# Yet another planted bowl...(56k)



## jdm68 (Jun 2, 2011)

A few different angles...


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## NWehrman (Jun 2, 2011)

Looks great!


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## jdm68 (Jun 2, 2011)

I love macros as much as anybody...


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## jdm68 (Jun 2, 2011)

Just a few more...


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## Wolfgang (Jan 23, 2011)

Very nice. Your shrimp must love the bowl a lot, I can see a berried female in the pic.


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## DogFish (Jul 16, 2011)

Room temp? No filter? and sunlight from a window?

How often do you water change?


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## FIT BMX (Jun 5, 2010)

That is just great looking, now I want to build one.:thumbsup:


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## jdm68 (Jun 2, 2011)

Wolfgang said:


> Very nice. Your shrimp must love the bowl a lot, I can see a berried female in the pic.


I'm sure they enjoy it. I had 4(one died recently while berried...) females who were all berried together, and over the course of about two weeks all but one hatched. That pic is of a female berried for the second time in about a month. You can't see them in the pics, but there are about 30-40 babies swimming around too. Thanks for the compliment!


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## jdm68 (Jun 2, 2011)

DogFish said:


> Room temp? No filter? and sunlight from a window?
> 
> How often do you water change?


Yes. Not really a problem at this time of year, we'll see what happens in the winter.
No filter. 
Light was in specs:
"Specs:
...
13w Spiral CFL 10-12 hours a day"

I usually change about 50% of the water about once per week. I siphon it out with an airline tube, and usually siphon it back in the same way.
Nothing added except primed water and small pieces of food:finely crushed flakes, crustacean pellets, algae wafer bits. I suppose I have added gH booster once, and will prob do it again...


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## jdm68 (Jun 2, 2011)

FIT BMX said:


> That is just great looking, now I want to build one.


Thanks! You should build one. Very low maintainence and only takes about 2-3 hours depending on what/how fast you can plant. The bowl I got at Michael's craft store. This is the 10 inch dia. bowl, and they also have an 8 inch dia. You can use your leftover substrate, and any random desk lamp with a new bulb in it. Obviously I added some wood at a price, but it isn't necessary. Good luck if you decide to build one.


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## Akeath (Dec 28, 2009)

Wow...beautiful


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## JSA (Jun 3, 2011)

That is just gorgeous. Do you dose at all? What about algae?

Julia


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## jdm68 (Jun 2, 2011)

Thanks Akeath!



JSA said:


> That is just gorgeous. Do you dose at all? What about algae?
> Julia


Thanks! No, I don't dose anything. I have seen a little bit of melting/hole-ing with the anubias, but that may have been because it was an older emersed leaf. All the new leaves look great. 
I put a bunch of telanthera in the bowl to start with, but nearly all of it melted, except the one single small plant in photo #4. I may shove some laterite into the substrate around that plant specifically(iron helps bring out the red in red plants). 
I just started a 10g project to house the offspring from the parent shrimp in this bowl, and I'll probably get some Flourish for it, and then I'd end up using it in this bowl as well, just to see. 
If I were to start a new bowl(which I very well may), I would make the substrate a bit deeper, and probably do more to pre-fertilize(laterite, root tabs, maybe osmocote), above what MGOCPM offers, which is pretty good already.


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## jdm68 (Jun 2, 2011)

Oh, and very little algae, I was brushing it off the sides with an old toothbrush, but now I have an indefatigable army of algae eating youngster shrimp to do it for me. The anubias at one point also had a kind of brownish dust/muck on it, which I believe was determined to be diatoms. I think that the duckweed on top has really helped to suck excess nutrient out of the water and block the light from being SOOOO bright, but I'm sure plenty of floaters would pull the same trick. I just got what I believe to be water spangles as a tagalong with another plant order, so I'm gonna throw those on top of the bowl to see how they do.


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## Newman (Jul 3, 2010)

this is a great bowl =D


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## jdm68 (Jun 2, 2011)

jdm68 said:


> ...
> I just got what I believe to be water spangles as a tagalong with another plant order...


They are actually red root floaters.


