# Walstad Shrimp bowls (56K) Updated 12/7/12



## bigboij

very cool love the way it looks very natural.

now im not familiar with the walstad method, but what kind of flitration do these use, ive wanted to do a bowl for the office at work, it looks like WC's is the only way to filter/clean a bowl, unless i went sponge filter.


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## Ryan10517

stupid question, but what the heck is a 56k warning??? I'm assuming its probably not referring to 5600k light temperature haha.


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## antbug

Ryan10517 said:


> stupid question, but what the heck is a 56k warning??? I'm assuming its probably not referring to 5600k light temperature haha.


How old are you? :biggrin:


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## kamikazi

bigboij said:


> very cool love the way it looks very natural.
> 
> now im not familiar with the walstad method, but what kind of flitration do these use, ive wanted to do a bowl for the office at work, it looks like WC's is the only way to filter/clean a bowl, unless i went sponge filter.


If you read the document I linked she explains the whole filtration or in this case lack there of. The plants do the job of filtering the water of ammonia and the like. I ahve only done two small water changes since setting these up (about .5 to 1 quart of water) mainly I did this to catch some of the dirt flakes that floated up and to skim the top of film. I noticed last night that it had been over a week since the last time I messed with them and there was no film so I was pleased. 

I still have to treat the water for chlorine before adding any, especially with my plans of keeping shrimp. The idea is to do very few water changes.



Ryan10517 said:


> stupid question, but what the heck is a 56k warning??? I'm assuming its probably not referring to 5600k light temperature haha.


not a stupid question, its a warning the site asks poster to put on threads with lots of pictures to warn those who may have slow internet. and as I plan on having alot of pictures in this thread I went ahead and put a warning in the title.


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## alex009

Really nice. I'll be watching this. I'd like to see how the plants develop. I plant on making something like this.


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## ncharlie

56K Warning?!??!

Who the hell still has dial-up?!

I too was wondering that this means . ..

Why not 14.4 or 28.8 warning?

Jesus, I have been on super fast internet since 2005.


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## xmas_one

Those are nice, thanks for the post!


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## Leah

I love the bowls! Can't wait to see how they do with the shrimp.

I have thought of doing something like that for my kitchen table--there are skylights so it would get some natural light. I put a terrestrial plant there for now and I'll see how it does. I know you're not using it much, but how many watts is your light?

Oh, and I do know somebody with dialup. I have to be very careful about the size of the e-mails I send him!

Leah


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## kamikazi

Thanks for the compliments. Charlie, its surprising people still have dial up but its forum rules to put it so I did.

Leah, I just looked at the watts, it is 15 Watts.


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## Ryan10517

ohhhhhh 56k as in dial up internet... i feel pretty stupid haha. Ya we've been on high speed for like 5 years lol. and i'll be 18 in august, so i'm thinkin a lot of you people have a few years on me


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## kamikazi

Ryan10517 said:


> ohhhhhh 56k as in dial up internet... i feel pretty stupid haha. Ya we've been on high speed for like 5 years lol. and i'll be 18 in august, so i'm thinkin a lot of you people have a few years on me


yeh i'd imagine alot of the younger generations will not know what 56K is or even ever heard of dial up for that matter. I have almost 11 years on you.


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## Ryan10517

Geez! an old geezer eh? hahaha im just kidding. Cool bowls by the way. That sagittaria latifolia is definitely a cool plant. It gets big though!


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## kamikazi

Ryan10517 said:


> Geez! an old geezer eh? hahaha im just kidding. Cool bowls by the way. That sagittaria latifolia is definitely a cool plant. It gets big though!


yeh I tried to collect smaller plants. there were some big ones out there. Think it would grow in a 16" tall tank?


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## kamikazi

before leaving for the week of the 4th the bowls looked great. got back yesterday to be welcomed by a huge out break of green hair algae and snails. Today I turkey basted most of the algae and as many snails as I could find. 

On the plus side the 4th leaf clover is sending runners and growing in new locations. The larger of the arrowheads seems to have sent out runners that are sprouting new plants. I say "seems to have" because I'm still not sure 100 percent sure if its the arrowead or the other collected plant in the bowl.


