# 5 Gallon Walstad Bowl



## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

How 'fun' was it setting up a tank with only one hand?
Your stem plant appears to be creeping jenny. Great versatile plant can be below water, above water, and even in your garden outside, does well in medium light.
That's some big crypts! Wish I lived near you do I could raid the plant section!
If you ever get sick of this tank I'll take the bowl off your hands ^.~


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

AquaAurora said:


> How 'fun' was it setting up a tank with only one hand?
> Your stem plant appears to be creeping jenny. Great versatile plant can be below water, above water, and even in your garden outside, does well in medium light.
> That's some big crypts! Wish I lived near you do I could raid the plant section!
> If you ever get sick of this tank I'll take the bowl off your hands ^.~


Setting it up was alright, tying down the java fern on the other hand (pun, haha) was the worst part. My arm is still somewhat mobile but it has no power.

And yes, I believe that is creeping jenny, thanks.

If I ever take it down I'll keep you in mind! [emoji1] 

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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

Also, if anybody has some weird creepy crawlies that are good for Walstad bowls, I'd be willing to trade some of my many java ferns for them. I'm talking detritus worms, planaria, nerite snails, etc.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Be mindful nerite snails have a large bioload (monstrous in comparison to detritus worms and plarnaria). Also nerites do not eat algae wafers and not all of them will eat blanched veggies so you should wait until the tank has aged and gotten covered in diatoms before getting a nerite snail. Aaannd if you get a female nerite getting the eggs off the glass/rocks is a pain (nothing eats the eggs and they take months to break down).
You can put up a thread in the WTB or Sales/Trade subforums to try to get some of the stuff you want.


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

AquaAurora said:


> Be mindful nerite snails have a large bioload (monstrous in comparison to detritus worms and plarnaria). Also nerites do not eat algae wafers and not all of them will eat blanched veggies so you should wait until the tank has aged and gotten covered in diatoms before getting a nerite snail. Aaannd if you get a female nerite getting the eggs off the glass/rocks is a pain (nothing eats the eggs and they take months to break down).
> You can put up a thread in the WTB or Sales/Trade subforums to try to get some of the stuff you want.


Sweet, thanks for the info.

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## Daisy Mae (Jun 21, 2015)

*Boredom*

I often tell my kids "if you're bored it's your own fault" -- and I try to live by it too. Your case in point- you solved your own boredom, and in the process, will have something to occupy your time for a good long while!
Kudos to you for doing the work almost one-armed.
Results should look good once the growth starts and the water clears some more. I love small tanks and bowls.


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

Daisy Mae said:


> Results should look good once the growth starts and the water clears some more. I love small tanks and bowls.


Yeah, I'm hoping it ends up looking good. With the dirt I can't really uproot plants without a huge cloud of muck so... Not much I can do if it looks bad. 

The only thing I'm really worried about are the crypts. I hope they melt and regrow as more of a carpet, as I want them as a foreground plant.

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## Bine (Jul 12, 2015)

sombrerobanana said:


> Also, if anybody has some weird creepy crawlies that are good for Walstad bowls, I'd be willing to trade some of my many java ferns for them. I'm talking detritus worms, planaria, nerite snails, etc.


Detritus worms? Planaria? I'm subbed for the weird.


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

Bine said:


> Detritus worms? Planaria? I'm subbed for the weird.


Haha yeah I'm looking for as diverse a bowl as I can get.

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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Have not bought from this user but they are selling scuds if you want those for your 5g
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=901177


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

New pics. All the dust has settled. I'm thinking about taking out the crypts and putting in some sort of foreground plant like Hydro sp. Japan or some Glosso or something. I like the crypts but they kind of obstruct the view of everything behind them.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Hydro sp. japan will grow upright unless you take a little time stuffing the stem back down into the substrate, eventfully it will start naturally staying down but with no care it tends to grow vertically instead of horizontally. You can do the same with hygro sp. tiger (did this in my 7g for a log while)


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

AquaAurora said:


> Hydro sp. japan will grow upright unless you take a little time stuffing the stem back down into the substrate, eventfully it will start naturally staying down but with no care it tends to grow vertically instead of horizontally. You can do the same with hygro sp. tiger (did this in my 7g for a log while)


Huh, I didn't know that. Maybe I'll look into glosso a bit more. Or get used to the crypts haha

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## Daisy Mae (Jun 21, 2015)

*I like the crypts*



sombrerobanana said:


> New pics. All the dust has settled. I'm thinking about taking out the crypts and putting in some sort of foreground plant like Hydro sp. Japan or some Glosso or something. I like the crypts but they kind of obstruct the view of everything behind them.


