Planted Bowls!

[Athaocity]

Those are very nice.

And it is a trip looking for small pieces of wood. I spent hours and hours on eBay before I found a piece I liked, and then one of my friends came over and said...

I coulda gotten you a bunch of pieces like that at the lake...

lol I actually picked up one months ago. I just added it to my bowl too! ill get a pic later

 

[Jantaris]

This is great! It's funny because we just started our aquariums a while ago but initially thought we'd use one for planted succulents and river rocks. Our excitement for the fish surpassed that desire. We've been thinking of doing a planted succulent bowl. I'll be excited to see what you all come up with...

 

[Sharpchick]

This is great! It's funny because we just started our aquariums a while ago but initially thought we'd use one for planted succulents and river rocks. Our excitement for the fish surpassed that desire. We've been thinking of doing a planted succulent bowl. I'll be excited to see what you all come up with...

How wild is that?!?

I was at Garden Ridge the other day - picked up a tall glass vase.

Looked it over.

Told myself I had lost what was left of my mind - what on earth would I do with another planted bowl?

Then, as I was putting it in the basket, I told myself how cool succulents would look in it.

And now, it's done...(a little one in front isn't doing so well, but I think there's life in it yet...)

 

[Autumnsky]

Love the pickle jar and the big floater! Scottyhorse

Here is mine! Took maybe 5 min. Dropped in a awesome driftwood which was hidden under the biggest gob of plants ever in my 16G, forgot it was even there. The minute I pulled it out I knew this was the focal piece!

Added a pair of White Cloud Mountain Minnows. And a ton of trumpet snails, the big ones and a couple Ramshorns, a few Cherry shrimp and a Sword and a clump of Java Moss.

Then took what was once a 5-6" Giant Moss Ball I squashed, though not intentionally. Has always hoped it would turn back into a ball but no such magic happened. Laid it across the top and dropped in the handful of sand and .......at least it is started.

A hand full of Salvinia Minima with it's friend Duckweed and some other sort of fuzzy looking tiny floater. And two tiny marble size nano moss balls!

Actually I like it, pretty proud of it for 5 minutes!!! LOL

Instead of speed dating, I was speed "bowl"-ing. Hahahahaha

I need to wash some more Garnet sand and get it all in there right, when I have more time! That was literally the handfull I put on the paper towel to get the pic to show what it looks like.

And the bowl has plants but isn't actually planted. Plants are just dropped in just sitting there.

Found a little glass dish I plan to use to add & try to plant some DHG in the dirted dish. Don't have the dirt yet either. Maybe next week.

Sorry didn't realize it was blurry.

The lamp has the new 6500K CFL bulb!!!

The fish are just in there for a little bit and I will move them back to the 16G tank pretty soon. They are on a micro vacation. lol I better get some sleep.....

 

[Magicmarymac]

Feels weird going from looking for a large piece of DW to now looking for tiny ones lol. I like the pot!

Here is where the kids and I are with ours:

Mine:

Oldest son (15 yr):

Youngest son (9 yr):

Still want to get us a nerite snail and a shrimp or two. We seem to all agree we want the red shrimp lol

Beautiful!

 

[redsea]

Love the pickle jar and the big floater! Scottyhorse

Here is mine! Took maybe 5 min. Dropped in a awesome driftwood which was hidden under the biggest gob of plants ever in my 16G, forgot it was even there. The minute I pulled it out I knew this was the focal piece!

Added a pair of White Cloud Mountain Minnows. And a ton of trumpet snails, the big ones and a couple Ramshorns, a few Cherry shrimp and a Sword and a clump of Java Moss.

Then took what was once a 5-6" Giant Moss Ball I squashed, though not intentionally. Has always hoped it would turn back into a ball but no such magic happened. Laid it across the top and dropped in the handful of sand and .......at least it is started.

A hand full of Salvinia Minima with it's friend Duckweed and some other sort of fuzzy looking tiny floater. And two tiny marble size nano moss balls!

Actually I like it, pretty proud of it for 5 minutes!!! LOL

Instead of speed dating, I was speed "bowl"-ing. Hahahahaha

I need to wash some more Garnet sand and get it all in there right, when I have more time! That was literally the handfull I put on the paper towel to get the pic to show what it looks like.

And the bowl has plants but isn't actually planted. Plants are just dropped in just sitting there.

Found a little glass dish I plan to use to add & try to plant some DHG in the dirted dish. Don't have the dirt yet either. Maybe next week.

Sorry didn't realize it was blurry.

The lamp has the new 6500K CFL bulb!!!

The fish are just in there for a little bit and I will move them back to the 16G tank pretty soon. They are on a micro vacation. lol I better get some sleep.....

Very nice Autumn!

 

[Jantaris]

How wild is that?!?

I was at Garden Ridge the other day - picked up a tall glass vase.

Looked it over.

Told myself I had lost what was left of my mind - what on earth would I do with another planted bowl?

Then, as I was putting it in the basket, I told myself how cool succulents would look in it.

And now, it's done...(a little one in front isn't doing so well, but I think there's life in it yet...)

That is so cool!
We are loving this idea of having so many beautiful tanks and planted bowls around. Such a lovely, beautiful hobby. And doing it as a family is so great. We're all really enthusiastic!

