Planted Bowls!

[venymae]

This is so much fun!

Woot. I (with the help of my son) made a planted bowl! It looks great and hopefully I will have pics soon. I used an old hexagon one gallon plastic tank, dirt, playsand cap, two smooth river rocks (one blue/grey, one pink) and two sword type plants. It looks so nice!!! I have it in a window with a desk lamp for occasions. I plan on either getting two RCS or two Ghost Shrimp as a surprise for my husband. He wanted a small office tank with some intverts and this is prefect! I can't believe how nice it turned out and was quick and fun to make. I'm so glad I found this thread!

 

[Autumnsky]

Woot. I (with the help of my son) made a planted bowl! It looks great and hopefully I will have pics soon. I used an old hexagon one gallon plastic tank, dirt, playsand cap, two smooth river rocks (one blue/grey, one pink) and two sword type plants. It looks so nice!!! I have it in a window with a desk lamp for occasions. I plan on either getting two RCS or two Ghost Shrimp as a surprise for my husband. He wanted a small office tank with some intverts and this is prefect! I can't believe how nice it turned out and was quick and fun to make. I'm so glad I found this thread!

Did you get any pics yet?

 

[Louise0328]

Here's my 2.5 gallon bowl. Heated, filtered, and home to a betta!

Sent from my XT1058 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[Autumnsky]

Here's my 2.5 gallon bowl. Heated, filtered, and home to a betta!

Sent from my XT1058 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

Looks great, Glad you posted the pic!!!

 

[Khuligirl93]

Made my first planted bowl today!


It's Dirted with organic miracle grow potting mix, capped with play sand. I planted 1 baby amazon sword (I know it will outgrow this bowl eventually), a baby crypt, 2 dwarf sag plants (they look more like Vals though because they were grown in my extremely low light tank), a small stem of pennywort, a cutting of water sprite, and a clump of frogbit. I added seachem flourish, API leaf zone, and API CO2 booster.
It's for my mother, and she is very opposed to anything aquatic that requires "cleaning". I'm praying the CO2 booster will prevent any algae. Any tips for keeping away algae in planted bowls that sit by windows?

 

[venymae]

Made my first planted bowl today!
View attachment 229912
View attachment 229913
It's Dirted with organic miracle grow potting mix, capped with play sand. I planted 1 baby amazon sword (I know it will outgrow this bowl eventually), a baby crypt, 2 dwarf sag plants (they look more like Vals though because they were grown in my extremely low light tank), a small stem of pennywort, a cutting of water sprite, and a clump of frogbit. I added seachem flourish, API leaf zone, and API CO2 booster.
It's for my mother, and she is very opposed to anything aquatic that requires "cleaning". I'm praying the CO2 booster will prevent any algae. Any tips for keeping away algae in planted bowls that sit by windows?

Ooooo! I love that little floating plant! Your bowl looks great. I have two snails in mine, some people keep shrimp (they eat algae).

Edit: you might want to keep it for a few weeks to make sure if it goes through a diatom bloom your mother does not give up on it (if I hear right diatoms come with new tanks) mine looked horrid for a few, but now it is peachy!

 

[venymae]

So, here is finally a picture of mine. The original plastic hexagon went through a massive diatom outbreak that took weeks to finally clear (which is why I didn't post pictures!) When it had finally cleared, I somehow pulled the blinds down and they landed on the tank, cracking it. Luckily I found this bowl next to the dumpster the next week and transferred everything to it. I love it! Occupants are two red ramshorn snails, two plants, two rocks, dirt with fine gravel cap. Yay!

Top View.

Forgive the crappy photos, it's the best I could do!

 

[Autumnsky]

Hey love the new planted bowls added on this thread.

I keep snails in mine and sometimes shrimp. Just snails atm.

We need to keep this thread alive because the little planted bowls are so fun and since they can be put together in a few minutes or over a few days of making it just right, it is a great project for so many people.

 

[D_Tristan22]

Your bowls look amazing
I was wondering what else could go into a planted bowl? I'm leaning to wanting to do one with a bowl I have sitting around.

 

[Khuligirl93]

I would put shrimp in mine since I have a nice colony of them, but I worry about them with the liquid carbon. I know it's not going to get dosed regularly enough to get them acclimated to it. Also to keep things simple I didn't tell my mother she needs to use water conditioner when replacing evaporated water.