Normally, I like a clean look, but this just looks so lush and I like it! I can see fish or shrimp being very happy in here.


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

Daisy Mae said:


> Normally, I like a clean look, but this just looks so lush and I like it! I can see fish or shrimp being very happy in here.


Thanks! I'm working on cleaning it up a *little* bit, but I do wanna keep it pretty lush.

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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

5 days since setting this bowl up. Got a CFL architect's lamp for it. Need to get a new bulb, though. Came with the wrong color, 2700k I think.

Here's the lamp:









The creeping jenny is starting to grow out of the bowl. I'm excited haha.









Here's a full-bowl shot:


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Home depot has a 4 pack 13 watt 6500k cfls for about $8, Walmart also has them, don't know price. I've also bout single packaged bulbs (same watt and k) at Giant food store.


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

AquaAurora said:


> Home depot has a 4 pack 13 watt 6500k cfls for about $8, Walmart also has them, don't know price. I've also bout single packaged bulbs (same watt and k) at Giant food store.


Yeah, I was gonna hit up Home Depot this week for those.


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

Crypts are beginning to put out new growth already. I'm guessing they won't melt in this case. Once each individual crypt has a few small leaves, I'll probably trim them back and attempt to get them to stay low to the ground. Anyone have experience doing this?


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

I went to a pond today and collected about a half gallon of pondwater. I took it home, fished out all the critters (I believe it had seed shrimp, daphnia, cyclops, and some other creatures I didn't recognize), and plopped them into the bowl. They immediately started swimming around and exploring, it was pretty cool to watch. Here's a picture of some of them in a jar, can't really see them though.









In other news, I traded my excess java fern and got some amazon frogbit, duckweed, and malaysian trumpet snails. Here's a pic of the floaters.









I also rotated my bowl a little bit, because I found a more open area to have at the front. Gives me a better view of the entire bowl. Probably gonna move a few plants around this week.


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## Daisy Mae (Jun 21, 2015)

That looks really good, I am envious!
Like the idea of pond collecting- in fact we are going glamping next month and I have a critter keeper ready for it. Hubby was with me when I bought from Petsmart and he wanted to know what for, don't I have enough? I explained and he said, "so you get to torture some pond creature for a few days then put it back?" Never thought of it that way but was really hoping to get daphnia for the fishies. I guess I can buy daphnia eggs but exploring and catching your own is more fun. The kids can help too!


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

Daisy Mae said:


> That looks really good, I am envious!
> Like the idea of pond collecting- in fact we are going glamping next month and I have a critter keeper ready for it. Hubby was with me when I bought from Petsmart and he wanted to know what for, don't I have enough? I explained and he said, "so you get to torture some pond creature for a few days then put it back?" Never thought of it that way but was really hoping to get daphnia for the fishies. I guess I can buy daphnia eggs but exploring and catching your own is more fun. The kids can help too!


Thanks!

Pond collecting was fun, and I'm sure with pond water you get a great diversity of critters - more than just the species you can see. There was also some weird worms swimming around in the pond water. I thought they might have been nematodes, but I was scared of introducing a (possible) parasite to the bowl, so I dumped them.


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

Just found some fungus in the bowl...









Anybody know what my first course of action should be? Just leave it? There's tons of snails in here, I'm not sure if they'll eat it, though.


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## Daisy Mae (Jun 21, 2015)

That grows on any wood I have put in, boiled or not. I take out the bigger chunks occasionally, then it just gradually goes away as the tank matures.


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

Daisy Mae said:


> That grows on any wood I have put in, boiled or not. I take out the bigger chunks occasionally, then it just gradually goes away as the tank matures.