Slightly off topic but: We live in Ottawa right by the Rideau River so yesterday we took a bike ride down to one of the beaches. They had some lovely pieces of drift wood but we found something really cool! Some slate (I believe) with a fossilized fish on it! Clearly that came home with us.

Yes, we'd still like to do our succulents with the rocks but now I'm inspired to go even further. Thanks all, for the inspiration!!! Have a great day!

 

[Iris135]

I love all of these bowls, so pretty and creative! I will start a planted bowl rather soon. It will be a gift for my best friend. Lotuses have a sentimental meaning to her, so I'm going to plant just one or two of them. My LFS usually has the pretty pink ones in stock.

I was just going to use leftover eco-complete from my planted tank, but I noticed that many on this thread are using capped soil. Is there an advantage to using that substate?

Also, does anyone know if I can grow lotus from cuttings (just in case the lfs is out of stock). My lotus grows like a weed and it has begun to produce green leaves as well as the reddish pink ones.

 

[fishfan88]

That is so cool!
We are loving this idea of having so many beautiful tanks and planted bowls around. Such a lovely, beautiful hobby. And doing it as a family is so great. We're all really enthusiastic!

Slightly off topic but: We live in Ottawa right by the Rideau River so yesterday we took a bike ride down to one of the beaches. They had some lovely pieces of drift wood but we found something really cool! Some slate (I believe) with a fossilized fish on it! Clearly that came home with us.

Yes, we'd still like to do our succulents with the rocks but now I'm inspired to go even further. Thanks all, for the inspiration!!! Have a great day!

Wow! Lucky find eh?

 

[Jantaris]

Wow! Lucky find eh?

It WAS a lucky find! Having said that, the area is known for being pretty abundant for such things. We've just never found them. I have a background in anthropology so I'm always looking. So, yeah, yesterday we got lucky...

 

[fishfan88]

It WAS a lucky find! Having said that, the area is known for being pretty abundant for such things. We've just never found them. I have a background in anthropology so I'm always looking. So, yeah, yesterday we got lucky...

Cool! There's supposed to be lots of stuff like that on the trail near my house, but I haven't seen any yet. My aunt said she found one there once though

 

[Athaocity]

tadah! My driftwood.

 

[Magicmarymac]

That is so cool!
We are loving this idea of having so many beautiful tanks and planted bowls around. Such a lovely, beautiful hobby. And doing it as a family is so great. We're all really enthusiastic!

Slightly off topic but: We live in Ottawa right by the Rideau River so yesterday we took a bike ride down to one of the beaches. They had some lovely pieces of drift wood but we found something really cool! Some slate (I believe) with a fossilized fish on it! Clearly that came home with us.

Yes, we'd still like to do our succulents with the rocks but now I'm inspired to go even further. Thanks all, for the inspiration!!! Have a great day!

I would love to see a photo of your slate.




My overgrown succulent bowl. Needs a re-scape!

 

[misterpenguin4]

Before

 

[Sharpchick]

I love all of these bowls, so pretty and creative! I will start a planted bowl rather soon. It will be a gift for my best friend. Lotuses have a sentimental meaning to her, so I'm going to plant just one or two of them. My LFS usually has the pretty pink ones in stock.

I was just going to use leftover eco-complete from my planted tank, but I noticed that many on this thread are using capped soil. Is there an advantage to using that substate?

Also, does anyone know if I can grow lotus from cuttings (just in case the lfs is out of stock). My lotus grows like a weed and it has begun to produce green leaves as well as the reddish pink ones.

For rooted plants - crypts, vals, swords, etc. - soil does make a difference. For stems and rhizomes, it doesn't. They take nutrients from the water column. Some people find that stems send out roots into the substrate and say that soil is good for them also. I see the most rapid and true growth on stems from liquid ferts like Flourish and Leaf Zone.

Can't answer your lotus question...

 

[Jantaris]

For the lotus question, my husband is actually from Bali and knows quite a bit about plants, particularly more "tropical" varieties. His sense is it won't work but I'd google it, as well, and see what you can find out.

Here's a photo of this fossil I spoke of that looks like it's probably a fish, particularly due to where we found it and the fact that this is very common here.
And then today we found a neat shell with crustaceans growing on it. We've very recently re-located and are loving being by the river. Not the ocean, I know, but to be a near a water way is wonderful.

Is there anyway to post multiple images to posts?

 

[Jantaris]

Huh. Didn't post. I'll have to go over the "how-to's" again...

 

[Bdonaldson]

How cool!!! We still have to get ours . Guess too small for pics then? Hehe. I want to find the red or the red and white stripped shrimp. What kind did you get?

Picked up more PFS today as we ran out lol.

I have never planted with dirt before, do you plug in the plants and then cover with sand or put the sand down the. Plug the plants into the sand and let their roots grow to the dirt?

Yes to small for pics right now. I am not sure how fast they grow so don't know when I will get pics of them. I bought some blue tiger and another one that I can't remember the name of right now.

 

[Fresh2o]

Not sure if any has mentioned how "Retro" these planted bowls are. I mean, at one time this was the only way to keep plants and fish.

 

[Sharpchick]

Not sure if any has mentioned how "Retro" these planted bowls are. I mean, at one time this was the only way to keep plants and fish.

So true.

But I daresay none of these will contain a goldfish.