# Drift Monkey's Planted Shrimp Bowl



## Drift Monkey (Mar 26, 2012)

I finally got motivated enough to start another little project, so here it is. Planted this a few days ago (04/03/2012)...



















Equipment:

1 gal bowl
~1" layer of Miracle Gro Organic Choice Potting Soil
~.5"layer play sand
15w 6500k CFL indoor floodlight

Plants:

Fanwort (Cabomba caroliniana)
Hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum)
Hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata)
Whorled Pennywort (Hydrocotyl verticillata)
East Indian Hygrophila (Hygrophila polysperma)
Asian marshweed (Limnophila sessiliflora)


All of my plants were collected from my local river thus far, and I'm using aquasafe'd tapwater.

I'm a complete planted tank n00b, but I've been reefing for years, so I have a few questions: 

Approximately how far away should I place the lighting? 
Any insight on any of the plants I have in there already? 
Suggestions on easy/hardy plants to purchase and add? 
I plan on adding cherry shrimp, when could I do that?


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## Bannik (Apr 2, 2011)

Great start!

I notice you have the bowl right next to a windowsill. I've tried that myself and found that it gets big temperature swings since there is so little water. On my first bowl I accidently ended up slow bowling my cabomba caroliniana.

For your plant selection, excellent choice they all mostly feed from the water column that way you won't have to worry as much about exhausting your substrate and they'll help keep your nitrates down.

I've not used miracle grow but I've read that it'll leach ammonia when first set-up. My suggestion would be not to add cherries until ammonia in the bowl reads as 0. Then do a large water change and test it again. Since there won't be any water movement in the bowl you'll want to make sure that when you do stir it up a little more ammonia doesn't start leaching again.


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## GMYukonon24s (May 3, 2009)

Nice bowl


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## jingleberry (Mar 1, 2012)

That seems like a lot of light for such a small tank. How tall is the bowl? Is the tank going to be exposed to sunlight?


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## Drift Monkey (Mar 26, 2012)

Bannik said:


> Great start!
> 
> I notice you have the bowl right next to a windowsill. I've tried that myself and found that it gets big temperature swings since there is so little water. On my first bowl I accidently ended up slow bowling my cabomba caroliniana.
> 
> ...


Well, it doesn't ever get direct sunlight...I live on the south side of my building and my roommates keep the temps at 70-75 all the time.

Thanks, I'll check my ammonia before I stick any shrimp in.


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## Drift Monkey (Mar 26, 2012)

jingleberry said:


> That seems like a lot of light for such a small tank. How tall is the bowl? Is the tank going to be exposed to sunlight?


It might be...but Dr. Walstad used a similar light for her bowls...the bowl is a tad over a foot high and I have the light about to a foot over the bowl. The bowl gets some indirect sunlight, but the sun never faces my room.


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## Newman (Jul 3, 2010)

lighting is fine, but the plant choice is something i would adjust. i think they can grow fine here, but they might overgrow really fast. I'd go with some sort of root feeding plant such as a crypt and maybe some ground cover - dwarf hairgrass, microsword, etc. you can also always add a piece of driftwood with moss tied to it. fissidens moss is very popular.


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## Drift Monkey (Mar 26, 2012)

Newman said:


> lighting is fine, but the plant choice is something i would adjust. i think they can grow fine here, but they might overgrow really fast. I'd go with some sort of root feeding plant such as a crypt and maybe some ground cover - dwarf hairgrass, microsword, etc. you can also always add a piece of driftwood with moss tied to it. fissidens moss is very popular.


Hmmm...I think I might be able to find fissidens on the river. I'll likely head to some LFS and fine some ground cover and some crypts...or maybe find someone on here who wants to trade for stuff I have. 

If I feel the current plants start getting crowded, I could always trim/yank them with ease...the beauty of the bowl...:icon_smil


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## Disher (Apr 1, 2012)

Excellent bowl, I like how you get to collect specimens locally! Any updates?


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## Drift Monkey (Mar 26, 2012)

Disher said:


> Excellent bowl, I like how you get to collect specimens locally! Any updates?


Well, I dug out a old lamp that better suits the bowl:










No real changes to the bowl....just been getting topping...everything is growing fine.

I need to try to get some shrimp in there soon! :icon_lol:


BTW...it looks like you're in TX. If you ever need any river plants...


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## Disher (Apr 1, 2012)

I didn't even realize you're from San Marcos, that's awesome. I'm living in Corpus Christi, not many river plants here! Plenty of macro algae though.


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## Drift Monkey (Mar 26, 2012)

Disher said:


> I didn't even realize you're from San Marcos, that's awesome. I'm living in Corpus Christi, not many river plants here! Plenty of macro algae though.


