# 10l (2.5g) bowl



## mysiak

Hello all  I started my first 160l (~42gal) tank almost 2 years ago, didn't know anything about "El Natural" method, but it seems that I did it more or less right. Aquarium is heavily planted and heavily stocked and working pretty much without any issues. So I needed a new challenge. I didn't have a chance to read the book yet (on the way to me), but hopefully I understood the basics correctly. I found an unused 10l (2.5g) bowl, put a potting soil, black volcanic substrate, two pieces of driftwood and some plants from my other tank. I will be adding more plants in a couple of days, along with red cherry shrimps (if water parameters will be good). Currently it houses couple of MTS and ramshorn snails. I like how it turned out so far, so sharing my joy with you


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## Michael

Welcome to APC! The bowl looks really good.


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## hoppycalif

Welcome to APC! Now, I have a request: I would enjoy reading about the details on your DIY lamp. See the DIY forum. That lamp looks great, and looks like a very effective design. If you made it, please share your experience with us.


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## mysiak

Thanks!

@hoppycalif - I must sadly admit that lamp was purchased from a store, unfortunately I miss the skills to make one. However it looks a bit like "homemade" 

It's Globo 21504 (http://www.globo-lighting.com/en/products/55/21504/) with 6500K 10W LED bulb (~1100lm). Wooden lamps are getting quite popular here in Europe, so it's not very hard to find similar lamps from different companies. Skilled people should be able to create one quite easily as it's very simple design and works great. If you're interested, I can provide photos from different angles.


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## hoppycalif

mysiak said:


> Thanks!
> 
> @hoppycalif - I must sadly admit that lamp was purchased from a store, unfortunately I miss the skills to make one. However it looks a bit like "homemade"
> 
> It's Globo 21504 (http://www.globo-lighting.com/en/products/55/21504/) with 6500K 10W LED bulb (~1100lm). Wooden lamps are getting quite popular here in Europe, so it's not very hard to find similar lamps from different companies. Skilled people should be able to create one quite easily as it's very simple design and works great. If you're interested, I can provide photos from different angles.


That link is enough to see how easy it would be to make a similar light. The only half way hard part would be finding and adapting a suitable reflector. The base wouldn't be much of a problem. Thanks for the link - I have never seen that type of light.


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## dwalstad

mysiak said:


> I like how it turned out so far, so sharing my joy with you


Very pretty! Thank you for sharing.

My only concern would be the large amount of driftwood in such a small setup. However, I'll bet that you-- as an experienced hobbyists-- are on top of this. 

Good luck!


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## mysiak

dwalstad said:


> Very pretty! Thank you for sharing.
> 
> My only concern would be the large amount of driftwood in such a small setup. However, I'll bet that you-- as an experienced hobbyists-- are on top of this.
> 
> Good luck!


Thank you.

There are only two pieces of driftwood and one dragon stone, it's more visible on the second picture. I wanted to provide more vertical space for shrimps and tiny fish (juvenile endler + platy) so they don't get bored so soon  It should get covered with moss eventually. Driftwood isn't leaching tannins after boiling anymore and snails took care of the initial slime/fungus/bacteria bloom (that ugly white cloudy thingy which appears on new driftwood). My water is pretty hard and alkaline, so it doesn't swing with PH at all. Is there other reason why I should worry? I'm sorry if it was mentioned in the book, I still haven't received it. I have experience only with bigger setup, so I'm fully open to ideas/critique for this tiny tank. Tomorrow I plan to add more plants (I had to order floaters and smaller types).

I'm attaching also two pictures of my bigger ~160l jungle. It consists of thin layer of aquarium plants soil and thick layer of old aquarium substrate + gravel. It looks a bit overtaken by plants, particularly in a photo, but in reality it's not that "bad" and fish have plenty of free space for swimming (well, maybe tetras would appreciate more room). There are 3 quite big pieces of driftwood, almost completely covered by moss and plants. Tank houses 10 cardinal tetras, 5 swordtails, couple of platys, probably about 100 of endler guppys in various sizes and between 100-200 of shrimps (quite hard to count). Even with this stocking I have almost exquisite water parameters, everything thanks to plants. I'm still doing weekly 10% water changes, but it's more of "just in case" than "I must do it to remove nitrates" type. I am not using pressurized CO2, but utilizing what is available in air - my surface is heavily agitated by internal filter, additionally I add "bubbling" with Venturi effect and also use small fan to force fresh air into the tank (closed lid). By these actions I'm able to grow many plants with almost zero algae and have happy critters  It probably isn't "true" El Natural as I have to add micro nutrient fertilizer on a weekly basis, but for me it's close enough


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## mysiak

Just a small update, I've added more plants and couple of shrimps from my other tank. Some of the plants started to grow already, many of them are pearling a little after about an hour once light turns on. I'm trying the siesta schedule (4 on - 4 off - 5 on), so far it suits this tank. The only small annoyance is oily water surface, but hopefully fish/snails will take care of that and it disappears over time.


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## zolteeC

mysiak said:


> Just a small update, I've added more plants and couple of shrimps from my other tank. Some of the plants started to grow already, many of them are pearling a little after about an hour once light turns on. I'm trying the siesta schedule (4 on - 4 off - 5 on), so far it suits this tank. The only small annoyance is oily water surface, but hopefully fish/snails will take care of that and it disappears over time.


Looks great!

Did you know that there are countries (at least one) where it is forbidden by law to keep fish in sphere shaped tanks regardless of size? Don't ask me why.


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## mysiak

zolteeC said:


> Looks great!
> 
> Did you know that there are countries (at least one) where it is forbidden by law to keep fish in sphere shaped tanks regardless of size? Don't ask me why.


Thanks!

Oh, didn't know that. I remember rumors from my childhood, that fish will go crazy in a bowl shaped tank, but I hope that it's not true. Though guppy is swimming in circles quite a lot. Platy isn't bothered, it swims all over the tank and eats what it can find. In each case, it's not their permanent home, they will be returned to the big tank once they grow up a little more.


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## Rodgie

Wow! That’s a nice bowl you have there! And, I’m sure I’ve seen that type of lamp at target just couple of days ago! And thinking this is a nice lamp for CFL bulbs! How old is this set up so far? Did you do any water change yet? 

Kind Regards,
Rodgie


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## mysiak

@Rodgie - thank you. It's still very fresh, only one week old and few plants were added only yesterday. I did couple of water changes already - first one was almost 80%, but only to allow me to glue moss and java fern to driftwood, and then 2 or 3 changes of about 10% of volume each. They were not really needed (0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and ~20 nitrates) but somehow I feel more comfortable doing them every few days during first 1-2 weeks (especially as I have berried shrimp there already). I plan to stick to weekly schedule with 10% water change + top offs.

Btw. lamp is really great, it has nice design and holds big bulbs (E27 in Europe), so I have almost unlimited options for lightning, I settled with stronger LED light and so far I like the result very much. I might need to change it for something weaker or even stronger over time (I want to keep dwarf sagittaria small), but that's too soon to tell now. 

I'm really curious if/when I run into first issues with this tank, such a small volume is really challenging and at the same time very entertaining, I find myself spending more time watching it than its bigger "sibling"  

I noticed that you are starting new tank as well, I really look forward to reading your updates 

Cheers,
mysiak


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## Rodgie

Nice! I might do some WC in that routine as well, depending how my water parameters behave. Your big tank is gorgeous! I have to shut down my 15 gal. Because of the way I set it up (low tech with just excel and dry feet’s) it was too much water change every week and busy with life lol. 

