DIY Fish Tank Filter Cartridges

AKA: Biodegradable Filter Cartridges or Compostable Filters for Freshwater Fish Tanks

I've been making my own fish tank filter cartridges for over a year now with great results. I have made them with polyester batting, and they look exactly like what I could buy in the store. But I prefer to make them with natural materials so that I don't have to throw them away when I'm done.

The cartridges are filled with all sorts of bacteria goodness and fish waste that make a PERFECT food for plants, the compost bin, and your vermicompost bin. The red wiggler worms love burlap as a bedding material so by first using it as a filter cartridge, you are turning it into super yummy food and bedding: basically the best thing ever.

My worms eat up the used filter cartridges so fast! The burlap is partially decomposed from the beneficial bacteria in the fish tank and the water that the worms are able to utilize the filter cartridge much faster than any veggie scraps.

Even if you don't have a vermicompost bin, you could still toss them into a regular compost bin or just burry them right in your garden next to a heavy feeding plant like tomato, cucumber, squash or corn. You could even burry them in a pot for a houseplant to use as slow release fertilizer!

DIY Fish Tank Filter Cartridges: A Tutorial

Gather your supplies:

• Burlap (can be an old coffee bag like I used or store bought burlap like the kind found at craft or hardware stores)
• Cotton thread (any kind or color cotton thread, twine or jute if sewing by hand. You could even pull a long thread of the burlap fabric free and use that as your thread.)
• Scissors
• Activated Carbon
• Sewing needle or sewing machine

1. First, determine how big your filter cartridge needs to be. I make make mine a little big and stuff it into the filter to give extra surface area to the beneficial bacteria. I have a Whisper filter made for 5-10 gallon tanks that has a store bought cartridge size of about 3"x5". I usually make my cartridges closer to 4"x8".

2.Cut your burlap into pieces that are double the width of your desired finished size. So, for my cartridges, I cut the burlap into 8"x8" squares.

3. Lay two squares on top of eachother, then fold the sandwich in half. Pin along two of the edges. This is where you will sew.

4. Back stitch, or knot the thread at the start, sew across one side, turn the corner and continue to sew the end of the second side. Back stitch or knot your thread.

5. Use a measuring spoon to scoop about 1 to 2 tablespoons of activated carbon into the middle of the bag. You should use more carbon if you have a larger tank.

6. Shake the carbon towards the bottom of the bag then sew the opening closed. I don't worry about frayed edges along the outside of the cartridge. As long as there are no pieces falling off and into the fish tank, the frayed edges are not problematic.

 

All done! I like to sew my cartridges assembly line style by cutting multiple pieces of burlap and making a half dozen or more at once. Look at all the fun colors! And these are so much cheaper to make than buying the premade kind. Rinse the filter well in water before placing it into the tank, just as you would a regular filter.

Please note: store bought cartridges often have a hard piece of plastic sandwiched between the layers. I do not worry about including it in my design though it could be easily done by skipping step 6 and using the plastic piece and clip to seal the top of the finished cartridge.

Also, I have $5 worth of goldfish and beta in my tank. I have used this design with live plants in the tank also with the same good results. While I have never had a problem in my tank, if you have a high end tank with sensitive fish, I recommend testing the water quality regularly to ensure safety for your fish.

You may also notice that it is necessary to change the filter one week or so sooner than you would a regular synthetic filter. This is because the burlap will eventually break down unlike polyester filters. This is a good thing and means that the filter is ready to become food for plants or worms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Floridaprince Peach Tree

Isn't this tree just lovely!

I planted this Floridaprince Peach Tree dormant 10 months ago and it has thrived. It has grown at least two feet, branched out in every direction and is shaping in to a respectable tree. My husband bought it as a Christmas present for me from Rockledge Gardens (they are THE BEST).

All of the lighter brown wood is the new growth since planting.

And I have even seen two flowers! Maybe I'll get a couple peaches this summer.

