# Planted Bowl - Sunken Forest



## tetra10 (Aug 5, 2012)

kuhli loach? how big is the bowl?


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## Bermyguy (Apr 3, 2012)

What type of plants do you have ?


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## Knotyoureality (Aug 3, 2012)

It's a pretty little bowl right now--but not sustainable. 

The "algae eater" you have is a chinese algae eater. Not a great algae eater even when young, gets rapidly less useful as it ages--and it grows fast, up to 10" although 6" is more common in my experience. Then again, maybe everyone just gets rid of them by then. 

The kuhli loach gets up to 4" and does best in multiples--3 at a minimum. 

The lampeyes stay pretty small--around 1.5", so you might get away with them, though hard to tell as you didn't mention how many gallons this vase actually holds. If it's anything under 3g, you'd be best taking out pretty much all the fish and just keeping the shrimp and snails-you'd easily be able to add some more cherries and get a nice little colony going.


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## acejohn (Sep 4, 2010)

Knotyoureality said:


> It's a pretty little bowl right now--but not sustainable.
> 
> The "algae eater" you have is a chinese algae eater. Not a great algae eater even when young, gets rapidly less useful as it ages--and it grows fast, up to 10" although 6" is more common in my experience. Then again, maybe everyone just gets rid of them by then.
> 
> ...


I think the bowl is around 1.5g. How much cherries can I have for this size?


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## Knotyoureality (Aug 3, 2012)

Most folks recommend 6-10 per gallon.


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## jeremyTR (Mar 21, 2012)

Knotyoureality said:


> Most folks recommend 6-10 per gallon.





acejohn said:


> I think the bowl is around 1.5g. How much cherries can I have for this size?



6-10?

I say as many as you can fit. Just let the colony grow in there. I'm sure they'll slow down on their own.


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## SpecGrrl (Jul 26, 2012)

Did you keep the receipts for the fish?

Or maybe you can pick up a 30 gallon, bc you need 2 more loaches at least. They're community fish.


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## skabooya (Apr 15, 2005)

The bowl is beautiful. How often do you do water changes? How long has it been set up? 
I need to do one myself as well but I would only add cherries due to bioload.


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## lauralou (May 8, 2012)

The bowl IS beautiful. I love the shape, and the way you 'scaped it. Nice job!

I'd use it as an awesome shrimp bowl, too. 1 1/2 gallons is pretty small for most fish. But it's a nice size for sitting on an end table, kitchen counter, etc. Very decorative. 

I want one.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Wow! This bowl looks awesome! I set one up yesterday that's about 3 gallons, but it doesn't look anything like this! Your scape is pretty sweet. Thanks for the inspiration! I guess I will be redoing my bowl soon. Lol


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## SpecGrrl (Jul 26, 2012)

Your scape is gorgeous -- sorry I was overly fixated on the fish!


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## acejohn (Sep 4, 2010)

jeremyTR said:


> 6-10?
> 
> I say as many as you can fit. Just let the colony grow in there. I'm sure they'll slow down on their own.


I guess we still have more room for some shrimps!


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## acejohn (Sep 4, 2010)

skabooya said:


> The bowl is beautiful. How often do you do water changes? How long has it been set up?
> I need to do one myself as well but I would only add cherries due to bioload.


Thanks!
I changed the water at least twice a week. This has been up for three weeks and still figuring out how this stuff really works.


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## acejohn (Sep 4, 2010)

SpecGrrl said:


> Your scape is gorgeous -- sorry I was overly fixated on the fish!


Thanks!
All of the fish are 1" or less in size. I was planning to trade them with some shrimps when they outgrown the bowl.


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## acejohn (Sep 4, 2010)

johnson18 said:


> Wow! This bowl looks awesome! I set one up yesterday that's about 3 gallons, but it doesn't look anything like this! Your scape is pretty sweet. Thanks for the inspiration! I guess I will be redoing my bowl soon. Lol


Thanks too!


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## Newman (Jul 3, 2010)

having fish in there might set you up for a crash pretty soon. I'd just do all shrimp once you are sure the bowl is cycled. what params does it have now, right before a weekly water change?