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## jdm68 (Jun 2, 2011)

Newman said:


> this is a great bowl =D


Thanks Newman! This is a direct result of your work. Sorry to see the premier bowl being put to rest...


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## madness (Jul 31, 2011)

JDM: I think that the floaters really do help combat algae.

I started with two bowls (I think the same exact ones from Michaels as you have) and a single 28W spiral CF over them and when the algae didn't show up I put a 28W spiral CF directly over each bowl (they are sitting next to each other on an end table) and still haven't seen algae. I really expected an algae explosion with the additional light but after 10 days or so I still haven't seen any.

I don't have any shrimp in the bowls yet as I am waiting on some of my berried females in my shrimp tanks to actually give birth first.


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## Newman (Jul 3, 2010)

guys, algae might show up when you least want it. it can also be several blooms of different species of algae occurring at different times in the bowl's life. i suspect some blooms might still happen in your bowl past the 3-4 month mark or even before that. but a healthy bowl wont show algae, so madness and jdm, you both may have healthy tanks right now =)


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## madness (Jul 31, 2011)

Newman said:


> guys, algae might show up when you least want it. it can also be several blooms of different species of algae occurring at different times in the bowl's life. i suspect some blooms might still happen in your bowl past the 3-4 month mark or even before that. but a healthy bowl wont show algae, so madness and jdm, you both may have healthy tanks right now =)


Unless it hurts something (covers leaves, turns into a complete pea soup) I don't really care about the algae, especially not in such a small container.

I don't care what anybody says, every time I dose Flourish in a regular tank I get algae outbreaks so not having to dose ferts can only help, IMO.

Anyone have any luck keeping nerites a) alive and b) inside the bowls?


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## jerkosaurus (Jul 17, 2011)

Bowl looks great, I especially like the HG. Sorry if I missed this, but how long has it been set up?


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## alex009 (May 21, 2011)

Beautiful!


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## jdm68 (Jun 2, 2011)

jerkosaurus said:


> Bowl looks great, I especially like the HG. Sorry if I missed this, but how long has it been set up?


Thanks! (not the conduct I'd expect from a jerkosaurus) The HG is definitely growing nicely, and sending out runners.

About 2-2.5 months.


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## jdm68 (Jun 2, 2011)

alex009-
Thanks!


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## 10gallonplanted (Oct 31, 2010)

I set up a bowl yesterday, It was just sitting in my basement. I have the same light and everything. lol. Great bowl though.


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## Newman (Jul 3, 2010)

nerites will do well when there is algae around on the glass and other surfaces. i have kept ruby nerites for a long time in my 40 gal. i have seen people keep those yellow-black horned nerites (smaller species) in small tanks with success.


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## jerkosaurus (Jul 17, 2011)

Any updates/ more nice macro shots for us?


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## firefiend (Sep 3, 2009)

madness said:


> Anyone have any luck keeping nerites a) alive and b) inside the bowls?


Nerites are extremely easy to care for; just add algae wafers if your tank/bowl are algae free and they'll feed fine. There is little chance of your snail leaving the bowl. Unlike apple snails that can survive out of water, and occasional explore your floor, nerites very, very rarely completely remove themselves from water, at least IME.


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## jdm68 (Jun 2, 2011)

No updates as yet, I had to move and few weeks ago and started a new job a couple weeks ago, so I've been busy and haven't had much time to visit TPT. 
The bowl is still doing well, with the exception of a nice dusty covering of algae on the inner surface of the glass. I need to get a toothbrush in there to clean it up. I think it is because I have been putting literally 2 drops of Flourish in per week for about a month; the stuff is potent I guess.
There are TONS of juvenile RCS, but they don't seem to eat a whole bunch of algae. I'm moving them over to my 10g I have set up, slowly but surely, so hopefully I don't see more algae. I'll try to snag my dad's camera to take a few shots soon. Thanks everyone for looking.


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## Newman (Jul 3, 2010)

RCS dont eat much algae, and you dont need to be dosing anything unless you didnt use soil in the bowl...