Not from...just a student here. :icon_mrgr

I'm actually from Houston.


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## Newman (Jul 3, 2010)

you dont want to uproot plants too much in a soil bowl. that's why stems may not be the best idea.
you need a selection of plants that you can just plant and leave em be for a few years as they take over.
thats one method of making a bowl.
i forgot to mention blyxa. a stem plant but it grows looking like dwarf sag, pretty useful and looks good.


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## Drift Monkey (Mar 26, 2012)

Newman said:


> you dont want to uproot plants too much in a soil bowl. that's why stems may not be the best idea.
> you need a selection of plants that you can just plant and leave em be for a few years as they take over.
> thats one method of making a bowl.
> i forgot to mention blyxa. a stem plant but it grows looking like dwarf sag, pretty useful and looks good.


I figured I can trim or just remove most of the plants that get too overgrown...they're mostly free floating that I just set in place in the soil. Should I start over with different plants?


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## Newman (Jul 3, 2010)

not necessarily, you can just move the stems out over time and replace with root feeding plants, moss, etc.


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## GMYukonon24s (May 3, 2009)

That's a nice lamp for the bowl.


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## Drift Monkey (Mar 26, 2012)

So I went to the LFS today and picked up some dwarf hair grass and a crypt crypt wendtii. I tried to plant them and it basically wasted a LOT more time then I should have and making a mess of everything... In the end, I just ended up redoing the whole thing...I found some gravel to cap the soil off, so I decided to just use it instead of the sand this go around. I kept some of the river plants and re-planted them is well.

Still cloudy:










Only problem is, I bought some cherry shrimp, thinking it'd go smoothly and they'd go in their new home tonight. :icon_sad: I guess they're staying in some tupperware for a bit...any idea how long I should wait before dumping 'em in?


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## Drift Monkey (Mar 26, 2012)

GMYukonon24s said:


> That's a nice lamp for the bowl.


Thanks, I had it laying around...might as well use it!


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## Newman (Jul 3, 2010)

for DHG and the crypt, perhaps a dry start (make it humid though) would be best. the HG will spread way faster that way. drain it until there is a little water at the bottom, put plastic wrap over the top and keep it humid. the plants will grow fast and well. in a month you'd have a full and complete looking tank 
you'd want to separate the DHG a little more though.

as for the shrimp, you should either have the bowl cycled first or have it full of lush plant growth(via dry start) to have them ave the best chances of surviving.

let me know what you decided to do and i can further help you get this bowl going.


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## Drift Monkey (Mar 26, 2012)

Newman said:


> for DHG and the crypt, perhaps a dry start (make it humid though) would be best. the HG will spread way faster that way. drain it until there is a little water at the bottom, put plastic wrap over the top and keep it humid. the plants will grow fast and well. in a month you'd have a full and complete looking tank
> you'd want to separate the DHG a little more though.
> 
> as for the shrimp, you should either have the bowl cycled first or have it full of lush plant growth(via dry start) to have them ave the best chances of surviving.
> ...


Hmmm...I hadn't considered a dry start for the bowl. I feel like a picked the wrong plants now...this is quickly becoming more work than I bargained for haha. So maybe I can have the DHG growing around the crypt in the middle? I was also thinking about getting some dwarf sagittaria and putting it somewhere...

Anyway, for the dry start...would I be removing all of the gravel in order to let the plants grow out? Or will the DHG grow through it? As for separating the DHG...I'm assuming I'd just need to gently pull it apart until I have maybe 3-4 small patches to surround the crypt with?

I can always toss the non-rooting plants in another tupperware I suppose...that's where my shrimp are living right now....they seem to be doing fine. 

I am also debating starting another small project in my now empty picotope...but that might have to have its own thread...:icon_redf


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## Drift Monkey (Mar 26, 2012)

Welp, it's officially dry now...everything seems to be doing ok. Answer my questions Newman!


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## FisheriesOmen (Jan 14, 2012)

Lol your just like me when I first saw his shrimp bowl and asked him questions constantly for a month . Good times


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## Drift Monkey (Mar 26, 2012)

Been a while since I updated, so here she is. I let her dry start for several weeks then filled her up. I just gave a DHG another trim because it was starting to breach the water surface.

Unfortunately all 3 of my cherries died...so I'm going to have to grab some more...but not until I figure out what the problem is with that. The water has been clouding up for some reason, and I think it's just been a combination of the dying duckweed and snail poop.

In other news...I got a Fluval Ebi as a graduation gift!


