# Would you trust this to hold ~8 gallons?



## jinx© (Oct 17, 2007)

Should be fine imo. Most are generally bought to hold water and flower arrangements etc. 
I’ve used similar smaller containers in the past with no issues. Just use care and common sense I suppose. 
You could always fill it and set it somewhere flood safe for a few days if you wanted.


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## Mattypants (Mar 2, 2019)

Thanks, I'm feeling more comfortable with it after it being half filled since yesterday. Logically it should be fine. Will be starting a Walstad setup in it next week 🙂


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

I have a bowl of your dimensions but its a 1/4".
My 7g cube has glass that is 1/8" so I'd think it should be fine for holding water.

I have a half gaint (aka pecto king) betta in my 8g jumbo bubble bowl he loves all the space!

Side note: be careful adding betta with amano shrimp. I tried with one of my tanks-my elephant ear (aka dumbo) betta ripped them apart and guarded the corpse while eating it until I pulled it out. This was a slow long finned betta but it didn't stop him from getting the shrimp. Bettas are predators and just because the amano is as big as them (minus the tail fin) doesn't make them safe.


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## Mattypants (Mar 2, 2019)

Thanks for the heads up, I'll proceed with caution. What are you using for light? Originally I was going to use a lamp and ~13W CFL, but I prefer LED and a slow sunrise/sunset. The sudden lights on or off is pretty brutal. I've been looking for timed dimmers that can control lights, not sure what's on the market though.


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## Mattypants (Mar 2, 2019)

Btw, do you have any pics of your Betta in the bowl? 😄


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

I tried to make an orb work at one point and found it was too difficult for what I wanted. 
The shape is BAD! one biggie was that there is a very limited amount of water surface, leaving the gas exchange very low so my fish stocking had to be very limited. That may fit for the betta but then the second comes up. The curve is something that made it a nightmare to clean long term as my arm would not bend the right way to clean and scrub the glass. I needed lots of water movement but almost any was too much! 
I would not see any problem with breaking as glass has great strength as it will not stretch but it is brittle. Somewhat like a brick wall? It will support a lot of weight but falls over easy in a tornado! 
It was the overall "nuisance" that did me in.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Mattypants said:


> Thanks for the heads up, I'll proceed with caution. What are you using for light? Originally I was going to use a lamp and ~13W CFL, but I prefer LED and a slow sunrise/sunset. The sudden lights on or off is pretty brutal. I've been looking for timed dimmers that can control lights, not sure what's on the market though.


I have the 13 watt cfl in clamp lamp for a light-works fine for medium to low light plants. Can't offer any help with dimmers. I agree its brutal going from bright to dark especially since these are on my desk (have a 7g cube too) and my main light when on.




Mattypants said:


> Btw, do you have any pics of your Betta in the bowl? 😄


 I'll take some shots from today-tank is in transition period so not pretty, also dig up some old photos from previous half giant betta.


Currently just have some big anubias wrinkle leaf and floaters along with a big piece of wood (hiding equipment). Anubias will get moved to a vivarium in the spring. Not sure what I want to put in there next..












This is Titan, hes' supposedly a half giant but so big and not full grown yet I think he may turn out to be a true giant betta.













A few years ago over grown with flame moss, n. Taiwan, and water sprite










Inhabited by André at that time (named for André the giant)











About a year ago same tank, André still in there with big crypts and sag. he as a marble gene betta so blue/black took over the white/flesh color of his body and fins.




















transition


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## Mattypants (Mar 2, 2019)

Beautiful! I'm thinking of something similar to your more heavily planted version. Likely some dwarf hairgrass, a mossball, a bit of wood, a couple of nerites.

Good choice about moving the anubias, I don't think they pull a lot of nutrients.

I have 5 relatively tall "lucky bamboo" shoots with lots of roots in a quarantine tank. Yesterday nitrates were between 20 and 50, and today about 5. Will start a sweet potato at the top of that one this week.

I've never had a Betta, but looking forward to it. Water is pretty hard here, over 7.5, but with peat in the organic potting mix, I'm hoping that'll lower. 

