# 1 Gallon Jar Journal



## Bbroush (Dec 17, 2012)

I’m not feeling super inspired but I have some ideas for this jar and would love some opinions. My plan for this jar for now is to NOT put any shrimp in it, at least until winter is over, because the room this is in tends to be around 66-70 degrees, which might be a bit too cold, plus my 8 RCS shrimp i put in my riparium haven’t started breeding yet, but we’ll see for the future. Likely for now it will strictly be planted and have a nerite or pond snail + I’ll likely transfer over some of the infinite number of baby MTS in my riparium, or that are in the vase. 


Substrate: I’m going to some sort of soil. Either some MGOC potting mix (which I tried to do with the vase) or I have a schultz potting soil that is more dirt & less wood that might work well, or MG garden soil. I’m planning on buying a cap of some sort. Probably either BDBS or just sand? 

Hardscape/Plants: 
Two thoughts: Either I could do some sort of rockscape in the middle with the anubias I just put in my riparium (or would it be happier in my low light aquarium?) or possibly a couple baby crypts I have that I could tranplant. 
I could also have some dead maple or birch tree branches that litter my lawn in the center and tie java moss to it to make a sort of tree.
Other than those two ideas I’m thinking of rescuing some of my monte carlo and staurogyne repens that are struggling in my riparium, (my planted plus 24/7 can’t be opened until christmas …..) and creating a carpet throughout the rest. 

I could also do some stems of ludwigia repens in the back and cabomba or anacharis. Or java fern. or maybe some telanthera cardinalis. My plan though is to have this at a light level that would really help the carpeting plants grow well. 

Lighting: I’m planning on using that clamp light with something in it. These are the options I have laying around
Tons of old CFLs that are 6500k, probably.
9.5 w 5000k LED BR30 (same as over my riparium currently)
15 watt 6400k PAR38 LED
Other assorted smaller Fin light LEDs I have from my days working in electronics.
That 7W LED desk lamp could possibly be used as well? (I’d prefer not to because I don’t have any other solutions for that vase.)

Hopefully I can do this tomorrow or Monday possibly. Thanks for any advice. 

￼


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## Bbroush (Dec 17, 2012)

So here it is! I have the BDBS with a potting soil underneath. It is about 2.5 inches total I think. Hopefully it.s not too much depth. It's only about an inch of potting soil.

I planted a couple small crypts, Monte Carlo in.the front and staurogyne repens in the middle back. A few branches with Java fern and moss tied to them, and just some stem plants I'm trying to grow out a little more. (ludwigia, telanthera, and cabomba) likely I'll move them all except the telanthera once everything that carpets starts filling in.

I might have too many pieces of wood in there. I added a couple without any moss to see how they look. Also I added a few pieces of lava rock from my other aquarium as a bit of a hardscape and also to help with cycling. Also hopefully there are some baby MTS in here. If not there are definitely some in that vase I can transfer over. 
Lighting wise I have several options of higher and lower wattage LEDs that for now can be in that hood but I'm getting a cool desk lamp that will be here next week 
















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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Welcome to APC!

Prepare to do a lot of trimming. My experience with these planted jars is that the plants outgrow them very quickly. If you want to put shrimp in the jar, they won't mind the cooler temperatures at all.


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## Bbroush (Dec 17, 2012)

Michael said:


> Welcome to APC!
> 
> Prepare to do a lot of trimming. My experience with these planted jars is that the plants outgrow them very quickly. If you want to put shrimp in the jar, they won't mind the cooler temperatures at all.


Thanks Michael! My hope is I can use this jar to make some great carpet plants and others for my 20 gallon!

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## Bbroush (Dec 17, 2012)

Update! I've tried several carpeting plants and added some more moss and it has exploded in both growth and invertebrate life. I'm also adding my 2.5 gallon to this journal. I have some manzanita that I added that is clouding the water a lot.

December 6th jars















That blyxa melted a ton. You'll notice its progression over time though.

12/10
2.5 gallon initial set up


















These are from December 15. I have all the jars still except the small vase on the far right.

12/28

at this point I think I first noticed shrimp babies. Also my frogbit had roots all the way through the dirt! Lol. Also when I got back from vacation the hornwort in the 1 gallon had grown in a full circle!


















2.5 gallon definitely had some serious growth. 









1/2

Growth was great at this point. I was getting frustrated with the Monte carlo at this point and was contemplating moving it to the narrow jars (I'm using those as grow outs for now until I get a bigger jar, or maybe a fluval spec??, someday.)

Also shortly after this point I added some red manzanita twigs to all but the one gallon and they've totally been clouding up the water 


































1/17

you can see ludwigia really has turned red and starts to emerge at this point. I also decided to put the lid on the one gallon as well. It's glass so no modifications for light was necessary.

Also at this point i have removed at least 2-3 sandwich bags worth of floaters from all of these jars. 



























1/21
Don't mind that wire. I was playing with different ways to keep the jar slightly cracked. I decided on a piece of tubing.










About a week later I had a baby snail explosion! The issue with these ramshorn snails is they eat any new fine/newly introduced plants like tiny blyxa or even the micro swords I've added. It's super frustrating. I think I'll add either dwarf sag or glosso to this tank as well. 









2/11










The ludwigia had grown as high as it could in the lid plus some! I trimmed the top off and planted it in my 20 gallon. It's so incredibly red.

A second stem is emerging as well.



















The 2.5 gallon has been doing well. The cloudiness from the manzanita hasn't let up at all yet. I've done two big water changes to no avail so far. I'll just have to wait it out.
The glossi has been exploding in the front and the rotala stems on the right are really growing. The s. Repens has all been moved to this tank and they've done nothing really :/ i also made a cover for this jar using the lid and the light. Pics at some point.


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## kolet66 (Jan 14, 2017)

Bbroush said:


> Update! I've tried several carpeting plants and added some more moss and it has exploded in both growth and invertebrate life. I'm also adding my 2.5 gallon to this journal. I have some manzanita that I added that is clouding the water a lot.
> 
> December 6th jars
> 
> ...


Nice journal. Each of your jars is like a fascinating little world. I love vases. I have to restrain myself from lining them up all over the house.

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## Bbroush (Dec 17, 2012)

kolet66 said:


> Nice journal. Each of your jars is like a fascinating little world. I love vases. I have to restrain myself from lining them up all over the house.
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


Thanks! Yeah I can't wait until the manzanita stops clouding up the water


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## s2man (Nov 8, 2016)

Great looking jars.


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## Moarnica (Dec 12, 2017)

Bbroush, Your Jars are amazing and I'm trying to do something similar and wanting to find out the minimum water capacity I need to hold in order to sustain a life in it (in my case ramshorn snails) without poisoning them. I don't have access to many of those fast-growing plants like you lucky people from USA. I have Christmas and Java moss as floaters and crypts and sag. So I'm trying my luck...


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## zolteeC (Dec 26, 2017)

Awesome looking jars!

Congratulations, keep us posted how they progress, please.


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

Was waiting for a journal like this!!!


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Fantastic pictures of progress! That red Ludwigia exploding out of the jar... This is a _seriousl_y healthy plant.  I detected a couple of shrimp in the pictures. Hope they are doing well.

The only problem I've had with small containers is keeping them heated during the winter. (I keep the house temperature at 66F.) Other than that, they are so much fun, great for experimenting, and a good way to propagate many plant species. You are learning--and teaching us--how to keep a planted tank with your water, lighting, soil, etc. Bravo!


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## Wildfire (Oct 6, 2007)

Any updates?


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