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## latnem

Yeah nice bowls. Threads like this and the walstad article you linked inspired me to make my first bowl! It was fun and I'm already thinking of doing a second one.


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## firefiend

Awesome bowls! I have a 2.5 gallon hurricane vase that I keep a betta in... I'm planning on NPTing it soon.

btw... remember when we had the Commodore 64 and were totally in awe, and then the 128 came out we all said, "128k memory... how can we possible need that much!"


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## kamikazi

Got some rcs for my bowls today thanks to wingsdlc. They immediately started going around the bowls munching on algae and such. 

I will try to get some pics in the next couple of days


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## Ryan10517

kamikazi said:


> yeh I tried to collect smaller plants. there were some big ones out there. Think it would grow in a 16" tall tank?


it might outgrow a 16" tall tank. Actually, i'm not sure how well it does completely submerged, as i have only seen it growing marginally in the wild. I've seen some s. latifolia pushing 3 feet tall. I say its worth a try. maybe they will have more delicate different looking leaves if they grow all the way underwater.


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## kamikazi

*Update Shrimp Added!*

So I got a few RCS from a friend. Snapped a few quick pics with my phone and a couple full bowl shots as well.


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## xjasminex

Hi, 
I was wondering if you had any Ammonia issues after you planted and filled your bowls. 
I recently just set up a 5 gallon NPT with the same potting soil but i am getting ammonia that is on the rise...i think that this might just be the soil, so im wondering about your experience.

Thanks!
Jasmine


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## kamikazi

xjasminex said:


> Hi,
> I was wondering if you had any Ammonia issues after you planted and filled your bowls.
> I recently just set up a 5 gallon NPT with the same potting soil but i am getting ammonia that is on the rise...i think that this might just be the soil, so im wondering about your experience.
> 
> Thanks!
> Jasmine



honestly, never tested....I did wait several weeks before adding shrimp, but they aren't dead and I have pond snails laying eggs and crawling around so I assume everything is ok. 

I also will add, I have only tested once on my 40 gallon tank, which also has Organic Choice Potting Mix. Did not detect any ammonia, nitrites, and very little nitrate. Difference with it was I was working with a well seeded canister filter.

I have read people can see ammonia levels rise in NPT's I have a couple theories on this, but its purely unscientific conjecture. One: used the wrong potting mix, the Organic Choice Potting Mix has some chicken poo but supposedly this is ok, but Organic Choice Garden Soil I believe has cow poo in it, which is a supposedly very bad. Now, I would think even the chicken poo one could cause ammonia increase and that is where theory #2 comes in. Two: didn't use enough plants from the start, the whole idea behind NPT is for the plants to use the ammonia and other harmful stuff, thus rendering the water safe. The key is plant heavily from the start. I read somewhere else on this forum that heavily planted means only 25% of the substrate is visible when viewed from above.


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## NeocaridinaCollector

Very nice, I'm going to try this myself now. 

Do you do water changes or just top up evaporated water?
Don't know if you already answered that question lol.


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## kamikazi

Traveller said:


> Very nice, I'm going to try this myself now.
> 
> Do you do water changes or just top up evaporated water?
> Don't know if you already answered that question lol.


I have been doing manual removal of some algae I got using a turkey baster, which in turn removes water, I also don't like the film on the water surface so the water change keeps that at a minimum. 

so yeh I have been maybe 25-50% per week, as I find the best plants for my setup I hope to reduce this to only top offs and surface skimming weekly and do 50% water change once a month or something, but in the ideal NPT no water changes are needed.


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## xjasminex

Thanks for the info, i will check my bag and see what the exact name is.....i hope i dont have to clean it out and start over.... =/

Thanks!


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## xjasminex

Oh, one more question...
What kind of grassy plant do you have in the second bowl...i like the way it looks!


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## kamikazi

xjasminex said:


> Oh, one more question...
> What kind of grassy plant do you have in the second bowl...i like the way it looks!


that would be dwarf hair grass and I need to trim it.


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## Newman

hey, how are the bowls and shrimp doing?

