpg
 
Hi All,

I'm thinking of creating a hanging wall to hold plants and would like to get your thoughts before I create a puddle on my floor.
The idea is to take water from the tank pump it up to the top of a box that will channel all water back into the tank. Infront of the box will be a suspended planter that will rest against the box and receive water as it flows back into the aquarium below. I'm planning on using the 3x3 version of the planter below. These are made of felt and are cheaper than making something similar.
View attachment 173214
I've read a similar post about this and that there might be salt build up, so I intend to flush it through during a water change or possibly use the spare channels on my auto doser. Anyway please see my 'technical' drawing below, showing front and side view.
Thanks in advance for your input.
View attachment 173213
Are you thinking of doing aquatic plants or terrestrial?
 
Sorry should have mentioned that bit, all terrestrial.
Essentially I want to take the riparium section of my existing tank and expand it vertically.
View attachment 173217
I think it's definitely doable. I would be tempted to use some aquasoil or something because the water run off will be full of nutrients if you use regular soil and that will be a nightmare going into your aquarium.
 
I think it's definitely doable. I would be tempted to use some aquasoil or something because the water run off will be full of nutrients if you use regular soil and that will be a nightmare going into your aquarium.
Sorry another detail I left out! I wasn't planning on adding soil to the pockets. Possibly filter sponge to help secure the roots but I was imagining pretty much a hydroponic setup, with all nutrients coming from the tank.
 
Great experiment, as already mentioned, evaporation will be high but also the terrestrial plants will be consuming a lot of water.
You may get damp issues above the display, it might pay to blow a small fan across the plants.
I am not sure about flow rates?
Maybe sphagnum moss or cat litter would work as a medium in the holders.
I hope you give it a try…..
 
Sorry another detail I left out! I wasn't planning on adding soil to the pockets. Possibly filter sponge to help secure the roots but I was imagining pretty much a hydroponic setup, with all nutrients coming from the tank.
Oh ok interesting! Would like to see how it goes, it's cool project.
 
Check this out.

 
Check this out.

That is amazing, thanks for sharing the link. On a much larger scale than I had in mind but proves that it's possible.
 
In the amazon building in seattle there is a 17ft tank with living wall behind it. They treat them as two different instillations and it might be easier to do the same as your going for terrestrial plants. It could make things simpler and mean you have less moisture worries.
 
Thanks for your reply @mort. I have seen a video of that and it looks amazing.
When you say "less moisture worries" this is my main concern since foxfish pointed it out, as it was something I'd over looked. How would evaporation be reduced using a separate system? Or do you mean there would be less likelihood of leaks?
 
I think it's easier to keep excess moisture levels down with a separate system because you can basically keep the substrate dryer. Terrestrial plants don't need constantly wet roots and keeping them moist is reasonably easy without a drip system that may cause excess evaporation. I think with less water movement you have less possibility for excess moisture to be lost to the surroundings.
 
I think it's easier to keep excess moisture levels down with a separate system because you can basically keep the substrate dryer. Terrestrial plants don't need constantly wet roots and keeping them moist is reasonably easy without a drip system that may cause excess evaporation. I think with less water movement you have less possibility for excess moisture to be lost to the surroundings.
Makes sense.
I was planning on pumping water over the plant roots for a minute or two and then stop. Then repeat the process every day to begin with and see how things looked. I saw the technique years ago when looking at hydroponic systems. I don't remember the name of that type of system but it seemed to work quite well .
 


Maybe this video would be useful? I've had it saved on youtube forever because I want to try a few variations like this one day! Personally I would connect it to the aquarium so there was always a place for the water to colelct (otherwise need a trough or something), but with a separate filter/pump that turns on several times a day for short periods, so the wall isn't too wet. I'm sure there is a journal or two of someone doing this on UKAPS, I will see if I can find them.
 
Thanks @shangman I have seen that video and as you say I think using aquarium as the reservoir is the best idea and has a few benefits. Also agree with using a pump to irrigate the hanging wall a few times a day or as needed, rather than having it as the main pump which would also be filtering the tank.
My main concern is the moisture/damp issue. I want to move and have renovated my house so don't really want to redecorate.
 
If you only run the dedicated pump a couple of times a day and use a free draining media than there will be very little humidity.
I don’t know how the bacterial element will work if the water is not permanently flowing (dripping) but anyway these living walls really depend of a high humidity environment to flourish … that is how it is designed to work!

So if you wish to change things around a bit you may have to change the plants or carefully select ones that might be more suited to a lower humidity.
 
Thanks @shangman I have seen that video and as you say I think using aquarium as the reservoir is the best idea and has a few benefits. Also agree with using a pump to irrigate the hanging wall a few times a day or as needed, rather than having it as the main pump which would also be filtering the tank.
My main concern is the moisture/damp issue. I want to move and have renovated my house so don't really want to redecorate.
Aha, found that link I was looking for!

I wouldn't worry too much about damp, as long as you did it correctly the water should stay in it's wall-box. I personally wouldn't attach it flat to the wall, rather to have a cm - inch gap just in case though.
 
Last edited:
Something you definitively need to consider is the water-retaining property of the growing media you are going to use. Since such a wall with pots has quite a media volume that needs to be saturated with water, this requires a certain amount of water volume. There will be certain water saturation and retention followed by a drain. Pumping the water in will obviously empty the tank, the media slowly saturates and then starts to drain back into the tank. Then you need to top off the tank again to its desired water level. Thus there will be an amount of water in the tank and in the wall.

Then calculate the needed volume the wall retains and the volume it drains again when the pump stops and make sure that the tank will not flood with water coming from the drainage. Some growing media retain more water than others and also drain slower and longer.

For example, fill a sponge with water, stop the water flow into the sponge then gravity takes over and see how long it takes before the sponge stops releasing water. Then multiply this x 49 sponges as the number of pots the wall in the picture holds.

Also if you would do the suggested watering in intervals with a timer. You still drain the tank to fill the pots that slowly runs back again. In this cycle, you will have a constantly changing water level in the tank.

Could be a very natural looking feature draining flooding again with water raining back. But you would need quite a large tank for a large planted wall to make this change in water level less drastic. Thus for small volume setups, I don't think this would be very practical.

Another issue could be when the water is constantly fertilized you will get quite some salts (crystals) to build up in the planted media... At some point, it gets too much and will burn the plants. Thus for an aesthetical showpiece, it won't be a very long term success if the media isn't flushed and cleaned from salts buildup regularly. Then you would need to flush it now and then with non fertilized water, and this actually will flush out rather mineral richer water again draining to the tank. Thus quite some parameter differences and EC/PH swings in water contents. No idea how feasible this will be if sensitive livestock is in play?

In aquaponic setups that are used for growing herbs and other edibles, they will be harvested at one point and start fresh with new materials. They don't have to think about it if old growing media isn't reused.

I guess considering maintenance issues a much better approach would be to separate it. Build a sump behind the aquarium with a planted wall. :)
Then also the water level issues will reside in the sump and not in the aquarium.

Something like this.
Untitled.jpg
 
Last edited:
Aha, found that link I was looking for!

Personally I wouldn't worry too much about damp, as long as you did it correctly the water should stay in it's wall-box. I personally wouldn't attach it flat to the wall, rather to have a cm - inch gap just in case though.

That's the tank I was trying to remember the other day. I remember it being nice but not quite that impressive.

I don't think the moisture issues we are thinking about, at least not in my case, are related to water splash but more the moving water and transpiration causing humidity in the air. Perhaps it's not much different to an open top tank with lots of surface agitation but a plant wall has a very large surface area, so can potentially move a lot of water.
 
Back
Top