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## albirdy (Jul 16, 2008)

have you checked your water parameters?
are you sure the potting soil isn't leaching?


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## Newman (Jul 3, 2010)

looking nice!

what snails are in there? during weekly water changes, you could take out decaying plant matter.

then test to make sure its cycled and make sure you arent getting cloudy water. after all is good get some shrimp


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## Knotyoureality (Aug 3, 2012)

Drift Monkey said:


> Hmmm...I hadn't considered a dry start for the bowl. I feel like a picked the wrong plants now...this is quickly becoming more work than I bargained for haha. So maybe I can have the DHG growing around the crypt in the middle? I was also thinking about getting some dwarf sagittaria and putting it somewhere...
> 
> Anyway, for the dry start...would I be removing all of the gravel in order to let the plants grow out? Or will the DHG grow through it? As for separating the DHG...I'm assuming I'd just need to gently pull it apart until I have maybe 3-4 small patches to surround the crypt with?
> 
> ...


 
Personally, I've had stayed with your original set up and let it develop to see where it went on its own. Part of the beauty of small bowls like this--and I've nine going at the moment--is testing things out thru reasonable levels of trial and error. My main shrimp bowl has cardamine lyrata and crypts in fluorite. Without heavy feeding or fertilization and just indirect lighting, growth has been slow, though the lyrata has broken surface and is starting to grow emerged and the shrimp are now climbing among crypt stems instead of over the leaves. When the crypts get too big I'll see how they respond to heavy pruning to force them to throw out new small leaves or start pulling some out. By then, who knows? Maybe I'll be ready to break down the entire bowl and move 'em into a larger tank.


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## Drift Monkey (Mar 26, 2012)

Newman said:


> looking nice!
> 
> what snails are in there? during weekly water changes, you could take out decaying plant matter.
> 
> then test to make sure its cycled and make sure you arent getting cloudy water. after all is good get some shrimp


Thanks, but I've since torn it down when I moved. :icon_sad: I am gonna start it back up pretty soon though I think...I need some plants for it though. I like your little LED lamp...was it from Ikea? I think using one of those next go would be much cleaner if it's strong enough to sustain the plants.

They were just pond snails I'm sure...hitchhiked into the bowl.

The good news is, I started my 'real' first planted shrimp tanks (Ebi and Edge)! The threads are somewhere around the Planted Nano Tanks forum, check 'em out and tell me what ya think!

I'm thinking of just stocking some culls into the bowls...that'll be a good home for 'em! :hihi:



Knotyoureality said:


> Personally, I've had stayed with your original set up and let it develop to see where it went on its own. Part of the beauty of small bowls like this--and I've nine going at the moment--is testing things out thru reasonable levels of trial and error. My main shrimp bowl has cardamine lyrata and crypts in fluorite. Without heavy feeding or fertilization and just indirect lighting, growth has been slow, though the lyrata has broken surface and is starting to grow emerged and the shrimp are now climbing among crypt stems instead of over the leaves. When the crypts get too big I'll see how they respond to heavy pruning to force them to throw out new small leaves or start pulling some out. By then, who knows? Maybe I'll be ready to break down the entire bowl and move 'em into a larger tank.


Yeah probably, I can always go collect more plants from the river again! We'll see...this thread will get an update when I start my bowl back up!


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## Newman (Jul 3, 2010)

I am glad pond snails never made it into my bowl. pretty unheard of - having a planted tank w/o pest snails  jk

yes the lamps is from ikea for about $20. i got mine off [Ebay Link Removed]
it may or may not be good enough for actually growing out plants to fill a bowl. i grew mine with a 11W CFL, and then in the last few months replace with this LED. it has done a good job of keeping the plants alive and well. They do grow, just probably not as fast as under the CFL. its only 1W after all lol.

I have some extra yellow shrimp in my bowl if you want them.


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## Drift Monkey (Mar 26, 2012)

Newman said:


> I am glad pond snails never made it into my bowl. pretty unheard of - having a planted tank w/o pest snails  jk
> 
> yes the lamps is from ikea for about $20. i got mine off [Ebay Link Removed]
> it may or may not be good enough for actually growing out plants to fill a bowl. i grew mine with a 11W CFL, and then in the last few months replace with this LED. it has done a good job of keeping the plants alive and well. They do grow, just probably not as fast as under the CFL. its only 1W after all lol.
> ...


Yeah...I was trying to figure out some way to rig up a 3W+ LED setup for a bowl...that'd be nice. We'll see.

I'm actually cycling the ol' Picotope for another shrimp tank (addicted much? :hihi, so I may take some yellows off your hands soon enough! ...and I guess that means ANOTHER thread...:bounce:


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