I used that same guide for my shrimp bowl too  First i tried with cherry shrimp and got amazing results (i was harvesting 30+ shrimplets every two months or so haha.) Recently i tried keeping crystal shrimp in mine. definitely more of a challenge to get those to breed, but im not giving up  
Check out my shrimp bowl if you have the time. The bowls you have will keep going for a really long time if you dont give up on them and persevere through any algae blooms that may or may not happen (I am glad i did). 

I'll be following these


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## kamikazi

Thanks newman, I've check out your bowl before. Those crystal reds are pretty sweet.

The bowls are doing ok, the shrimp haven't bred yet to my knowledge. I have a few pond snails in the bowls as well. Hopefully they wont become too much trouble. 

I'm dealing with a fair amount of algae. I need more plants in the second bowl.


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## Newman

You may also want to pick up two female cherry shrimp, one for each bowl. i see a whole lot of males, but no mature females in the bowls that would breed.

also are these bowls less than 1 gallon?


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## demonr6

Nice bowls! I wanted to do an NPT for mine but was out of soil so it is using some leftover Activ Flora sub I had. It has been a few months now and its a freaking forest. The algae I have is some GSA on the side where it gets some sunlight in the morning but other than that it is stellar. I tested the water for the first time last night, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and 5 nitrates. Not shabby for zero maintenance. I hardly remember to feed the shrimp, it is self sustaining other than water top offs.  Keep us posted with your bowls please.


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## kamikazi

Newman said:


> You may also want to pick up two female cherry shrimp, one for each bowl. i see a whole lot of males, but no mature females in the bowls that would breed.
> 
> also are these bowls less than 1 gallon?


I tried to split the shrimp I got up so I had at least 2 or 3 females and 2 or 3 males in each bowl. I think I only got 6-8 shrimp total. I am wondering if I should get a few more.

No idea how many gallons. They are 10" bubble bowls sold at Micheal's. 



demonr6 said:


> Nice bowls! I wanted to do an NPT for mine but was out of soil so it is using some leftover Activ Flora sub I had. It has been a few months now and its a freaking forest. The algae I have is some GSA on the side where it gets some sunlight in the morning but other than that it is stellar. I tested the water for the first time last night, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and 5 nitrates. Not shabby for zero maintenance. I hardly remember to feed the shrimp, it is self sustaining other than water top offs.  Keep us posted with your bowls please.


Yeh I have only fed the shrimp a few times.


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## Newman

yes i think you could get a nice bright red female shrimp for each bowl.


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## nonconductive

love the emersed growth popping out of there!


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## kamikazi

nonconductive said:


> love the emersed growth popping out of there!


thanks, thats the wild collected arrowhead. It's awesome.


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## kamikazi

Small update

My arrowhead has bloomed!


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## DogFish

The arrowhead, how much root growth do you have? The one I collected for a small water feature grew a massive root system pretty fast.


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## Wingsdlc

Very cool but not what I was thinking it would look like. I thought that you had pickerelweed. I need to figure out if what you have is native or not. Our pickeralweed at school is blooming right now. Many of our lilies just got done the last week or so. You should swing by and check it out sometime.


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## Wingsdlc

Maybe this is what you have.

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=SALA2


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## kamikazi

DogFish said:


> The arrowhead, how much root growth do you have? The one I collected for a small water feature grew a massive root system pretty fast.


Pretty sure the root system covers most of the bottom of the bowl. If I wasn't afraid it would kill it, I would move it to my 40 gallon tank, but it would completely submerge the plant till it grew taller and I don't know how long they can live fully submerged.



Wingsdlc said:


> Maybe this is what you have.
> 
> http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=SALA2


It's either that one or this one.
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=SAGIT


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## kamikazi

*Update*

Update this one as well....

Not much going on with these, I very occasionally do a little maintenance to these. Both arrowheads bloomed last month. I collected some new plants for the bowls and ditched some other plants. 

Pretty sure I'm down to only 4 RCS total, 2 in each bowl. So I need to get some more.


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## madness

Any idea what reduced the RCS population?


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## kamikazi

madness said:


> Any idea what reduced the RCS population?


well there were only like 4 in each bowl to begin with.

not really any idea what happened with the others. kinda neglected these, I very rarely put any food in there as there has been algae. If I had to guess, I would guess starvation.