Okay, maybe it's just from the wood chips in the soil. I'll leave it be and see what happens. Thanks!


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

Either these microorganisms reproduce insanely fast, or I picked up way more than I thought. If I get up close to the glass I can see tons of them just sitting there. It's mostly cyclops but there's definitely other stuff, including several planaria. I'm excited!


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

Quick update. Moved some plants around. Drove to a few fish stores yesterday looking for a carpet plant for the front of the bowl. Couldn't find anything, unfortunately. I tested the water with my API kit yesterday, too. Nitrite was 0ppm, nitrate was somewhere around 2 or 3ppm, but ammonia was 0.25ppm. Gonna give it another month or two before I actually stock anything. My current plan for stocking is 6 pygmy cories and possibly one scarlet badis. 

Here's a full-bowl shot.


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## Daisy Mae (Jun 21, 2015)

Good luck with the plant search!
Even if you don't find anything you like, I think the tank looks good the way it is.


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

Daisy Mae said:


> Good luck with the plant search!
> Even if you don't find anything you like, I think the tank looks good the way it is.


Thanks!


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## Bine (Jul 12, 2015)

That's the coolest fishbowl ever. 

I tried duckweed once. It all died and made a big mess. That was with four 13 watt CFL. It may have been due to it being constantly turned over by the HOB. Duckweed is a still water plant.


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

Bine said:


> That's the coolest fishbowl ever.
> 
> I tried duckweed once. It all died and made a big mess. That was with four 13 watt CFL. It may have been due to it being constantly turned over by the HOB. Duckweed is a still water plant.


Yeah, I had the same experience when I had a HOB on my 20 long. Frogbit did fine but the duckweed didn't. It didn't ALL die off, but it didn't take over the tank by any means.


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

It's been about 3 weeks since I set this bowl up. I was just doing some maintenance (water top-off, duckweed removal, trimming leaves) and figured I should take a picture. 








Everything's starting to fill in a bit. The creeping jenny is making me really mad. If I BREATHE on one of the stems, it pulls out of the substrate. Hopefully they take root soon.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

I usually stuff stem clippings deep so some leaves are pushed under the substrate to help anchor it... hoping by the time the leaf breaks loose/down its rooted.


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

AquaAurora said:


> I usually stuff stem clippings deep so some leaves are pushed under the substrate to help anchor it... hoping by the time the leaf breaks loose/down its rooted.


Hm, I might try that.


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## rragan (Jun 2, 2015)

Cool! i want one for work


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

rragan said:


> Cool! i want one for work


Do it! They're not hard to make.


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

No pictures today, but the tops of my creeping jenny is about 2-3 inches out of the bowl. They'll be growing over the side soon. More crypt leaves are melting as well.


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

Here's the bowl. I'm planning on stocking tangerine tigers now. We'll see if that happens.









Here's another project I just finished working on (it took me like an hour). It's a 1 gallon cube terrarium. The light and bowl were from a betta kit thing I got at petsmart a long time ago. Substrate is crushed up orchid potting mix and coco fiber. Hardscape is cork bark. I collected the moss from my front yard and broke it up into smaller pieces. The little plant in the back (which you can barely see) is just a stem of creeping jenny I cut out of my bowl. Not sure if it'll grow in such crappy lighting. We'll see, I guess. The leaf litter is from a local forest preserve. I added in some woodlice and millipedes as well. The picture doesn't do this thing justice, it's really cool to look at if I do say so myself.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

That's a marina betta tank, I have one 6"x6"x5.75" (I use one to drip acclimate new small fish, and another as marimo tank) their 0.9g?. If you keep it somewhere it can get some sun it should be ok.. I don't think that little led light can keep plants going except marimo (which is actually an algae).


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

AquaAurora said:


> That's a marina betta tank, I have one 6"x6"x5.75" (I use one to drip acclimate new small fish, and another as marimo tank) their 0.9g?. If you keep it somewhere it can get some sun it should be ok.. I don't think that little led light can keep plants going except marimo (which is actually an algae).


