# My "Walstad bowl"



## Nolan (Feb 12, 2013)

When I read about these and realized I had all materials around my house I just *had* to put one together.

Update: 10/20/2014
I removed the crypt to allow more light down to the grass. The crypt had found the water surface and was putting out really long leaves that stretched all across the surface.









Update: 5/27/2014
The DHG is really starting to spread now.









Update: 4/29/14 
Added DHG and Crypt, took out ludwigia yesterday










Update:12/31/13 Re-Scaped









Update:4/27/13









Update:3/8/13

















Initial setup: 02/02/13









Tank: 1g bowl

Lighting: [STRIKE]11 watt GE CFL indoor floodlight 6700k[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]Westward facing window[/STRIKE] stock LED lighting off of my 37g

Mechanical: none

Heater: none

Substrate: Miracle Grow organic grower's choice, gravel, super naturals tahitian moon sand

Flora: Red Tiger Lotus, [STRIKE]Dwarg Sag, Ludwigia Repens, Duckweed, Wisteria[/STRIKE] Dwarf Hairgrass 

Fauna: pond snails, Cherry Shrimp, 1 cory fry (moved)

This bowl has become very low maintenance. For the first month I had to skim the surface almost everyday to remove bio-film. Now I do a small water change every other week or so.


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## Nolan (Feb 12, 2013)

*Cory fry*

There must have been a cory egg on the ludwigia stem I transplanted from my other tank...










looks like around 10days old. 

Can I take this to mean my water quality is good?


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## Lia (Aug 2, 2007)

Came out great, what type of water changes are you doing ?


"Miracle Grow organic grower's choice" seems to be what most in here use but I thought it had cow manure ?


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## pweifan (Nov 2, 2006)

Did the Cory make it?


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## Nolan (Feb 12, 2013)

Ive been doing about a 20% water change every 10 days or so. Basically whenever I start to get biofilm on the surface


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## Nolan (Feb 12, 2013)

pweifan said:


> Did the Cory make it?


Yes. I moved it to the 37g and its doing great. Took me about 10min to catch the little booger though!


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## Nolan (Feb 12, 2013)

Moved to the kitchen table. Makes a great centerpiece IMO.


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## Nolan (Feb 12, 2013)

Lia said:


> "Miracle Grow organic grower's choice" seems to be what most in here use but I thought it had cow manure ?


Not sure bout the manure. I did not check ingredients. I just went with because it seemed to work well for others. So far so good for me too *fingers crossed.


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## Nolan (Feb 12, 2013)

Here is the cory that hatched in the bowl. Its much more colorful than its parents, although daddy fish is albino...:icon_smil


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## javajive1981 (Feb 20, 2013)

Cool. Your bowl is lovely

Sent from my GT-S5830i using Tapatalk 2


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## GMYukonon24s (May 3, 2009)

Nice bowl!


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## octanejunkie (Jul 23, 2013)

Great looking bowl, looks great on your kitchen table

How's it doing?


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## Nolan (Feb 12, 2013)

octanejunkie said:


> Great looking bowl, looks great on your kitchen table
> 
> How's it doing?


So it did really well for the first few months with just the light from the window.

By november everything had stopped growing but the duckweed. It was getting like 2 hours of strong light and then barely any for the rest of the day

I just rescaped it a couple days ago and have it on a nightstand in my bedroom with the led panel that came with my 37g marineland set sitting on top.

New pic coming soon


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## Nolan (Feb 12, 2013)

relocated and re-scaped


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## usgetata (Dec 28, 2012)

Liking it! Keep us updated!
You made me want to create one myself with the trimming leftover :-D


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## cbachmann (Aug 6, 2013)

Its a real beaut sir. I tip my hat to you!


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## pweifan (Nov 2, 2006)

Looks great! You should be proud of the baby cory


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## aquariumhobbyist (Feb 18, 2014)

Just found this post while surfing the web for techniques on how to properly set up a Walstad Tank (or bowl as in your case), particularly with respect to the soil and substrate to be used. I intend to set up a similar bowl for a friend that I hope to inspire into the aquarium hobby by presenting a wonderfully set up bowl live with plants and all.

I intend to keep either a betta fish or a couple of shrimp in the bowl. I was wondering if you had any recommendations based on your experience. 

Also, one last thing; what happened to your lotus (I assume that's what it is, or type of another water lily) in your rescape?


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## Briz (Apr 25, 2013)

I would recommend shrimp. A betta calls for warmer water than shrimp, so you could stay heater-less guilt free. Also they won't swish around the water like a betta might (uprooting plants) and they will do something about algae. You could do more than a couple too! I've heard recommended about 10 per gallon, so you could probably do at least 5 easily.


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## Nolan (Feb 12, 2013)

aquariumhobbyist said:


> Just found this post while surfing the web for techniques on how to properly set up a Walstad Tank (or bowl as in your case), particularly with respect to the soil and substrate to be used. I intend to set up a similar bowl for a friend that I hope to inspire into the aquarium hobby by presenting a wonderfully set up bowl live with plants and all.
> 
> I intend to keep either a betta fish or a couple of shrimp in the bowl. I was wondering if you had any recommendations based on your experience.
> 
> Also, one last thing; what happened to your lotus (I assume that's what it is, or type of another water lily) in your rescape?


sorry for the late reply, but Briz is spot on with the advice

also the lotus is still there I just trimmed it way down, its getting big again now

Another reason I like shrimp over fish is that I dont ever have to feed them, no added food = very little poop = low maintenance 

I add food only when my plants look like they need it.