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## Newman

i'd feed them once a week or something. these bowls sure look great!


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## Newman

any updates here? i have to say i really like the plant choices for your bowls. I'll be looking into getting some of that arrowhead plant and that dwarf hairgrass you have there for my future plans, so leave some in there for me 
I like them so much that I'll buy them when the time comes lol.


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## kamikazi

Bowl on the right pretty much everything died. So I have started over on it. Nothing but plants in it atm. The left hand bowl is doing amazingly well. I have some pictures but I need to take time to upload them.


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## Newman

noooo, why did they die?


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## kamikazi

Newman said:


> noooo, why did they die?


not sure, probably partly b/c the main arrowhead died and when I went to pull it out I made a mess of the dirt and cloud that resulted settled on every other plant in there and likely greatly reduced the photosynthetic capabilities of the plants. 

no big deal it was easy to start it over.


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## Newman

so the arrowhead plants die back after a while? seasonal plants?


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## kamikazi

Newman said:


> so the arrowhead plants die back after a while? seasonal plants?


not really sure, I still have one alive in the other bowl. It could be a seasonal thing or maybe they need a time with just damp water.


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## kamikazi

*Update time 4/25/12*

Things have really taken off on the bowl on the left.
The bowl on the right died and I started over from scratch, new plants everything.

Left Bowl in Dec. 2011



























Left Bowl April 2012


















Right bowl Dec. 2011









Right Bowl April 2012


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## Wingsdlc

Wow! I love the plans growing out of the top.


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## kamikazi

Recent youtube video of the bowls.
Check it out!


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## kamikazi

Snapped a few pictures this morning before I left the house because I notice both the ludwigia and the Alternanthera were blooming, my first aquatic plant blooms! yes, they on emergent growth but I don't care. 

















Also these bowls are now home to about 10 kribensis fry. Just an experiment to see what would happen. They are still alive and been in there a week now. No heater, no filter they seem to like it, cruising around munching on all the yumminess in there. 

FBS

















Close up of insides


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## nonconductive

awesome bowls comrade


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## johnson18

These bowls are awesome! I just set up a bowl with some left over black onyx sand. I hope mine looks as good at some point! the emergent growth is really cool!


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## LyzzaRyzz

Any updates? They must be so packed with plants now!


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## kamikazi

LyzzaRyzz said:


> Any updates? They must be so packed with plants now!


Yes! Here are some updated shots. The Kribensis fry are still growing. 
Inside left bowl









Left bowl you can see a couple of the kribs









Krib in left bowl about an inch long









Top of Right bowl









Inside right bowl









Top of right bowl close up









Top of left bowl


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## Wingsdlc

Welcome to the jungle!


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## Newman

they look awesome


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## acejohn

Love it!


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## stanzzzz

Those bowls r really awesome , purely like a jungle. Even my stem plants refuses to grow.lol


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## mosspearl

Your bowls are fabulous.  I especially like the plant combo in the right bowl. Do you have a plant list for that one?


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## kamikazi

mosspearl said:


> Your bowls are fabulous.  I especially like the plant combo in the right bowl. Do you have a plant list for that one?


The right one has lugwigia repens, wisteria, duckweed, salavinia, and blyxa. Its going to need a redo soon. 

The left bowl on the other hand is doing great. 

When I redo the right bowl it will be the second time since I first set them up. I havent redone the left one at all. The only thing I can figure is the air duct vent blows right on the right bowl and the left bowl is protected from it by the bookshelf and the right bowl.


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## assasin6547

These are amazing!


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## seanski21

Wow this makes me want to spend more money! And good luck getting those baby kribs out of there when the time comes for that


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## kamikazi

seanski21 said:


> Wow this makes me want to spend more money! And good luck getting those baby kribs out of there when the time comes for that


I got a couple out. I had to do a major trim of wisteria first. I cut out about 15 wisteria plantlets and that gave me room to get a net in there to catch them. Don't get me wrong it is still a jungle, it was a tiny net.


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## 06rexwagon

any updates on this? I want to set up a small bowl as well and want to see how yours is doing.


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