 

[Autumnsky]

I would put shrimp in mine since I have a nice colony of them, but I worry about them with the liquid carbon. I know it's not going to get dosed regularly enough to get them acclimated to it. Also to keep things simple I didn't tell my mother she needs to use water conditioner when replacing evaporated water.

For the water evaporation replacement you can just treat a gallon jug of water and use it till it is empty and so on. That should keep it simple.

I used Flourish and Aqueon plant ferts with my shrimp, tanks and bowls. On a lazy schedule but pretty regularly for awhile. Haven't used them much at all in the last year.

Some substrate fert capsules in the larger tanks with shrimp. Not in the planted bowl though.

 

[venymae]

I don't use any ferts or carbon in my bowl. It's just dirt and water and snail waste. Very low key. My plants are (apparently) growing wonderful. It gets direct window light in the afternoon for an hour or two but other than that only indirect window brightness. It's been up since...let me check my fist post here....three months. Since December.

 

[Khuligirl93]

Glad to hear it! I hope mine grows without algae as successfully as both of yours
Maybe I'll do the gallon jug thing for her if she's ok with a milk carton of water sitting around

 

[Pete w]

We spend a lot of time outside on our deck in the summer. Live just outside Philadelphia. Is it possible to have a planted bowl outside on the table that is under a canopy.

 

[venymae]

You would risk mosquito larva, but I don't see why not. THe other thing to consider is wind, which can whip the water out of the bowl. Plenty of people do bucket ponds I don't see why a bowl would be much different....try it out and let us know how it goes!

 

[venymae]

Oh and if it gets too much light it will grow algae.

 

[Autumnsky]

Second the algae comment. Try and keep from direct sunlight. I keep my buckets of extra plants outside all summer, no problem.

I am getting ready to do a new planted container. Found a 2G that was like my old 3G which got a crack and it comes with a lid for 9.99

This is the old one but it is the same kind.

 

[venymae]

Cool! Can't wait to see the outcome

 

[Fishinfreak]

Super excited to see everyone's creations!!!

Before with blue leftover rocks,

Mine started out with, I think 1/2 gallon "Fish" bowl, with Ramshorn snails, then went to this bigger round bowl.

Found at a Habitat for Humanity ReStore thrift store for $1.00.

Last week I switched out the gravel for Garnet sand.

Which here is a link for a drawing for free Garnet sand RAOK.
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f23/free-raok-garnet-sand-ends-4-13-13-a-256170.html

This would be enough for a "bowl", vase or what have ya.

A couple months ago I put in some blue dwarf Cherry shrimp, ambient temp in the kitchen, where is keeps arount 69-70F being it's winter. Only air from plants. LOTS of plants. They are doing great. Add tiny-small amounts of food. every few days

Originally was a place for little bits and scraps of plants which were too small to plant. A few days ago I found a little piece of Hornwort from some which had melted on me, was around 18", and took out appx 15 stems of Guppy grass.

Added the plants on top so I could disguise it as a plant. And not count it as a fish tank. So I can't get ribbed by hubby about how many fish tanks I have! LOL

I have a new project. Just got a large 3 gallon container, kinda like an old fashioned candy jar that sits up right, not the slanted kind.

Can't add a pick as I am at the 100 max allowed for free in my albums! lol

Basically will be the same thing, but with Dark red Cherry shrimp. That way I can see them easier. Blue Cherrys blend in pretty well, especially before with the blue gravel, lol.

So I know this is going waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyy back in this thread, but i just jumped on. Autumnsky, just wondering what kind of lily/plant you have in that pic, as my 2g bowl (pics coming tomorrow!) is in need of some emergent growth. Will be adding more on my bowl later.

 

[Autumnsky]

So I know this is going waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyy back in this thread, but i just jumped on. Autumnsky, just wondering what kind of lily/plant you have in that pic, as my 2g bowl (pics coming tomorrow!) is in need of some emergent growth. Will be adding more on my bowl later.

Still have that bowl, lol!

These plants are varieties of this / aka Arrowhead houseplant not the bog plant variety...
https://www.exoticangel.com/plant-library/species/nephthytis

Some of these were from a local plant store, but the rest were from the terrarium section of the local Petco. Since they are grown in rock wool and you don't need to wash the dirt off of the roots. I found that to be MUCH more simple to deal with.

If you need help with the washing roots from a houseplant, I can offer some pointers just let me know!