Luckily I found Walstad method and I got a 5 gal tank as a gift! 

Did you put a cover (barrier) on that heater?


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## mysiak

I got so used to weekly water changes, that I really miss it when I have to skip for whatever reason.  Also my fish seem to appreciate the fresh cold water, so I do it even if technically it isn't needed. But I use "python hose" for WCs, so it's very easy and quick, I would be probably a bit lazier with buckets 

Heater in the small tank is without cover, but it seems that I don't need heater at all. In fact it's not connected to power anymore. I was afraid that water will get too cold during night, but somehow it stays at almost constant 23-24C (~73-75F). It's probably because my tank is close to radiator heater in the room. I will keep the aquarium heater in the tank until the end of winter just in case I need it and then probably remove it. Tank will certainly look more natural and I can add one more plant in the empty space..


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## Rodgie

Yeah definitely big water bucket discouraged me to continue with my 15 gal tank. Mainly it was because I’ve been busy with life and work. 

Keep an eye on those plant leaves close to the heater. You probably already know that their leaves will get damage if it’s too close to the heat source. 

Overall your tank right now looks like a masterpiece! All LFS should have fish bowls like this other than small bowls with just betta in it??.


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## mysiak

Thanks for the warning, I tried to position the heater behind rock (without touching the rock or glass) and there are no plants touching it at the moment as well. It's very small 25W heater (15cm ~6 inches long) and heating part is actually very short so hopefully it won't cause much issues if in use. 

I'm glad that you like it as much as I do :thumbsup:  Yeah, bettas in stores would be much happier in planted mini tanks than in a cup of water. Though even this tank is probably too small for a betta (at least long term). I was considering adding one there, but it would be too cramped and couldn't move around much, so I dismissed this idea. Shrimps like it so...shrimp bowl be it


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## Michael

Re heaters, I don't use them in any of my tanks. The house thermostat is usually no lower than 70 F (21 C), a little warmer during the day. Depending on whether a tank is covered and what type of lighting I'm using, the temperature stays in the same range as yours.

Heaters are the one piece of aquarium equipment that is most likely to malfunction and kill your fish. And there is good evidence that we keep our fish too warm, see http://www.seriouslyfish.com/category/articles/beginners-guide/

OK, I will stop my anti-heater rant now, LOL.


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## mysiak

Michael said:


> Re heaters, I don't use them in any of my tanks. The house thermostat is usually no lower than 70 F (21 C), a little warmer during the day. Depending on whether a tank is covered and what type of lighting I'm using, the temperature stays in the same range as yours.
> 
> Heaters are the one piece of aquarium equipment that is most likely to malfunction and kill your fish. And there is good evidence that we keep our fish too warm, see http://www.seriouslyfish.com/category/articles/beginners-guide/
> 
> OK, I will stop my anti-heater rant now, LOL.


Thank you for sharing the article, it's indeed a very interesting idea. I will remove the heater from the small tank and will think about dialing it down in the bigger tank, or at least turn it off during night to fluctuate the temperature a little.


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## mysiak

~10 days since start. I've removed the heater as it was turned off anyway and re-homed both fishes back to the big tank as I had slightly increased nitrite. Plants are taking off nicely, I see new growth in almost all plants. Floaters have many new roots and daughter plants, had to trim them already. To keep part of the water surface free of floating plants (duckweed, water lettuce, amazon frogbit), I've installed circle barrier made out of air tubing. Shrimps are doing fine and I expect another one to become berried soon, her saddle is getting big and yellow  To my surprise, there is almost zero algae despite quite strong light and longish photo period - I guess that combination of floating plants, shrimps and snails is the key. I can only hope that it will stay this way. I wanted to check water parameters today, but I ran out of test stripes :frusty:

I am struggling with one issue though - oily water surface. I keep removing it every day, but it just keeps returning back. Surface agitation with filter or air stone would certainly help, but I want to keep the tank absolutely silent.  I expect/hope that it will disappear over time on its own.


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## Rodgie

Beautiful roots from those floating plants! Really cool! 

I’m not quite sure of what’s causing the oil looking in the surface of your bowl. My wild guess would be bacteria’s colonizing. And maybe few (surface) water change will help it.


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## DutchMuch

what rodgie said,
the oily substance on your water is just bacteria. Wont harm anything its just for looks, means you need more surface agitation.


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## mysiak

DutchMuch said:


> what rodgie said,
> the oily substance on your water is just bacteria. Wont harm anything its just for looks, means you need more surface agitation.


As far as I know it's looks (which I don't really mind), but might impact gas exchange as well (which worries me a little). But how to agitate the surface without any noise?  I might be able to run an air pump here and there, but certainly not constantly. Also I'm a bit afraid of water drops ending up on the bulb/lamp which is quite near the surface. I have one "nano" filter laying around, but it looks huge and out of place in this tank.

Oh well, shrimps don't seem to be bothered by it, so I'll probably just continue removing it manually.


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## Michael

As I understand it, a common cause of the film on the surface is dissolved organic compounds (DOC) in the water that float to the surface and may provide a food source for bacterial biofilm. So reducing DOC with water changes or carbon filtration should help. I use little Eheim skimmers on my large tanks, but these probably would not fit in this bowl.


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## mysiak

I'll keep doing small water changes every day or two, filter/skimmer are unfortunately out of question due to their size and power, they would blast everything around even if I managed to fit them in.

Btw. does anyone have any idea how to clean rounded glass from green algae/debris without disturbing plants?  All commercially available algae scrappers are either huge or need flat glass (at least those which I can buy locally). I am planning to buy very small neodymium magnets and somehow attach them to a piece of kitchen sponge. However I have absolutely no idea how big (strong) magnets I need and if I can use "naked" magnets in aquarium. I certainly don't want to break the glass or poison shrimps/snails with heavy metals.


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## Rodgie

I think I know the answer to that.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...b0-20&linkId=1b4475b6b3acce4fffed144ee45c359f

That magnet is high quality acrylic. I own one and the magnet is really strong. The pads The are attach are greatly attached. Though I haven't tested it yet because my tank don't have glass algae yet. But I can tell from the quality of it compared to the ones I used to have. And it would also work great with a bowl tank.

Check it out maybe it's worth it.

Just a heads up. I waited almost 3 weeks for it to arrive that I already forgot I had a delivery coming haha. It came all the way from China.


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## mysiak

Thanks Rodgie, I totally forgot that I already had Chihiros cleaner in the cart on eBay  Though still can't decide between Chihiros and Nano Mag (https://www.ebay.com/itm/352073712102). Price is about the same and both will take couple of weeks to deliver to me. I like the flexibility of Nano Mag more, but Chihiros looks nicer with that transparent acrylic.. Decisions, decisions


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## Rodgie

Haha always go for the performance. I don’t own a nano mag so I can’t compare to that. But the looks of this acrylic one is amazing. Almost luxurious to think of haha. 

Plus a guy in you tube uses the same thing for his glass bowl so it’s already a proven performer. 

I still remember how amazing it felt when I recieved a box from China. I sniffed the box lol.


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## mysiak

I saw that video (and not only once ), but he has 10g bowl, mine is much smaller. I'll try to measure if it will work on 2.5g before ordering. But yeah, acrylic surely looks nice - especially important as I don't plan to remove it from the tank.. Sounds like I decided already


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## DutchMuch

Rodgie said:


> I recieved a box from China. I sniffed the box lol.


i do the same thing to almost every box i get since there all from different places far far away, just sniffing the box is as close as ill ever get XD lol


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## Rodgie

Hahaha same for me. My wife couldn’t stop laughing. Too bad I threw it out already! Sorry for the spam guys.


