Planted Bowls!

[Athaocity]

one of my black mystery snails have died. left it's shell in the bowl. have lots of baby snails now and more eggs that I sucked out with a eye dropper.

I have like a few swimming things in the bow too. I dont know what they are, really tiny(sand grain size) they are light brown, round, and may have little legs it appears. could it be daphnia? I dont know the names. some sort of shrimp? but anyhow, yay? I have swimming critters at least.

 

[Fresh2o]

one of my black mystery snails have died. left it's shell in the bowl. have lots of baby snails now and more eggs that I sucked out with a eye dropper.

I have like a few swimming things in the bow too. I dont know what they are, really tiny(sand grain size) they are light brown, round, and may have little legs it appears. could it be daphnia? I dont know the names. some sort of shrimp? but anyhow, yay? I have swimming critters at least.

My vote is seed shrimp. I think they are aka ostracods. IMO daphnia "hop" in the water. Seed shrimp scurry about. I have them in a vase with moss and also in a planted tank with lots of moss. The fish eat them if the swim into the open areas.

 

[Athaocity]

My vote is seed shrimp. I think they are aka ostracods. IMO daphnia "hop" in the water. Seed shrimp scurry about. I have them in a vase with moss and also in a planted tank with lots of moss. The fish eat them if the swim into the open areas.

oh yeah. I just looked them up and I now believe they are seed shrimp. awesommee! I dont know how I got them though.

 

[aquarium_Guru]

High grade cherry shrimp and just got amano shrimp

 

[aquarium_Guru]

Made a planted bowl for my sister what you think?

 

[Autumnsky]

Made a planted bowl for my sister what you think?
View attachment 170865

Pretty shrimp!!!

I think it will be hard to keep clean between the stones though.



An a different note, I have my pack of dwarf hair grass which has stayed beautiful green all these days and grown about double the size, its doing so good I am afraid to open it LOL.
This is the before pic/don't have the current one.

I have the soil, miracle grow organic and was wondering what I should do with the plants, should I just plant them in the plastic tub and get the roots really going then try to put them into the tank?

Last time I planted one just the same (didn't seperate it just left it in the 1"x 4" bar shape) in my 6.6G Edge, a tiny baby Albino BN Pleco, thought it was her personal playground and up rooted the center of it every day and hid under it and snacked on trapped food particles, lol.

The two edges would stay anchored and it would float in the center and looked like a bridge over a creek with the Pleco acting as the troll from the 3 Billy Goats Gruff Story, BN was just in there until she got big enough to go into the other tank btw.

Anyway should I sift the soil and use the sifted part or the chunky part? Soak the soil? any helpful hints?

 

[NativeTank7]

Pretty shrimp!!!

I think it will be hard to keep clean between the stones though.

An a different note, I have my pack of dwarf hair grass which has stayed beautiful green all these days and grown about double the size, its doing so good I am afraid to open it LOL.
This is the before pic/don't have the current one.

I have the soil, miracle grow organic and was wondering what I should do with the plants, should I just plant them in the plastic tub and get the roots really going then try to put them into the tank?

Last time I planted one just the same (didn't seperate it just left it in the 1"x 4" bar shape) in my 6.6G Edge, a tiny baby Albino BN Pleco, thought it was her personal playground and up rooted the center of it every day and hid under it and snacked on trapped food particles, lol.

The two edges would stay anchored and it would float in the center and looked like a bridge over a creek with the Pleco acting as the troll from the 3 Billy Goats Gruff Story, BN was just in there until she got big enough to go into the other tank btw.

Anyway should I sift the soil and use the sifted part or the chunky part? Soak the soil? any helpful hints?

Use the sifted soil not the chunks. Chunks in the soil can help promote algae. Some people prefer to soak the soil but its what you want. I soaked mine for well over 2 months which was overkill IMO. Biggest tip is make sure you have a good cap over the dirt

 

[aquarium_Guru]

Update on tank got rid of the bowl

 

[Autumnsky]

Update on tank got rid of the bowl
View attachment 172547

What was/were the primary reason(s)?

 

[misterpenguin4]

Little update: I tried to take out all the duckweed because I was scooping out 2 handfuls every couple of days. The mystery plant is flowering and other stems are growing out of it! Pretty cool.

 

[jmay33]

Little update: I tried to take out all the duckweed because I was scooping out 2 handfuls every couple of days. The mystery plant is flowering and other stems are growing out of it! Pretty cool.

That's gorgeous! I have given up on my bowl.

 

[Number1cookie]

Ok, do you all get a film on top of the water? I guess from lack of water movement??

 

[Fresh2o]

Ok, do you all get a film on top of the water? I guess from lack of water movement??

Try placing a paper towel on the surface. You want the paper towel to touch the surface and then quickly remove it.

 

[MyanRan]

Yeah that happens because of no surface movement. Paper towel should do the job.

 

[Magicmarymac]

Little update: I tried to take out all the duckweed because I was scooping out 2 handfuls every couple of days. The mystery plant is flowering and other stems are growing out of it! Pretty cool.

Yours looks great. Mine looks like a swamp--my hubby asked if I was growing Mosquitos.

 

[misterpenguin4]

Thanks everyone, that really means alot! I think the water changes every 3 days keep it looking clear. Does anyone use any kind of ferts? I dose 2 drops of flourish twice a week and 3 drops of excel every other day.

 

[Autumnsky]

Thanks everyone, that really means alot! I think the water changes every 3 days keep it looking clear. Does anyone use any kind of ferts? I dose 2 drops of flourish twice a week and 3 drops of excel every other day.

Normally I use Flourish, and have used Aqueon Liquid ferts also. About every 5 -7 days. I have been off of a fert schedule for a couple months, now.

Bought some special kind of supplement and it turned out to be a waste of money more or less. So back to the Flourish for the bowl. I guess. Haven't tried Excel yet.

One of my dark red Cherry shrimp died in my planted bowl a couple days back. I am going to do pwc on the small tanks and bowls tomorrow.

I was kinda delusional that my two White Cloud Mountain Minnows would love the bowl so much they would spawn. Don't think that happened, so I will probably just put them back in with the Platy fry. I think the fry are big enough now not to be eaten by the WCMM.

Gonna try a couple of more shrimp in another month or so and just leave a few snails in there for now. Just don't have the time to monitor it. The biofilm should be more developed by then. Normally I would have left it to mellow some anyway before adding the shrimp, and the DW was from an established tank and had been in there for a few months. So it wasn't all brand new.

Think I should have done a pwc sooner, but was hoping for eggs/babies.

 

[Mackwell]

I made a planted lightbulb about 6 months ago and it's still looking the same as it did with very minimal work. it's just some aqua soil, one dwarf subulata and one of those pesky ramshorn type snails that like to hitch a ride on new plants and infest tanks. the snail hasn't grown much and the plant has grown but not outrageously. I just keep it by the window and let the sun do the work. I put a tiny chunk of cucumber in there a couple months ago but other than that I've just made a couple of water changes with a small turkey baster. fun little self-contained project!

 

[Fresh2o]

Yours looks great. Mine looks like a swamp--my hubby asked if I was growing Mosquitos.

Funny he should say that...in February I saw a mosquito larva in my flame moss bowl. I fed it to a baby blue danio. Then I saw another one a few weeks later. I put clear plastic wrap on the bowl when it got to pupae stage; not sure it if got out or died in there.

 

[Pearly]

Little update: I tried to take out all the duckweed because I was scooping out 2 handfuls every couple of days. The mystery plant is flowering and other stems are growing out of it! Pretty cool.

Hmmm definitely not the butterfly weed! Pretty though!!!