Thanks for taking the pics, really nice.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Mattypants said:


> Beautiful! I'm thinking of something similar to your more heavily planted version. Likely some dwarf hairgrass, a mossball, a bit of wood, a couple of nerites.
> 
> Good choice about moving the anubias, I don't think they pull a lot of nutrients.
> 
> ...


Thank you ^^



The non wild type bettas (what you find in stores veiltail crowntail, plakat, halfmoon, doubletail, etc) are very durable to a wide range of water params. I personally do nothing to lower pH or hardness in my water, don't want to risk getting the additives wrong and throwing pH/hardness way off which can do more harm to the fish with sudden swing in params.


You saw the sweet potato wild betta video?




I wanted to toss a potato on a tank after that too ^^



Any terrestrial plant (except cacti and some species that really need to let roots air out) do well with just roots in water-most house plants work great. You can look up "aquaponics" to see a huge variety of herbs and veggies that work well too. As your sweet potato grows stems if you want baby sweet potatoes set up a box with leaf litter and push a stem in.


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## RWaters (Nov 12, 2003)

I love watching these videos of Kartoffel. Great, relaxing and inspirational channel.


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## Mattypants (Mar 2, 2019)

AquaAurora said:


> Mattypants said:
> 
> 
> > Beautiful! I'm thinking of something similar to your more heavily planted version. Likely some dwarf hairgrass, a mossball, a bit of wood, a couple of nerites.
> ...


Foo's vids are what led me down this path 

I have a couple of organic sweet potatoes at the top of a 5 gallon. I look for signs of roots 2 or 3 times a day. OCD much?


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## Pythos (Feb 4, 2019)

Mattypants said:


> Foo's vids are what led me down this path 🙂
> 
> I have a couple of organic sweet potatoes at the top of a 5 gallon. I look for signs of roots 2 or 3 times a day. OCD much?



Any updates on the potatoes? I have to admit I'm on the edge of my seat wondering. I have so many questions...


I find myself wondering what else one could use?


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## Mattypants (Mar 2, 2019)

Btw, I just started my 14" (16" diam) Walstad Bowl. I think it holds around 8.5 gallons. I'm a little concerned that I've been too generous with soil. What do you think? This is what I have going on:



I sifted Nature's Best organic potting mix through a colander and added a bit more than 1' dry to the bowl. 
Soaked it overnight and netted out the floating perlite and bits of what I assume were fine particles of peat that didn't want to sink. Maybe 1C of sludge.
I added in 2 cups of Langa aquarium soil (similar to ADA Aquasoil) for a bit of clay (albeit an expensive source for just the clay). This brought the depth of soil above 1.5" in the middle, but I'm hoping that since it's coarse and porous that I'm within safe depth limits to avoid anaerobic activity. Also, the bottom of the bowl is only 8" wide, whereas the full diameter is 16".
Covered it with 1.5" of 2mm-3mm diameter gravel (CaribSea Naturals Peace River).

My main concern right now is that the total depth of soil and gravel cap is at about 3" deep total. Here's a pic (note that the bowl is on a ~1/4 inch mat and the ruler isn't, and that the edges where you see the height of the soil is rounded, so there's less soil than if this were a cube...


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## Mattypants (Mar 2, 2019)

@Pythos No root action yet from the sweet potatoes. I think I put them in there 4 days ago. Only thing happening so far is one of the nerites like sleeping on the glass behind one of them. I used a regular sweet potato and a purple one. Will be interesting to see which one wins the leaf and root competition, but I guess that might might come down to how many eyes they have etc. I wonder if the leaves will be different colours.

Edit: Oops, I spoke too soon


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## cl3537 (Jan 28, 2019)

AquaAurora said:


> I have a bowl of your dimensions but its a 1/4".
> My 7g cube has glass that is 1/8" so I'd think it should be fine for holding water.
> 
> I have a half gaint (aka pecto king) betta in my 8g jumbo bubble bowl he loves all the space!
> ...