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## DutchMuch

Rodgie said:


> Hahaha same for me. My wife couldn't stop laughing. Too bad I threw it out already! Sorry for the spam guys.


Dont worry about the spam, tbh its not spam to me i never have actually seen spam on this forum. Spam to me is like just random replies over n over within about a 1 minute interval. Actual replies like yours that contain useful information imo isn't spam even if you post useful info every 1 minute xD


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## mysiak

Tank is 15 days old, so far so good. I found some old testing strips and measured a little elevated nitrites (in safe range though), so I'm continuing with daily 10% water changes. Shrimps still don't complain.  I see few strings of very short hair (?) algae here and there, mainly on old/dying leaves, but only on close inspection. As a preventive measure I'm applying a few drops of hydrogen peroxide every few days to such areas. Shrimps love to munch on "burned" algae in my big tank, so I am happy to do that here as well. 

About the green algae on the glass - Chihiros mini is on the way..and I will certainly sniff the box as well, there must be something into it  But my wife/child can't see me or they will think that I definitely went crazy


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## DutchMuch

mysiak said:


> Chihiros mini is on the way..and I will certainly sniff the box as well, there must be something into it  But my wife/child can't see me or they will think that I definitely went crazy


lol!


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## Rodgie

Haha sniff away! Your tank is jut few days older than mine. Glad to see yours not having crazy problems. What day did you add shrimps? I’m starting to think when should I add shrimps, and what kind.


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## zolteeC

mysiak said:


> Tank is 15 days old, so far so good. I found some old testing strips and measured a little elevated nitrites (in safe range though), so I'm continuing with daily 10% water changes. Shrimps still don't complain.  I see few strings of very short hair (?) algae here and there, mainly on old/dying leaves, but only on close inspection. As a preventive measure I'm applying a few drops of hydrogen peroxide every few days to such areas. Shrimps love to munch on "burned" algae in my big tank, so I am happy to do that here as well.
> 
> About the green algae on the glass - Chihiros mini is on the way..and I will certainly sniff the box as well, there must be something into it  But my wife/child can't see me or they will think that I definitely went crazy


The bowl looks great!


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## dwalstad

Your planted bowl is fantastic!


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## mysiak

Rodgie said:


> Haha sniff away! Your tank is jut few days older than mine. Glad to see yours not having crazy problems. What day did you add shrimps? I'm starting to think when should I add shrimps, and what kind.


I was planning to wait at least 2-3 weeks before introducing shrimps, but I wasn't very patient and put them in on 6th day. I transferred 5 red cherry shrimps - Neocaridina davidi (3 females and 2 males) from my other tank. Snails were added on second/third day. If I were purchasing them, I would definitely wait more, but having at least one hundred of shrimps in the other tank allows me to do some "experiments". My tap water is hard and alkaline, so my shrimp choice is quite limited - mainly Neocaridina davidi (red cherry shrimp) and Neocaridina palmata (I have these as well, but they are mainly without any color or brown, however extremely hardy). Last week I saw Caridina cf. babaulti blue at my favorite LFS, might try them later. They are quite expensive though ($3.7 for one), so I'll see.. 



zolteeC said:


> The bowl looks great!





dwalstad said:


> Your planted bowl is fantastic!


Thank you, much appreciated!


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## zolteeC

mysiak said:


> Last week I saw Caridina cf. babaulti blue at my favorite LFS, might try them later. They are quite expensive though ($3.7 for one), so I'll see..


Yeah, there is always a new, expensive "specie" they say are very sensitive and difficult to reproduce. However, once they become more common, the whole things starts again.

I am not a fan of selecting just the best looking shrimps, so mine may get "ugly" over time.


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## mysiak

zolteeC said:


> Yeah, there is always a new, expensive "specie" they say are very sensitive and difficult to reproduce. However, once they become more common, the whole things starts again.
> 
> I am not a fan of selecting just the best looking shrimps, so mine may get "ugly" over time.


Babaulti are said to be hardy and very similar to cherry shrimps in terms of requirements and maintenance. To start a successful colony it's recommended to get at least 10 shrimps, which is quite pricey. But maybe the desire for blue shrimps and fact that they don't crossbreed with Neocaridina species will win.. 

I am not selectively breeding shrimps, I let nature take its course. As they are hard to catch in heavily planted tanks, I wouldn't be able to remove "ugly" shrimps anyway. Btw. at one point I had roughly 300 of red shrimps, they were everywhere. I started dosing "Excel" at recommended doses and until I noticed that it heavily impacts shrimps, I was down to maybe 30. It took couple of months to restore the stock to ~100 individuals. Glutaraldehyde can't come close to my tanks now, awful thing.


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## zolteeC

mysiak said:


> Babaulti are said to be hardy and very similar to cherry shrimps in terms of requirements and maintenance. To start a successful colony it's recommended to get at least 10 shrimps, which is quite pricey. But maybe the desire for blue shrimps and fact that they don't crossbreed with Neocaridina species will win..
> 
> I am not selectively breeding shrimps, I let nature take its course. As they are hard to catch in heavily planted tanks, I wouldn't be able to remove "ugly" shrimps anyway. Btw. at one point I had roughly 300 of red shrimps, they were everywhere. I started dosing "Excel" at recommended doses and until I noticed that it heavily impacts shrimps, I was down to maybe 30. It took couple of months to restore the stock to ~100 individuals. Glutaraldehyde can't come close to my tanks now, awful thing.


That's an interesting idea. I would guess that a reputable company would have tested this and there would be a warning note on the label if this is true. Are you 100% sure you used the right dosage? Maybe something else was wrong or maybe "liquid carbo" only impacts shrimp reproduction or "baby" shrimps, but if it brings down adult shrimps in the long run, that's really not good....


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## mysiak

zolteeC said:


> That's an interesting idea. I would guess that a reputable company would have tested this and there would be a warning note on the label if this is true. Are you 100% sure you used the right dosage? Maybe something else was wrong or maybe "liquid carbo" only impacts shrimp reproduction or "baby" shrimps, but if it brings down adult shrimps in the long run, that's really not good....


It was some alternative product, not Seachem Excel exactly, but all similar products contain the same active substance at sometimes different concentrations. I tried more of them and always used recommended dose or less. It is being claimed that even 2-3x higher dose is ok, at least short term. I'm quite sure that it had very bad impact on eggs/fertility though, as I recall that I didn't see a single berried shrimp or shrimplets. It took me a while to realize why, but everything seems on the right course now. To make things "worse", I don't think that it did any good to my plants or with algae removal. Everything was growing at roughly the same pace. I found out that heavy surface agitation with "venturi oxygenator" (bubble thingy on the filter output nozzle) helps a lot more than using some nasty chemicals. Situation might be different in tanks without shrimps, but why bother if we can have similar effect "for free". For spot treating of algae, hydrogen peroxide is much more useful and safer as it breaks into oxygen and water almost instantly. I often see shrimps going straight to freshly treated wood/plants/moss.

Of course I admit that it might be only coincidence not directly related to using this product/chemical, but I won't risk it again, certainly not in tank with shrimps.


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## Rodgie

Mysiak,

Sounds like you have a ton of shrimps, I wish I can foster some of your red cherry shrimps hehe. 

Another question for you, when you added your snails or shrimps. Do you know if you had some ammonia reading during those time? I’m thinking of adding some on mine but I had 1.0ppm ammo. Reading.