It doesn't get much sunlight so I know I'll have to upgrade. I'm planning on getting an IKEA LED lamp like this one.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

sombrerobanana said:


> It doesn't get much sunlight so I know I'll have to upgrade. I'm planning on getting an IKEA LED lamp like this one.


Be mindful of kelvin of the leds


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

AquaAurora said:


> Be mindful of kelvin of the leds


Yeah, they're somewhere between 2500 and 3000k, which isn't the greatest for plants, but it seems like a good amount of people use them on planted nanos and stuff and apparently they work fine.


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

Quick update. Creeping jenny is getting really leggy and dropping its bottom leaves. It's annoying me, but it looks good up top so it's alright.

Leggy creeping jenny:









Here's the top of the creeping jenny:









I just took a few scoops of duckweed out. It grows insanely fast. Frogbit has been spreading, though. Here's a pic:









The frogbit roots are getting REALLY long. Some of the roots touch the sand. Here's a pic:









EDIT: my water parameters are NEAR perfect. Nitrite and nitrate are both 0ppm. Ammonia has been consistently showing up as 0.25ppm. However, according to many sources, API test kits often show 0ppm ammonia as 0.25 for some unknown reason, so I'm not so worried.


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

I'm out of town today through Monday night, so my bowl is getting a 5-day blackout. Hopefully nothing dies off. I'll post pics when I return.

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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

You should get a simple light timer. Home depot has them for about $4 for 2 prong
http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-24-Hour-Plug-In-Basic-Timer-15119/100685881
or $10 for 3 prong light fixture
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Defiant-...echanical-Timer-with-2-Outlet-49807/203677447

I use these on all my tank lights


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## Jonas (Nov 30, 2011)

Nice bowl!

I really like the look of the duckweed but people have always warned me to stay away from it. They say you can not ever get rid of it completely, you will try, try again and fail they say, subsequently the duckweed will hunt you in your dreams.

I think they just dont want my tank to look so nice with the cute little floaters 
(or is that what the DW wants me to think!)


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

Jonas said:


> Nice bowl!
> 
> I really like the look of the duckweed but people have always warned me to stay away from it. They say you can not ever get rid of it completely, you will try, try again and fail they say, subsequently the duckweed will hunt you in your dreams.
> 
> ...


Duckweed is duckweed. It's definitely hard to get rid of, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's the best nutrient sponge that I've experienced. Dwarf water lettuce is a good alternative.

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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

AquaAurora said:


> You should get a simple light timer. Home depot has them for about $4 for 2 prong
> http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-24-Hour-Plug-In-Basic-Timer-15119/100685881
> or $10 for 3 prong light fixture
> http://www.homedepot.com/p/Defiant-...echanical-Timer-with-2-Outlet-49807/203677447
> ...


Maybe I'll look into that. Thanks, man.

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## Daisy Mae (Jun 21, 2015)

FYI your tank and AquaAurora's were a couple of sources of inspiration for my bubble bowl. Just set up today, even though I've had the bowl since last week (was waiting for plants to arrive in mail). Will be posting photo soon. 

Thanks for the inspiration!


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

Daisy Mae said:


> FYI your tank and AquaAurora's were a couple of sources of inspiration for my bubble bowl. Just set up today, even though I've had the bowl since last week (was waiting for plants to arrive in mail). Will be posting photo soon.
> 
> Thanks for the inspiration!


I'm not seeing pictures of the bowl anywhere, can you send me a link? I'd love to check it out.

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## Daisy Mae (Jun 21, 2015)

sombrerobanana said:


> I'm not seeing pictures of the bowl anywhere, can you send me a link? I'd love to check it out.
> 
> Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk


I have not posted yet, will pm you with the link when I do.


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

Daisy Mae said:


> I have not posted yet, will pm you with the link when I do.


Sweet, thanks.

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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

Back from vacation! Bowl fared pretty well. Only difference I can notice is that the duckweed didn't spread very rapidly. I thinned it out before I left and there's still light penetrating through.

Here's a pic of the top of the bowl:









And here's a pic of the bowl itself:









They're not very good pictures but you get the idea.


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## Daisy Mae (Jun 21, 2015)

How's the daphnia and other pond critters? Are they maintaining a colony?