Depends on the Betta, my Crowntail has never bothered my Amanos.
The Amanos hid from him for 2 weeks but now they come out once and a while and he doesn't even notice them but he flares at me often when he wants to be fed.


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## Mattypants (Mar 2, 2019)

AquaAurora said:


> I have a bowl of your dimensions but its a 1/4".
> My 7g cube has glass that is 1/8" so I'd think it should be fine for holding water.
> 
> I have a half gaint (aka pecto king) betta in my 8g jumbo bubble bowl he loves all the space!
> ...


Where did you get such a big bowl with 1/4" thickness?


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## theatermusic87 (Jun 22, 2014)

Pythos said:


> Any updates on the potatoes? I have to admit I'm on the edge of my seat wondering. I have so many questions...
> 
> 
> I find myself wondering what else one could use?


It's an old thread, but lots of plant suggestions in there

https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/25-riparium-terrarium-vivarium/951834-riparium-plant-list.html


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## Pythos (Feb 4, 2019)

theatermusic87 said:


> It's an old thread, but lots of plant suggestions in there
> 
> https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/25-riparium-terrarium-vivarium/951834-riparium-plant-list.html





That is absolutely awesome! Thanks for posting that!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Mattypants said:


> Where did you get such a big bowl with 1/4" thickness?


Copy-pasted from a pm on another form someone has asked me the same question: I'm not sure if the listings linked have the same thickness, I did not check that. you'd have to contact the sellers to see.

The exact listing I bought is no longer available on amazon (original bought with prime so i could return if it arrived broken) I spent somewhere between $60-80. This is the closest I can find to it (actually slightly larger! and more expensive x.x at a little over $100)
https://smile.amazon.com/WGV-Clear-x...bo+bubble+bowl
something similar on ebay used:
search ebay "Handblown Glass Jumbo Bubble Bowl Vase, H-15"/11" Body D-18""


Oh here we go found what I have on ebay-bowl is cheap, shipping is not, total $120 (I swear these were cheaper a few years ago, I've never have spent $100 or more on a tank)
go to ebay and search "Jumbo Bubble Bowl Glass Vases 16"


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I use pothos, philodendron and sweet potato vine (bought as a decorative house plant) on a few of my tanks.

I had a diff problem keeping amano shrimp and betta. When I introduced them, my largest amano shrimp had a faceoff w/the betta over food- and pinched the betta's fins. Amanos can be pretty darn aggressive. Well, after that my betta was always shy of the shrimp. I kept thinking he would retaliate some day and rip them apart, but he never did- instead he avoided them at feeding time, and slept in a top corner of the tank, well out of their way.

I finally took the amanos out and surprise, my betta is so much more relaxed now. I often see him resting on the surface of anubias leaves, and he explores among the lower plants now, things he never did while the amanos were in there. 

It's pretty funny that my shrimps were harrassing my betta.


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## Mattypants (Mar 2, 2019)

AquaAurora said:


> Copy-pasted from a pm on another form someone has asked me the same question: I'm not sure if the listings linked have the same thickness, I did not check that. you'd have to contact the sellers to see.
> 
> The exact listing I bought is no longer available on amazon (original bought with prime so i could return if it arrived broken) I spent somewhere between $60-80. This is the closest I can find to it (actually slightly larger! and more expensive x.x at a little over $100)
> https://smile.amazon.com/WGV-Clear-x...bo+bubble+bowl
> ...


Funny, mine is also made by CYS, but about 4mm, about 2mm less than the one you bought https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01DNHBC8K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Although the one you bought is listed as being 3/16" thickness, which is somewhere between 4" and 5". I'm guessing they all come out different thicknesses...