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## mysiak

I have quite a lot of palmata shrimps (can't count them anymore), but for some reason I found only couple of red cherries today. No idea what happened, I introduced few new plants a week ago, but don't understand how/if that did anything to them. Red shrimplets are still being seen, but almost no adult red shrimps  I hope that they will breed successfuly in the bowl, so I can re-introduce them into the big tank. Another possibility is that all of them just crossbred and I have mainly natural colors now. Or they were simply hidden, will need to check the tank more closely next days. In each case, I have 6 red cherries in the bowl now, so I should have much more soon. If you come up with a safe way how to send them accross the ocean, I'll pack a few for you 

Snails were added on the second or third day - I use MTS snails as water quality indicator, if they try to get away from substrate, there is something terribly wrong going on. This didn't happen, so ramshorn snails came next 

I tested water for ammonia and nitrite before adding the shrimps and both were at 0, so I put them in. After few days I measured very slightly elevated nitrite, but still zero ammonia (at least according to the test I have). If you can measure ammonia, I would wait before adding shrimps, it is being said that they are much more sensitive to it than fish. I used water and plants from mature tank, so I probably sped up the tank cycling by introduction of beneficial bacteria and established plants (hence zero ammonia).


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## Rodgie

mysiak said:


> I have quite a lot of palmata shrimps (can't count them anymore), but for some reason I found only couple of red cherries today. No idea what happened, I introduced few new plants a week ago, but don't understand how/if that did anything to them. Red shrimplets are still being seen, but almost no adult red shrimps  I hope that they will breed successfuly in the bowl, so I can re-introduce them into the big tank. Another possibility is that all of them just crossbred and I have mainly natural colors now. Or they were simply hidden, will need to check the tank more closely next days. In each case, I have 6 red cherries in the bowl now, so I should have much more soon. If you come up with a safe way how to send them accross the ocean, I'll pack a few for you
> 
> Snails were added on the second or third day - I use MTS snails as water quality indicator, if they try to get away from substrate, there is something terribly wrong going on. This didn't happen, so ramshorn snails came next
> 
> I tested water for ammonia and nitrite before adding the shrimps and both were at 0, so I put them in. After few days I measured very slightly elevated nitrite, but still zero ammonia (at least according to the test I have). If you can measure ammonia, I would wait before adding shrimps, it is being said that they are much more sensitive to it than fish. I used water and plants from mature tank, so I probably sped up the tank cycling by introduction of beneficial bacteria and established plants (hence zero ammonia).


oh no!

I hope they are still around. And yeah i still have ammonia reading, i guess ill just keep waiting till my plants can take care of it.

Where are you from? I'd like some red cherry shrimps, one of these days ill probably see if i can get some at petco.


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## Michael

Rodgie, you can see mysiak's location in the left side bar of his/her posts. You can add your location to your profile, and it will show in the same way.

I love to see that we have members from all over the world.


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## mysiak

Rodgie said:


> oh no!
> 
> I hope they are still around. And yeah i still have ammonia reading, i guess ill just keep waiting till my plants can take care of it.
> 
> Where are you from? I'd like some red cherry shrimps, one of these days ill probably see if i can get some at petco.


I saw couple of them during feeding time, so hopefully they'll restore the population in the coming months. This time I will make sure that I do not overdose the fertiliser (Easylife profito) - no idea if it was the culprit though.

I'm from Slovakia, Europe (I believe that this info is not visible in Tapatalk). From information in your posts and activity time it's safe to assume that you reside somewhere in the US 

..and back to the topic  I had to remove water lettuce from the bowl, few yellowing pieces at first, the rest of them today. I have zero nitrites and almost zero nitrates and I don't want to starve my other plants, so off it goes  Pistia was huge anyway, duckweed and amazon frogbit seem a better choice for tank of this size. Aditionaly, Bacopa caroliniana broke the surface and started growing emersed. I'll start regular feeding of shrimps too, it's probably the only time when I see all of them at once and it should bring nitrates level up a little.

Anyone interested to play a game? How many shrimps can you find in the close up photo?


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## DutchMuch

think i counted 5????


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## mysiak

DutchMuch said:


> think i counted 5????


Yeah, there should be 5 of them. The last one wasn't interested in a photo session and ignored my fish flakes bait


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## Rodgie

Beautiful cute shrimps! At least you have 5 in there! And yes I’m from US... too bad I can’t get free shrimps from you haha. 

Speaking of water lettuce I might be the next one to throw more water lettuce lol they get like almost the size of my palm.


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## mysiak

3 weeks since start, everything is still going fine. Shrimps are enjoying predator free tank (no shrimplets yet though, at least didn't see any) and I might call the tank as "pink ramshorn heaven" - I counted at least 30 tiny snails already. Those will have to be rehomed once they grow a bit.

All plants are growing new leaves or side shoots and it's cool to study their roots which are sometimes visible in dirt through glass. The only plant which seem to stagnate is bacopa - it isn't dying nor growing. One stem got through the surface and started growing emersed, but it soon dried out partially and remained this way. No idea what's wrong with it. 

I don't do daily water changes anymore and will settle with weekly partial water changes. 

"Sniff box":lol: from China has been finally shipped, so hopefully I'll be able to clean the spot algae from glass in 2-3 weeks. 

That's all folks, thanks for reading


----------



## zolteeC

mysiak said:


> 3 weeks since start, everything is still going fine. Shrimps are enjoying predator free tank (no shrimplets yet though, at least didn't see any) and I might call the tank as "pink ramshorn heaven" - I counted at least 30 tiny snails already. Those will have to be rehomed once they grow a bit.
> 
> All plants are growing new leaves or side shoots and it's cool to study their roots which are sometimes visible in dirt through glass. The only plant which seem to stagnate is bacopa - it isn't dying nor growing. One stem got through the surface and started growing emersed, but it soon dried out partially and remained this way. No idea what's wrong with it.
> 
> I don't do daily water changes anymore and will settle with weekly PVCs.
> 
> "Sniff box":lol: from China has been finally shipped, so hopefully I'll be able to clean the spot algae from glass in 2-3 weeks.
> 
> That's all folks, thanks for reading


Congratulation, your bowl really looks awesome. Full of plants and no algae at all.

In your first post you say you did not read the book.... now that you pretty much succeeded will you read it? 

What is PVC?


----------



## DutchMuch

PVC is a type of plastic piping. Generally used for houses but it can be used for just about everything.

In the sense hes using PVC in, idk XD lol


----------



## mysiak

Oops, PWC, not PVC, as in Partial Water Change..  My bad, wanted to sound cool (saw it on fish forums)..now I'm just..nevermind  Original post corrected.

I should have book in my hands next week and I'm absolutely going to read it. Really looking forward to it.


----------



## mysiak

Floating plants are very efficient in nitrogen removal, I'm "afraid" that a bit too efficient. I can barely measure nitrates with testing strips. Amazon frogbit and duckweed are having very long roots (+ water lettuce had yellowing leaves), which indicates lack of nutrients as far as I know. I'm going to increase the amount of food served to shrimps and snails as I want to avoid using liquid fertilizers. 

Most of the "oily surface" is gone, floating plants seem to like it and I often see snails grazing on it as well. 