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

Daisy Mae said:


> How's the daphnia and other pond critters? Are they maintaining a colony?


Yeah, they are. Funny enough, my Malaysian trumpet snails are probably the creatures I see the least. I'm guessing (and hoping) that's just because they're all in the substrate.


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

Major overhaul! Went to the GCCA (Greater Chicago Cichlid Association) swap meet today and picked up some A. nana 'petite' and Monte Carlo. Here's some pre-overhaul pictures:

















Here's the plants I grabbed ($11!):









I pulled out all of my creeping jenny, it was getting all leggy and pissing me off.

















I tied the A. nana to a small piece of petrified wood I had in my basement.









Here's a pic of it in the bowl (not sure if you can tell, but I rotated the bowl once again):









Here's the Monte Carlo after being planted. It took me forever to plant. I have no aquascaping tools, so I just jammed it into the sand with a couple bamboo skewers.









There was a lot left over, but the pieces were too small for me to plant.









I pulled out all of the frogbit so I could remove a bunch of duckweed. It was blocking out a bit too much light.

























The aftermath:









RAOK?









And the finished product:


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## KFryman (Sep 4, 2012)

I'll certainly take it off your hands haha. I'm getting ready to setup a bowl. Just waiting to let the dirt finish mineralizing. Wish I could find a nice sized bowl like that.

Bowl looks great, should fill in nicely.


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

KFryman said:


> I'm getting ready to setup a bowl. Just waiting to let the dirt finish mineralizing.


Keep us posted with pics!


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## KFryman (Sep 4, 2012)

Will do! Just gotta wait till I get paid so I can get some plants at my lfs, not to sure about fauna but that won't be for a while anyways. It'll be my first try with a low tech bowl probably just gonna be excel and light spill from my T5s. Very interest how the monte carlo will grow, Im strongly considering it if I can get it locally, might just have it shipped from AFA lol.


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

It seems like I have to replant the Monte Carlo every day. Snails keep cruising around under it and pulling the roots out.


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

I just thinned out a bunch of my frogbit. Some of the individual plants had 18 inch root systems, which is ridiculous. The Monte Carlo is growing a bit. I don't think the roots have made it through the sand cap yet, because it hasn't really blown up.


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

Been a while since I did an update. Just did some maintenance on the bowl. Removed frogbit, cut back dead leaves, the works. Here's the top of the bowl after I thinned out frogbit:










The duckweed isn't taking over as much anymore. The frogbit must be soaking up most of the nutrients. Here's a picture of a piece of frogbit with a ~2 foot root system:










My java fern isn't doing too hot, weirdly. Not sure why, seeing as it's possibly the lowest-tech plant imaginable. It's getting holes through the leaves and a lot of leaves are just dying off. Anybody have experience with this? Here's a picture:










Here's a full-bowl shot just for funsies:


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## Daisy Mae (Jun 21, 2015)

Crazy frogbit. 

Here's a thread on Java Fern, looks like similar issues. Seems to happen more with soft water or lack of potassium. 
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/33-plants/931153-ive-had-java-fern.html?highlight=Java+Fern


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

I have hard water but my regular java fern's leaves die/put out plantlets then die constantly. The Philippine, needle, narrow, and thread leaf java fern however do fine in the exact same tank.. go figure...
Btw your crypts look awesome form the first photo (peering down from above)


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## sombrerobanana (Nov 3, 2012)

Daisy Mae said:


> Crazy frogbit.
> 
> Here's a thread on Java Fern, looks like similar issues. Seems to happen more with soft water or lack of potassium.
> http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/33-plants/931153-ive-had-java-fern.html?highlight=Java+Fern


Huh, thanks. Maybe I should start dosing some trace nutrients.




AquaAurora said:


> I have hard water but my regular java fern's leaves die/put out plantlets then die constantly. The Philippine, needle, narrow, and thread leaf java fern however do fine in the exact same tank.. go figure...
> Btw your crypts look awesome form the first photo (peering down from above)


Thanks for the info. And yeah, I love these crypts. They're doing absolutely amazing in the dirted Walstad and they look beautiful.


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## cube860 (Oct 3, 2015)

I want a bowl now


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