Should probably be fine. I'll be sure to post pics of the water damage otherwise. Right after I get in touch with my insurance company


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## Mattypants (Mar 2, 2019)

JJ09 said:


> I use pothos, philodendron and sweet potato vine (bought as a decorative house plant) on a few of my tanks.
> 
> I had a diff problem keeping amano shrimp and betta. When I introduced them, my largest amano shrimp had a faceoff w/the betta over food- and pinched the betta's fins. Amanos can be pretty darn aggressive. Well, after that my betta was always shy of the shrimp. I kept thinking he would retaliate some day and rip them apart, but he never did- instead he avoided them at feeding time, and slept in a top corner of the tank, well out of their way.
> 
> ...


That is pretty funny. I think after stories like this I'll skip on the Amano, since I'm trying to make the Betta's home as relaxed as possible..


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## Mattypants (Mar 2, 2019)

Well I guess this is officially happening...










- Rotala indica X2
- Common Vallisneria
- Wendt's cryp
- Hygrophila difformis (Water wisteria)
- Dwarf ambulia
- Hygrophilia angustifolia
- Cryptocoryne balansae
- Eleocharis acicularis 'mini' x2


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## BenTheLlama (Jan 4, 2019)

Just a warning, if you decide to put a Betta in the bowl, make sure you have some type of cover for the bowl because Bettas are notorious jumpers. Either a wire or plastic lid (if you can find/make one for a bowl) or a thick growth of pothos or floating plants or something to block the Bettas exit!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

BenTheLlama said:


> Just a warning, if you decide to put a Betta in the bowl, make sure you have some type of cover for the bowl because Bettas are notorious jumpers. Either a wire or plastic lid (if you can find/make one for a bowl) or a thick growth of pothos or floating plants or something to block the Bettas exit!


 I use cut polycarbinate (LEXAN-from home depot) as my batta tank lids. Won't break if i drop it like glass, and can cut to fit each tank. Polycarbinate don't bow the way acrylic does-same thickness acrylic flexes enough the betta can still pop out the edges no problem.
That said I've only ever had 1 jump happy betta, the others have been fine with the dense planting and floaters (not completely covered top). Even had a betta in an open top riparium 20g long for several months before moving-the schooling fish were nipping him.


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## Mattypants (Mar 2, 2019)

BenTheLlama said:


> Just a warning, if you decide to put a Betta in the bowl, make sure you have some type of cover for the bowl because Bettas are notorious jumpers. Either a wire or plastic lid (if you can find/make one for a bowl) or a thick growth of pothos or floating plants or something to block the Bettas exit!


By the time the bowl is Betta-ready the frogbit and duckweed should be much thicker, but I'll see. So far most of the plants are just sitting in the bowl for now. Today I planted some Val in the back and one of the hairgrass containers divided up front. The other stuff still in containers from the store.

Here's a pic from Instagram today. Once you filter a pic a bit it's hard to offer up the original lol


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## Mattypants (Mar 2, 2019)

So 17 days after adding soil and cap, the bowl has gone through its nitrogen cycle. The nitrites were slightly elevated 2 days ago, but are now zero, as are nitrates. 3 or 4 Crypt leaves have melted, but aside from that, all is good. Added a Nerite last night, and it's now time to Betta shop...


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## Mattypants (Mar 2, 2019)

Pythos said:


> Any updates on the potatoes? I have to admit I'm on the edge of my seat wondering. I have so many questions...
> 
> 
> I find myself wondering what else one could use?


The red/purple sweet potato has a fast-growing cluster of roots and 3 purple buds on top. The other one is much slower for some reason. I took this about an hour ago:










Here's a pic from 2 days ago, just to show you how fast the roots grow:


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## Pythos (Feb 4, 2019)

Those roots!! They look great to me! 

I was considering attaching one to a stick or something and then slowly working the roots around it down the length of the stick as it grows...


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## redneck joe (Mar 13, 2019)

RWaters said:


> I love watching these videos of Kartoffel. Great, relaxing and inspirational channel.





Yes


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## Mattypants (Mar 2, 2019)

Quick Update:

Bowl is super healthy. 6 CPDs and 10 Chilli Rasboras. Yesterday a fry of maybe 3mm appeared, likely CPD, since the Rasboras have only been in there a week. I maybe have to get rid of some of the Frogbit or the plants below will likely suffer...


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