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## AGUILAR3 (Jun 22, 2013)

It's been a while. Any update pics? 

How can you get away from not feeding them? Algae?


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## Nolan (Feb 12, 2013)

AGUILAR3 said:


> It's been a while. Any update pics?
> 
> How can you get away from not feeding them? Algae?


I put the new pic at the top of the first post.

Before I had shrimp I had a problem with biofilm forming on the water surface. I believe they eat that as well as algae and dead plant matter. They have been steadily increasing in number so I assume they are eating enough..


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## AGUILAR3 (Jun 22, 2013)

Looking good. Have you thought about removing the lotus? Plant looks good in the bowl. Too bad it doesn't stay small though.


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## Nolan (Feb 12, 2013)

AGUILAR3 said:


> Looking good. Have you thought about removing the lotus? Plant looks good in the bowl. Too bad it doesn't stay small though.


I'm going to attempt to train it to stay somewhat compact. If I end up having to move it that'll be ok too. I'll probably be looking for a reason to rescape it again by then anyhow


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## Nolan (Feb 12, 2013)

DHG is spreading


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Love the scape growing out, but whats that black ball the shrimp is on? marble/rock.. large round snail shell?


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## Nolan (Feb 12, 2013)

AquaAurora said:


> Love the scape growing out, but whats that black ball the shrimp is on? marble/rock.. large round snail shell?


Thanks!

It's a rock. My wife and I were trying to figure out where that rock came from, and we have no clue..

on second look I'm guessing your talking about shrimp in foreground of the newest picture... that would be an olive nerite snail


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## Nolan (Feb 12, 2013)

DHG is pretty much a carpet now! :biggrin:


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## Nolan (Feb 12, 2013)

AGUILAR3 said:


> Looking good. Have you thought about removing the lotus? Plant looks good in the bowl. Too bad it doesn't stay small though.


Well I think the training has been a success. This lotus has been in the bowl for 20months now, and seems to be producing smaller and lower leaves as time goes on. I just trim it back to 3-5 leaves about once a month.


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

Love the current look.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Nolan said:


> Well I think the training has been a success. This lotus has been in the bowl for 20months now, and seems to be producing smaller and lower leaves as time goes on. I just trim it back to 3-5 leaves about once a month.


Your bowl looks so sexy I want to toss mine and and grab yours!! Is that regular dwarf hairgrass or the Belem type? Also love that blue/black hues rock. Where did you get it?


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## Nolan (Feb 12, 2013)

AquaAurora said:


> Is that regular dwarf hairgrass or the Belem type? Also love that blue/black hues rock. Where did you get it?


I believe it's regular dwarf. As for the rock, when I was kid I used to collect rocks. This is the only one I still have from those days and have no clue as to where I picked it up



AquaAurora said:


> Your bowl looks so sexy I want to toss mine and and grab yours!!


Thanks! This is definitely the cleanest looking scape I've done to date, not my usual style but I really like it. 

The great thing about these bowls is if you don't like the look, you can rescape in about an hour or two. I think this was my 3rd rescape of this bowl in almost 2yrs.

I think your bowl looks really nice, just needs some color contrast. Either by plants or hardscape..


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## Mariostg (Sep 6, 2014)

Nolan said:


> I put the new pic at the top of the first post.
> 
> Before I had shrimp I had a problem with biofilm forming on the water surface. I believe they eat that as well as algae and dead plant matter. They have been steadily increasing in number so I assume they are eating enough..


I like your bowl.
In an earlier post you said you do water change (about 20%) every 10 day or when biofilm form. Now with the venue of shrimp that seem to solve your biofilm problem, does this have an impact on water change? did you reduce the frequency?


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## Daximus (Oct 19, 2011)

Very nice bowl! I just set up a pair of large vase style bowls Walstad style myself. Was so happy with them I tore down my high tech nano and went Walstad with it too. 

It amazed me what can be done with this method. So many people (myself included) adding co2 and calculating ferts...yet a bowl with some dirt in the bottom seems to do it all the better, and at much less cost.


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## Neatfish (Jun 22, 2012)

Now I want to do a bowl.


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## Daximus (Oct 19, 2011)

Neatfish said:


> Now I want to do a bowl.


I literally have less than the cost of the bowl invested in mine, lol.


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## annyann (Aug 31, 2013)

Great looking bowl!!


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## Nolan (Feb 12, 2013)

Guck said:


> I like your bowl.
> In an earlier post you said you do water change (about 20%) every 10 day or when biofilm form. Now with the venue of shrimp that seem to solve your biofilm problem, does this have an impact on water change? did you reduce the frequency?



I'm starting to think that it was more the pond snails that were eating the film because they have disappeared, and now I get film again.. 
I'm not sure what happened with the pond snails all other creatures(limpets, seed shrimp, cherry shrimp, nerites) seem to be thriving. 

So I have actually had to increase to once a week 20% water change

During the time it was on my kitchen table(about 6months) I didnt do any water changes, only top-offs and the water was crystal clear and no surface film. 
The shrimp did really well during this time too, tripling in number. The downside was the plants didnt grow well they were all long and stringy and I had quit a bit of thread algae.


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## chriscc63 (Jul 13, 2017)

I know this is an old post, but I really want this exact same set up , grass and a red shrimp or two. how do I start? I know read the walstad book


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