Quite interestingly, I don't have much luck with these "weed plants":
- Guppy/najas grass - basically disintegrated, didn't grow a tiny bit
- Anacharis - showed some growth initially, but started to rot from bottom, so I removed it
- Bacopa caroliniana - it grew very good at start, but stagnates at the moment
- Algae  - except of few green spot dots here and there on the glass

What grows nicely:
- Hygrophila polysperma and difformis
- Flame, weeping, stringy, java moss
- Brazilian pennywort
- Dwarf sagittaria
- Pygmy chain sword

Slow growers with..slow growth:
- Java fern, Java "Windelov" fern
- Anubias nana
- Cryptocoryne willisii - I guess it's still adapting to different conditions
- Cryptocoryne petchii doesn't do much yet, but it came from a nursery and must go through emersed->submersed transformation first

All in all, it's a very interesting project and so much different to a big tank full of fish.


----------



## mysiak

Just another small update. I saw couple of shrimplets and at least one shrimp is berried. It seems that they are really happy in this tank. However as I see them mainly during feeding time and tank feels a bit "empty" otherwise, I placed an order for 2 pairs of Neoheterandria elegans, hopefully they'll get along.. Will post some photos once I get them (should be next week).

Stringy moss and pennywort started to grow emersed. The only plant which is still stunted is bacopa.. 

And I have quite a lot of "cyclops" or whatever they are, should indicate clean water, so I am happy to see them


----------



## zolteeC

It is great to see that everything has gone so smoothly.  Keep us updated with pictures .


----------



## mysiak

Slight overfeeding helped to speed up the growth, but nitrates are still at 0. Shrimps and tiny crustacean thingies appreciate clean water though..  Will have to bump up the feeding even more.


----------



## mysiak

Book received and read in couple of hours. It is simply the best book about planted aquariums and should be mandatory for every fish keeper. Absolutely perfect balance of science, experiments and easy to understand explanations. I only wish I had it before starting my big tank ~2 years ago, fortunately I didn't drift too far from the recommendations. 

Back to the topic - no major update about the tank, so just sharing two pictures. As you probably can see, I still haven't received the glass cleaner..  Ramshorn snails are removing algae partially, but not all of it.


----------



## Rodgie

Nice balanced looking ecosystem you have there now. If you’re near me I would give you my extra glass cleaner. The seller sent me another one because the first one had a crack. Guess what? The 2nd one is also cracked lol. But I give up. I’ll just use what I have


----------



## mysiak

Thanks, it's really starting to look like a jungle. Thermometer can't be easily seen anymore and quite a big piece of rock "disappeared" as well - I will probably remove it as it doesn't make much sense to keep it there now. 

I am expecting the arrival of my cleaner next week, hopefully without cracks  Though if that's not a functional defect, I probably won't mind too much.


----------



## mysiak

So...stone removal was a good idea, I got a hint of sulfur smell during its removal, so I guess that it would eventually cause issues with the substrate. Also I've "gained" at least 5% of additional water volume. Just that I don't know what to do with nice piece of dragon stone now..Maybe use it in a new tank? 

I can definitely confirm that however awful it sounds, overfeeding is very beneficial in this tank. Stunted plants (Bacopa, duckweed, frogbit) started to grow again. There is one side effect though - snails, snails everywhere  Luckily I don't mind them and they are fairly easy to remove, if it ever comes to that point. 

Out of 5 female shrimps, 3 or 4 are berried right now and I saw few shrimplets from previously pregnant shrimp. Tank should be full of them soon. Second photo is showing cleaning crew in action - berried shrimp cleaning snail, which is grazing on the surface scum.


----------



## mysiak

Rodgie said:


> I think I know the answer to that.
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...b0-20&linkId=1b4475b6b3acce4fffed144ee45c359f
> 
> That magnet is high quality acrylic. I own one and the magnet is really strong. The pads The are attach are greatly attached. Though I haven't tested it yet because my tank don't have glass algae yet. But I can tell from the quality of it compared to the ones I used to have. And it would also work great with a bowl tank.
> 
> Check it out maybe it's worth it.
> 
> Just a heads up. I waited almost 3 weeks for it to arrive that I already forgot I had a delivery coming haha. It came all the way from China.


You are right, I've just received it and it's really great. Working absolutely fine with slightly curved surface of my tank and I have clean view now. Thanks again for the recommendation!


----------



## mysiak

I took out the camera today, so few fresh photos.


----------



## DutchMuch

Super nice! photo's and the tank!


----------



## TropTrea

zolteeC said:


> Looks great!
> 
> Did you know that there are countries (at least one) where it is forbidden by law to keep fish in sphere shaped tanks regardless of size? Don't ask me why.


I remember the arguments against it years ago by some group like PEDA. The claim was people put these bowls in direct sunlight and were cooking their fish. They claimed the curved glass would increas the temperature as if magnified the light waves in the bowl.

Some tests were done by diffrent groups and very mixed results were recorded. Assumption was it depends on the shape of the bowl as well as the angle that lights hits it at.


----------



## mysiak

Thank you @DutchMuch!

Interesting information @TropTrea, I never heard of it before. I don't have the bowl in the direct sunlight, so it should be ok.


----------



## mysiak

Tank got new inhabitants - Tiger teddy (Neoheterandria elegans), two females with three males. At first, I put them together with three Endler males, but they harassed Neoheterandria females too much, so off they went back to the big tank. Teddies are very small and with very interesting behavior, hopefully they won't mind water temperature from the lower end of what they prefer (~73-75F).

Btw. Endlers took great job with crustaceans and tiny worms removal, Tiger teddies should enjoy such diet too. 

Couple of pictures from feeding frenzy, snails took over spirulina tablet on the glass (and fallen bits on the substrate below it).


----------



## dwalstad

Very nice! 

May I ask what kind of camera you used to get such lovely pictures with those close-ups?

Attached is picture of some of my guppies. Beautiful fish that deserve a better camera.


----------



## mysiak

dwalstad said:


> Very nice!
> 
> May I ask what kind of camera you used to get such lovely pictures with those close-ups?
> 
> Attached is picture of some of my guppies. Beautiful fish that deserve a better camera.


Thank you! Camera is nothing special - Panasonic GX85 with 12-35mm F2.8 zoom lens. Pictures needed cropping and a bit of fine tuning to bring out the details (I'm using Zoner Photo Studio). Dedicated macro lens would be better, but I can't justify spending money on it (yet) 

Your guppies look amazing, I would love to have such as well for my bigger tank, but I don't want them to hybridize with endlers (even though the result might be very interesting).


----------



## dwalstad

mysiak said:


> Thank you! Camera is nothing special - Panasonic GX85 with 12-35mm F2.8 zoom lens. Pictures needed cropping and a bit of fine tuning to bring out the details (I'm using Zoner Photo Studio). Dedicated macro lens would be better, but I can't justify spending money on it (yet)
> 
> Your guppies look amazing, I would love to have such as well for my bigger tank, but I don't want them to hybridize with endlers (even though the result might be very interesting).


Amazing! Karen Randall from the Aquatic Gardener Assoc. was just here taking pictures of my guppies with the _exact same_ camera. I was very impressed with it. She uses it for all her overseas plant photography, etc.

The female guppies I raised have grown out to about 2 inches long. They are huge! You are smart not to hybridize your Endlers. I actually bought some Endlers for that purpose and then came to my senses.


----------



## FromReefs2Plants

tank is looking amazing! I hate to be selfish but if you and anyone else who attaches thumb nails would instead use a hosting site like imgur.com (see my build thread for examples) then I won't have to open your beautiful images in a new tab to view them!! 

Lol it is just easier to scroll down the page. Imgur also lets you build albums and keeps track of how many times people view the album/pictures. You simply copy/paste the bbc code into the post.