I mulch it with cypress mulch and grass clippings and every two months with a hefty dose of vermicompost tea and vermicompost. When I change the water in my goldfish tank every month or so, the tree gets several gallons of the dirty water loaded with fish waste solids.

I finally got around to redoing the bricks around the tree this week. I have been meaning to do it for months so that I could use the original bricks to round out my hedge around the patio. I only had enough of the curved bricks to do one tree circle and they needed to go around the patio.

I took the opportunity to replace them with a double layer of bricks (the first row is below the grass line) to help keep our very aggressive grass in check. I also expanded the circle by about a foot total in diameter to make sure peach didn't receive any accidental hits from the weed whacker or lawnmower. I back-filled the extra space with rotting grass clippings to give the tree a nice nitrogen boost and encourage growth in the earthworm population I found while digging.

I was so thankful for my lovely limitation of keeping the peach tree solo when I was doing the back breaking work of digging out just a couple square feet of sod to put in the new bricks. If I had expanded the area to include a guild, I would have had yards of sod to remove, and, in my pregnant state, that would have been a miserable task. Yay for lovely limitations!

Here are the plants waiting to go into the new garden bed. I have two banana trees, two dwarf everbearing black mulberry bushes, dozens of sweet potato slips, and a handful of herbs in the tiny pots sitting on the chair. Sadly, my horsemint didn't seem to survive the transplant to a pot as you can see. I am, however, going to make a very strong "tea" with all the crunchy leaves and stems that will hopefully repel nematodes. Horsemint has the highest levels of thymol of any plant in the mint family and is used medicinally as a vermifuge. So here's hoping that works.

And check it out! I have sprouting seeds!

There are cucumbers, several varieties of sunflower and little rattlesnake pole beans all poking their seed leaves above ground. We've had rain for the last several days and today is the first real sunshine these seedlings have seen.

I used a couple rows of cotton string thumb tacked into the sides of the box to help mark the square feet of the bed. I also went along temporarily marked the width of the square feet with my acrylic quilting ruler. I just eyeballed the spacing and used a long edge of the ruler to press into the dirt to make the lines. It was quick and easy to do and quite effective. If I had transplants I wouldn't have worried about marking anything, but with the seeds I tend to forget where I have already planted. Once all my seedling are up, I'll remove the string to clean up the appearance of the boxes.

 

Garden Plan E

Yep. Plan E. Always the winner.

This much erased and redrawn convoluted sketch is my master garden plan. I've decided to keep my new bed in an L shape but make the growing side 4ft wide instead of 2ft like I had originally planned way back when. By making that little change I'll double my growing space without having to buy extra wood or for any extra building work. I will however have to think through my planting design to make harvest simple. I'm small, so reaching more than 2.5ft into the garden is a bit challenging. But if I plant taller things in the back 12sqft (like trellised squash or corn), I will easily be able to reach over/between my picket fence to harvest. I could also plant root crops like carrots that are planted then left alone until harvest time. I'll keep my cut and come again veggies like lettuce towards the front for easy repeat harvest.

I'm excited to have the mulberries on the north side of the garden box where I'll be able to give them a couple more feet in the box and room to sprawl over the sides without crowding my veggies. The bananas will also be easy to care for there and will probably not shade out the veggies much. They actually may provide a bit of late afternoon shade to the a/c unit which would help it run more efficiently. Win win.

I am also going to use large pots for planting herbs and blueberry bushes which, surprisingly, do grow and produce really well here. Florida provides the first/earliest blueberry crop to the nation, in fact. There is even a small native blueberry growing wild locally which proves to me that the right variety will absolutely thrive. I'm going to be looking for the top three recommended varieties from the UF extension offices master list. They are: Emerald, Jewel and Flicker. According to my research, the plants produce best when cross pollinated.

I have a couple more ideas to maximize my growing space that will hopefully work out too. I'm really excited for this plan and all the potential that comes with it. I also like the idea of having some permanent trees and bushes in my garden to add year round beauty and aesthetic definition to the space.