Do remove those fish when you can.

but the bowl looks sweet =)


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## acejohn (Sep 4, 2010)

Newman said:


> having fish in there might set you up for a crash pretty soon. I'd just do all shrimp once you are sure the bowl is cycled. what params does it have now, right before a weekly water change?
> 
> Do remove those fish when you can.
> 
> but the bowl looks sweet =)


Oh that reminds that I have to get those test strips! 

Thanks!


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## acejohn (Sep 4, 2010)

Added some plants and fishes (Neon and Diamond head Tetra)


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## golfer_d (Oct 3, 2012)

Awesome looking bowl but I am thinking that its way to small for fish?!!?


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## Newman (Jul 3, 2010)

still looks great, but what happened to the other fish that were in here before?

also what is the plant that's growing out of the bowl. if its dwarf sag, how do you not have the leaves drying out at the tips when they break the surface of the water?


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## acejohn (Sep 4, 2010)

Newman said:


> still looks great, but what happened to the other fish that were in here before?
> 
> also what is the plant that's growing out of the bowl. if its dwarf sag, how do you not have the leaves drying out at the tips when they break the surface of the water?


I'm not sure what plant this is. When this started to emersed it gets up to 4-5 leaves and the older ones starting to dry out.The old fish are still here lampeye, kuhli loch, algae eater


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## stanzzzz (Jun 27, 2010)

Great looking bowl apart from the fish, I would say it would be awesome with now red cherry shrimps.


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## mattschaefer92 (Aug 24, 2012)

Why did you get more fish when everyone already said there were too many already? I just don't understand the reasoning.


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## CoffeeLove (Oct 31, 2012)

Your shrimp colony isnt going to go anywhere with fish in there. 

You have a lot of fish in such a small bowl, I don't understand.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2


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## Newman (Jul 3, 2010)

yes adding even more fish is definitely not what i would have done.
The plant looks to be some variety of amazon sword plant. really nice the way it grows here!


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## acejohn (Sep 4, 2010)

mattschaefer92 said:


> Why did you get more fish when everyone already said there were too many already? I just don't understand the reasoning.


Testing the setup to it's limit. Just trying to see how far can this go.:wink:


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## acejohn (Sep 4, 2010)

CoffeeLove said:


> Your shrimp colony isnt going to go anywhere with fish in there.
> 
> You have a lot of fish in such a small bowl, I don't understand.
> 
> Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2


I started with 5 shrimps and only one from the 5 is left but now I have close 20 shrimplets


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## golfer_d (Oct 3, 2012)

acejohn said:


> Testing the setup to it's limit. Just trying to see how far can this go.:wink:


Would you enjoy it if somebody did this to you and put you in a closet to see what your limits were?


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## acejohn (Sep 4, 2010)

golfer_d said:


> Would you enjoy it if somebody did this to you and put you in a closet to see what your limits were?


That's a different story.


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## Disher (Apr 1, 2012)

Lol golfer that was crazy... It's obvious the fish are staying in there, everyone needs to get over it already.

Anywho, I think this bowl is very attractive. I like how you utilize natural lighting and I also love the clarity of the glass. The bowl/jar thing I have has poor clarity and I wish I would've paid closer attention to that before setting it up! I'm guessing you have this sitting next to a window that gets full sun all day? Or did you just pick a random window and go with it?


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## golfer_d (Oct 3, 2012)

Just sayin...


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## acejohn (Sep 4, 2010)

Disher said:


> Lol golfer that was crazy... It's obvious the fish are staying in there, everyone needs to get over it already.
> 
> Anywho, I think this bowl is very attractive. I like how you utilize natural lighting and I also love the clarity of the glass. The bowl/jar thing I have has poor clarity and I wish I would've paid closer attention to that before setting it up! I'm guessing you have this sitting next to a window that gets full sun all day? Or did you just pick a random window and go with it?


I put this next to a window but it doesn't get the sun all day. Maybe 2 hours max and only early morning light. You also need to control how much sunlight its getting coz you will be having problems with the algae soon. I sometimes put this out of direct sunlight when I see algae starting to grow thicker.


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