----------



## mysiak

dwalstad said:


> Amazing! Karen Randall from the Aquatic Gardener Assoc. was just here taking pictures of my guppies with the _exact same_ camera. I was very impressed with it. She uses it for all her overseas plant photography, etc.
> 
> The female guppies I raised have grown out to about 2 inches long. They are huge! You are smart not to hybridize your Endlers. I actually bought some Endlers for that purpose and then came to my senses.


Cool coincidence (or was it a fate? ). It's nice small(er) camera, at least compared to DSLR. Quite easy to handle and fun to use. Even though taking a photo of fast moving small fish like endlers is...challenging. Btw. my endlers are not really pure strain (hard to purchase those around here) - but I do not want them to hybridize further.

Do you happen to have some online album of your tanks and fish please? I tried to look for them on this forum, but I can't figure out how to list posts which have pictures attached.



FromReefs2Plants said:


> tank is looking amazing! I hate to be selfish but if you and anyone else who attaches thumb nails would instead use a hosting site like imgur.com (see my build thread for examples) then I won't have to open your beautiful images in a new tab to view them!!
> 
> Lol it is just easier to scroll down the page. Imgur also lets you build albums and keeps track of how many times people view the album/pictures. You simply copy/paste the bbc code into the post.


Thank you for the suggestion. Well, I already tried to embed pictures directly to my posts, but this forum doesn't downsize them when viewing, so you don't see them whole. It happens also in your thread, at least on my PC I see maybe 1/4 of each of your pictures. This is why I go with the hassle of resizing them on my PC and attaching them to the posts. But I'll give Imgur a shot as I was using Flickr before.

Imgur test, medium thumbnail BBcode, click for full size image (though I'm afraid that you'll have to view them in new tab anyway)


----------



## DutchMuch

if your looking for a good image uploader, that if the site shuts down it wont delete all your images, try this one https://ctrlq.org/images/ does Everything automatically for you, you just have to pic your image you want uploaded. Been using it for a year, and it will most likely never shut down since google owns it lol

But when you upload a pic here via the little button on each "reply" that has the mountain with the sun background, all images should automatically resize... Im on a laptop as well.


----------



## mysiak

DutchMuch said:


> if your looking for a good image uploader, that if the site shuts down it wont delete all your images, try this one https://ctrlq.org/images/ does Everything automatically for you, you just have to pic your image you want uploaded. Been using it for a year, and it will most likely never shut down since google owns it lol
> 
> But when you upload a pic here via the little button on each "reply" that has the mountain with the sun background, all images should automatically resize... Im on a laptop as well.


Thanks for the tips, will definitely try both. So far I was resizing pictures in my PC and uploading them as attachments to my posts. I like that attachment doesn't clutter the text, even if it's a bit of hassle.


----------



## mysiak

I made an album with more pictures on imgur and posted it for others as well. Diana might expect at least a slight increase in sales of her book  Anyone interested can check it here


http://imgur.com/GD6oY


----------



## DutchMuch

mysiak said:


> I made an album with more pictures on imgur and posted it for others as well. Diana might expect at least a slight increase in sales of her book  Anyone interested can check it here
> 
> 
> http://imgur.com/GD6oY


lol mysiak, I read the comments on your album and they are cancerous LOL
one guy said embers need a minimum 15 gallon tank *FALSE*
And another said this tank is to small for cherry shrimps *FALSE*
and said that shrimp need to be in groups of 15 or more *FALSE*
"the snails will kill everything in your tank!!!" _*FALSE*_
"underwater weed" *NOT SURE??*
"Wait did the life really form in there!!!??!?!?!?" *FACEPALM*

lol!


----------



## mysiak

@DutchMuch - yeah, it was a very interesting experience. I must admit that sometimes I got lost in the comments, no idea if those guys were trolls or just plain..simple  In each case, statistics for the album are quite impressive, more than 200,000 views. Hopefully it will bring new souls to this nice hobby (and forum as well).

I'm still playing with Imgur - below are "huge thumbnails" linked to the original photos. I hope it works for everyone.

Btw. I won't provide any updates for almost 3 weeks, but no worries, I'll resume this "journal" or whatever it is, once I return from vacation  Tank will probably get its first trimming then, or not, who knows..


----------



## DutchMuch

dang 200,000 views! nice! keep up the good work then  
Inspiring people to join the hobby is a great thing indeed. 

Also nice pics, they worked for me. Cant wait to see the tank when you post the next update in a while  Good luck!


----------



## zolteeC

mysiak said:


> @DutchMuch - yeah, it was a very interesting experience. I must admit that sometimes I got lost in the comments, no idea if those guys were trolls or just plain..simple  In each case, statistics for the album are quite impressive, more than 200,000 views. Hopefully it will bring new souls to this nice hobby (and forum as well).


It's quite impressive to see that many views. I guess many are surprised that one does not necessary need billions of gadgets and hocus-pocus to have a successful planted tank.
... and the book contains tons of useful information even if one plans to make something different than an NPT. It is worth reading!


----------



## mysiak

I am recommending the book to everyone who is at least a little bit interested in aquariums. And especially to guys who say "it's impossible to have a healthy tank without powerful external filter!!!!" or something along these lines. 

To be completely honest I don't understand how Imgur works (I read some short guide, but..) - I created an album to share all pictures at once with members of this forum and somehow managed to post it on Imgur as well (no idea where it appeared)..


----------



## dwalstad

mysiak said:


> Do you happen to have some online album of your tanks and fish please? I tried to look for them on this forum, but I can't figure out how to list posts which have pictures attached.


There's a running thread going about guppies on my FB page: https://www.facebook.com/diana.walstad

I posted a really nice 30 sec video there of my 50 gal tank on Jan 17, 2018, which you should be able to scroll down to. I set tank up 10 years ago, and now with the guppies, it's come back from the dead.

Presently, I'm very busy writing a major article on parasite diseases in fish. Then there's taxes! Someday, I'll have the time and energy to make an album and post videos on YouTube. Sigh...

I always wondered how people could get pictures within their posts on APC. So this thread has been interesting and educational. Thank you.

Your Endlers are beautiful!


----------



## DutchMuch

dwalstad said:


> Presently, I'm very busy writing a major article on parasite diseases in fish. _Then there's taxes!_


lol dwalstad that made me chuckle xD


----------



## Rodgie

Wow, I haven't been in the forum for a long time and I'm amazed of how your tank turned out Mysiak! Congratulations! I wish i can borrow your camera to take nice pictures of my tank. I'll update my thread very soon lot of cool things happened already.


----------



## DutchMuch

Rodgie said:


> Wow, I haven't been in the forum for a long time and I'm amazed of how your tank turned out Mysiak! Congratulations! I wish i can borrow your camera to take nice pictures of my tank. I'll update my thread very soon lot of cool things happened already.


I have a good quality (and equipment) canon camera, and for the life of me I cant take good tank pics, its usually cause of lighting though  cant figure that part out to make it perfect.
His (mysiaks) pics are Super good, what camera do you use mysiak?


----------



## mysiak

dwalstad said:


> There's a running thread going about guppies on my FB page: https://www.facebook.com/diana.walstad
> 
> I posted a really nice 30 sec video there of my 50 gal tank on Jan 17, 2018, which you should be able to scroll down to. I set tank up 10 years ago, and now with the guppies, it's come back from the dead.
> 
> Presently, I'm very busy writing a major article on parasite diseases in fish. Then there's taxes! Someday, I'll have the time and energy to make an album and post videos on YouTube. Sigh...
> 
> I always wondered how people could get pictures within their posts on APC. So this thread has been interesting and educational. Thank you.
> 
> Your Endlers are beautiful!