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## londonloco (Aug 25, 2005)

I only dose excel on my 1.5 gallon bowl, but I have no light and only have an anubias in it, but that anubias was 3 leaves 2 years ago, it's now has over 15 leaves. I stopped the excel dosing this week, hoping algae free it will stay. Below is a pic:










I just added a few red root floaters, they weren't doing well in my newly set up NPT, since I have no light on this bowl, not expecting them to do much better.....


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## jdm68 (Jun 2, 2011)

So I haven't updated this thread for quite some time, but the bowl is still doing alright. I pulled out the anacharis a while ago, but it has since sprouted up again. The duckweed is gone(hopefully), and has been replaced with red root floaters. The ones on right now aren't the healthiest, but I'll be switching them out for better plants. The hairgrass is enormous. The HC has been growing well and I've had to trim it a couple times, which is why it looks kinda crappy in the photo. I pulled a whole bunch of fissidens off wood, and it has grown back even better than before. The telanthera grew a good 3-4 inches and stopped, and has been getting some whitish fuzz slime on the leaves. Because this plant wasn't doing well, I added a red ludwigia alongside to add a bigger pop of red. The anubias came out because it had become detached from the wood and some of the leaves were not doing well, so it is in the 10g to beef up. There are also 2 Amano shrimp in this bowl now, to help eat some of the algae the RCS don't take care of. 
Tonight I added a Zoomed 501 to the bowl after having started up another bowl(http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/p...etta-oto-amano-rcs-cull-bowl.html#post1637511) and putting a 501 on there to test out, and really liking it. I was having some problems with staghorn algae, so this should help clear that up. The amount of RCS that came from this bowl has been staggering, and I think that I am going to remove the remaining nicely colored cherries to the 10g, and then add a killifish or a betta to this bowl. I'll try to get more pics up in the next couple days.


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## jdm68 (Jun 2, 2011)




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## jdm68 (Jun 2, 2011)

Here are both of my bowls!


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## Newman (Jul 3, 2010)

i really like the one on the right! both look very nice. how many gallons are they? about 2.5 gals?


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## jdm68 (Jun 2, 2011)

Sorry for the uber-delayed reply, but yes, they are ~2.5g, prob 2 when filled with substrate, plants, wood, and rocks. The one on the left has some really nice DW in it now, I just need to get a camera to shoot it with.


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## FisheriesOmen (Jan 14, 2012)

jdm68 said:


> Thanks! You should build one. Very low maintainence and only takes about 2-3 hours depending on what/how fast you can plant. The bowl I got at Michael's craft store. This is the 10 inch dia. bowl, and they also have an 8 inch dia. You can use your leftover substrate, and any random desk lamp with a new bulb in it. Obviously I added some wood at a price, but it isn't necessary. Good luck if you decide to build one.


YES YES YES i Know where to find a bowl now  :hihi: :hihi:   THANK YOU jdm68


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## FisheriesOmen (Jan 14, 2012)

lookin good glad to see that your plants are doing well and can't wait to get some trimmings ^^


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## jdm68 (Jun 2, 2011)

Wow, I haven't logged in here for a while, and it is crazy to see these pictures, because they look almost NOTHING like what the bowls look like now. The one on the right is way cooler now. The telanthera(small red plant) grew a lot, I clipped and replanted it, and now have two big plants almost growing out of the water. There is also a bunch of java moss and a java fern in there now. The bowl on the left has really grown out, with the Stargrass almost choking the whole bowl out and the ludwigia reaching the surface in there. I also added a piece of DW and a java fern, which doesn't seem to be growing at all. There were 3 Otos and 3 Amanos in each bowl initially, but I lost one Amano and 4 Otos(2 in each bowl) which seems to be leveled off into a nice equilibrium. The bettas are doing great, and after seemingly not being interested in the cherry shrimp when I got them, have changed their minds; I keep seeing bright red fish poop every couple days. I gonna need to get some new pics of these things up before I have to do a big trim. Coming soon...


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## jdm68 (Jun 2, 2011)

Teasers...


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## FisheriesOmen (Jan 14, 2012)

Can't wait for my trimmings this weekend  those bowls have really grown!


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## GMYukonon24s (May 3, 2009)

You have some beautiful bowls.


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