Thank you for the link, nice guppies you have there. I'm looking forward to updates about progress of blue guppies breeding. Also I would love to read your article about fish diseases - where is it going to be published please?
If I may have a suggestion - could you please enable "following" of your Facebook profile? I don't want to miss your new posts, but following of your profile must be probably explicitly allowed by you (at least I understood it that way).



Rodgie said:


> Wow, I haven't been in the forum for a long time and I'm amazed of how your tank turned out Mysiak! Congratulations! I wish i can borrow your camera to take nice pictures of my tank. I'll update my thread very soon lot of cool things happened already.


Thank you, happy to see you here again.  Eagerly waiting for your photos 



DutchMuch said:


> I have a good quality (and equipment) canon camera, and for the life of me I cant take good tank pics, its usually cause of lighting though  cant figure that part out to make it perfect.
> His (mysiaks) pics are Super good, what camera do you use mysiak?


Most of the photos were taken with mobile phone (Xiaomi Mi A1 with modified Google camera app) and couple of them with Panasonic GX85 + 12-35mm F2.8 zoom lens (you can probably guess which ones). I usually do a bit of tweaking in Zoner Photo Studio to bring out more details/colors - interestingly camera photos "need" more tweaking, mobile photos are often "punchy" enough.


----------



## dwalstad

mysiak said:


> Thank you for the link, nice guppies you have there. I'm looking forward to updates about progress of blue guppies breeding. Also I would love to read your article about fish diseases - where is it going to be published please?
> If I may have a suggestion - could you please enable "following" of your Facebook profile? I don't want to miss your new posts, but following of your profile must be probably explicitly allowed by you (at least I understood it that way).


I am on "pins and needles" waiting to hear from publisher of _Amazonas_ magazine about my article on 11 surveys of fish diseases.

Thanks for the directions about Facebook. I have edited my Following to be 'Public' rather than 'Friends'. In the meantime, I just posted two more blurbs about the Walstad guppy breeding program.


----------



## J.A. Marlow

It's been great fun to watch the tank fill in. Looks like your shrimp are doing great!


----------



## mysiak

After 2 weeks of minimal maintenance, everything seems to be ok. Just a couple of observations - dwarf sag is not so dwarf, duckweed took over every available surface area (I'm really glad for the floating barrier ) and moss started to take over the rest of free space. Pennywort has many emersed stems now and other plants finally broke the surface and adapted to quite dry air in the room. I did a quick trimming today, but will have to cut more of the plants soon.

I see many adult shrimps and juveniles, so I suppose that they like their home. Neoheterandria elegans are breeding as well, I noticed at least 3 juvies. So far so good.. 

Few photos (click on them for higher resolution):

After my return from vacation:


Quick trimming:


Overal view:


----------



## J.A. Marlow

Both the before and after pics look lovely! And yes, it sounds like the critters really like their home.


----------



## zolteeC

Great pictures with good quality...

To be honest, all pictures look good. Hard to decide whether its better before or after trimming


----------



## mysiak

Thanks  Before trimming it was probably a bit more natural, but I couldn't really see what's happening in the tank and duckweed was blocking too much light (maybe this is why "dwarf" sag took off?). 

I just found a shrimp casualty outside of the tank - must have jumped out by accident when lights turned on, it always startles them. I'll need to find a way how to cover the tank or start the lamp gradually - any ideas are welcome.


----------



## mysiak

Day #71.. 

Another shrimp jumped out, as a preventive measure I've added couple of Amazon frogbit floaters as a barrier, hopefully it will stop them.

I noticed one anaerobic area in the substrate - the usual feeding place of snails/shrimps (the only free flat space without plants). When I poked in it, bubbles burst out with strong sulfur smell. Fortunately it didn't cause any casualties. Poking at few other random spots in the tank didn't bring any bubbles or they were without smell. I will have to spread the food over greater area or change the feeding spot every few days, so leftovers and detritus aren't concentrated in one place. Further growth of plants in substrate should help as well (I suppose).

Water parameters are pristine - zero nitrites and undetectable nitrates (better than my tap water). If water weren't brown from tannins, I would probably dare to drink it  Tank water smells like...forest? Just a hint of fresh green plants, really nice 

Tiger teddies are extremely interesting to watch, their mating rituals, feeding on freshly hatched brine shrimp or even style of swimming is simply amazing. Snails aren't so happy about them though, fish mistake snail antennas for worms, so they "hunt" them, and I'm afraid that very often successfully. Many snails are either hiding their antennas, or they have them shorter.. Hard to say. In each case, snails still feed and breed, so I guess they will recover and learn how to live with them.

As tank doesn't get direct sun light, I'm playing with an idea to add a second lamp to illuminate dark areas ("invisible" to an observer - the back of the tank). It might promote growth there, though I'm not sure that it's needed or desirable.

One obligatory photo, even if with no big change since taking the previous one.


----------



## dwalstad

Your bowl should be an inspiration to all aquarium hobbyists wanting to go NPT! 

And you were smart to be on the look-out for H2S. This is a toxin worse than ammonia and that may have made your shrimp uncomfortable.


----------



## mysiak

dwalstad said:


> Your bowl should be an inspiration to all aquarium hobbyists wanting to go NPT!
> 
> And you were smart to be on the look-out for H2S. This is a toxin worse than ammonia and that may have made your shrimp uncomfortable.


Thank you for the kind words, it's really an honor to hear them from you.

I poked around the same area and today there was hardly any sulfur smell, so substrate should be safe(r) now. I'm going to repeat it every couple of days for some time just to be sure.


----------



## mysiak

Posting these pictures from another topic also here.

I have something growing (living?) on a single leaf of some fern in the bowl (by look probably Bolbitis heudelotii - one leaf came in the package with my fish and I was curious to see if it will grow roots, so I kept it). I thought that it might be spores growing into new plants, but now I'm not sure  I never saw it before and it's not on any other plant or decoration in the tank. I removed it from the tank to take a photo and I won't put the leaf back, that thingy is quite suspicious.

Could it be Plumatella repens? http://www.bryozoans.nl/soorten/en/plumatella_repens.html Is it dangerous?

(click on photos for higher resolution)


----------



## hoppycalif

I think you nailed it! I did a bit of research, and this seems to fit very well as a Plumatella fungosa. It seems like it wouldn't do very well at the temperatures we typically use.


----------



## mysiak

I couldn't find much information, but so far I got to this.

They:
- are common here in Europe, usually live in waters with higher organic matter
- die at autumn and grow again in spring
- don't have stinging tentacles, food is caught only mechanically
- eat bacteria, so they might help with water purification
- are suspected to be a host of Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae parasite causing Proliferative kidney disease (PKD) in some fish

There is next to no information about keeping them in tropical aquariums (deliberately or by accident). I have one smaller glass jar sitting by window, which is full of Najas grass and couple of snails, I'm going to put these creatures there and see what happens. I quite like them when they aren't together with fish and shrimps, so I hope they won't die..  

I think these creatures deserves their own topic, though no idea in which section to put it - any suggestions?


----------



## zolteeC

mysiak said:


> I couldn't find much information, but so far I got to this.
> 
> They:
> - are common here in Europe, usually live in waters with higher organic matter
> - die at autumn and grow again in spring
> - don't have stinging tentacles, food is caught only mechanically
> - eat bacteria, so they might help with water purification
> - are suspected to be a host of Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae parasite causing Proliferative kidney disease (PKD) in some fish
> 
> There is next to no information about keeping them in tropical aquariums (deliberately or by accident). I have one smaller glass jar sitting by window, which is full of Najas grass and couple of snails, I'm going to put these creatures there and see what happens. I quite like them when they aren't together with fish and shrimps, so I hope they won't die..
> 
> I think these creatures deserves their own topic, though no idea in which section to put it - any suggestions?


Do fish, shrimp or snail eat this thing?


----------



## mysiak

zolteeC said:


> Do fish, shrimp or snail eat this thing?


Fish - never saw them close to it, but doesn't mean that they don't eat it.
Shrimp - as far as I know, they don't eat anything that's alive. They certainly ignore all small crustaceans and I didn't see them near this thing.
Snails - they were around it, but I suspect that they were eating decaying leaf only.

In each case, even if something's eating these creatures, their colony is extending and they can hide in the "tube" if under stress (though not sure how fast they are).


----------



## mysiak

Yet another weekly update  Nothing much to write about, so just couple of pictures after water change..

(click for higher resolution)


----------



## .Se.

Nice pics 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## mysiak

Small experiment - as the good plant growth is limited mostly to the front part of the tank due to the moss growing on the driftwood, which blocks light from the lamp and lack of natural light from the back, I've added another lamp to illuminate the dark side of the bowl (600lm 4000K LED). I expect that it'll promote growth in that area. Back-light creates quite interesting effect with brown/orange glow of water stained with tannins. I've tried to capture it in night and day photos. I'm not really sure if I like this side-effect, but as long as it's beneficial, I'll get used to it.

Also I'm trying to remove tannins with weekly water changes (not very effective) and with small amount of hydrogen peroxide added every couple of days (~1-2ml of 6% H2O2 per ~10l of water, quite effective).

Night - 1 lamp


Night - 2 lamps


Day - 1 lamp


Day - 2 lamps


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## mysiak

Not much to write about. Plants are growing, snails/shrimp/fish are multiplying.. All is good as far as I see


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## DutchMuch

i like the pennywort draping over the sides, looks nice.


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## FromReefs2Plants

what sort of fish are those?


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## DutchMuch

FromReefs2Plants said:


> what sort of fish are those?


Neoheterandria elegans


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## mysiak

Pennywort really likes it this way, there is a nice jungle created from its roots in the tank and emersed growth doesn't really mind a bit dry air in the room.

A bit shaky video for anyone interested..


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## mysiak

Combination of Tiger teddies with shrimp wasn't probably the brightest idea.. I read that once the colony of teddies gets big enough, they start to feed on shrimp. It is being told, that despite their minute size they can do quite serious damage to the shrimp population. And I'm starting to suspect that it's the case in this tank. I don't see so many shrimps anymore - they are either better at hiding, or being eaten. Fish are breeding nice though, I counted at least 6 juvies.. At some point I'll have to start with rehoming of "excess" fish to the big tank - hopefully they'll make it with bigger fish and stronger current.

Edit:scratch that, they were just playing hide & seek with me, today I saw at least 30 shrimps and 4 berried females. All's good


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## mysiak

For some time I keep noticing, that few hours after I turn off the lights, fish and snails keep coming to the surface. I suspect that there is just too much of CO2 in the water - quite a big amount of plants and more importantly, really small free water surface area depletes the available oxygen quickly. No water movement and increasing temperatures certainly don't help either. The last two days, tank smelled after sulfur in the morning (no visible casualties), so I installed an air pump as the first aid. Unfortunately, air pump is too noisy for a bedroom, so I must turn it off during night, when it's needed the most. And here comes my bag with spare parts - I found an almost unused filter Aquael Fan mini - which is still big for the tank, so I removed the filtration chamber and put just the filter head in the water (with a tiny piece of foam as a pre-filter). Water pump is absolutely quiet so far and it creates nice water movement with a bit of surface ripples. I am browsing eBay and looking for some smaller water pump - if anyone has an idea for a "micro water circulator", please let me know.

One quick photo of flowering Bacopa, water pump is visible as well


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## dwalstad

_Bacopa caroliniana_ with its purple flower is not only a pretty stem plant but a good grower. I've got it in most of my tanks. Thanks for photo!


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## mysiak

I don't like Bacopa caroliniana so much in my big tank (I often can't keep it rooted and it just floats), but in this bowl it's great. And flowering is a nice bonus 

Addition of water circulator was a good idea as far as I can tell. Fish are much more active and they seem to appreciate a bit of water movement. Oxygenation and heat distribution is better as well.

Obligatory weekly photo 


Previous video has astonishing 4 views, but I will share today's one as well (nothing special, just a short clip to show fish and water movement).


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## dwalstad

It was good that you found a small pump for your tank to circulate water. I couldn't find the one you wrote about, but attached is picture of a HYDOR that I just found. It looks interesting--small and relatively expensive.


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## mysiak

Thank you for the suggestion, Hydor brand isn't so common here, so I missed their product. I can't find exact dimensions of Hydor pico filter, but it seems similarly sized to Aquael filter (http://www.aquael.com.pl/en/products/akwarystyka/filtry-wewnetrzne/73-fan-filter#specifications). Aquael has one big advantage - I can use it without any major issues without the filtration chamber, so it doesn't take so much space in the tank as full filter with filtration cartridge. Should I need to use whole filter, I'll probably switch to Eheim miniUP filter (https://www.eheim.com/en_GB/products/technology/internal-filters/new-mini) which seems to be even smaller and yet providing more filtration area. But hopefully I can continue using what I have now (I'll take a picture during cleaning time) 

Btw. I almost purchased some random cheap noname mini water pump from eBay for a custom circulator, but they guarantee only about 200-500 hours of continuous operation, so for my purpose it's absolutely useless. I'll stick with renowned brands and product dedicated to aquarium use.


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## DutchMuch

dwalstad said:


> It was good that you found a small pump for your tank to circulate water. I couldn't find the one you wrote about, but attached is picture of a HYDOR that I just found. It looks interesting--small and relatively expensive.
> View attachment 59409


I will say, hydor is very expensive, but its one of those "quality brands" like GLA or ADA. Worth the $, i have mainly hydor appliances.


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## FromReefs2Plants

eheim is a good brand as well


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## mysiak

Is there any chance that I could attach a mini HOB filter to a bowl? I have never seen HOB filters in person, so not really sure how stupid this idea is  Internet research didn't really help me, the closest thing I could find was cylindrical tank with HOB filter installed. 

Internal filter runs fine, but I'm still exploring my options. External canister filter would work too, but tubing looks too big and hard to attach to the bowl (and wife wouldn't appreciate it ).


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## mysiak

I removed a big portion of moss covering the water surface to allow better gas exchange and I am going to continue with trimming of other plants as well. Particularly "dwarf" sag is slowly taking over and I have troubles to see all fish/shrimp at once even during feeding time. I can probably start calling this tank officially "the jungle"  Another good news - there have been no other "sulfur incidents" since addition of the water circulation pump. Good water movement seems to be the key..


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## DutchMuch

Sounds really good! and its lookin' that way to!


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## dwalstad

Your bowl looks great! I would trim plants and forget about an HOB filter. Don't mess with success!


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## mysiak

Thanks. Probably the only thing why I'm considering HOB filter is easier access to the filtration foam, but I've just realized, that I would have to use pre-filter on the intake tube, so it won't solve me any troubles anyway. Internal filter it is then.. 

Sagittaria jungle after trimming looks better and I can finally see fish and shrimp 

Overall view in daylight


Another flower


Short video of feeding with spirulina tablet


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## mysiak

Yet another weekly update, tank still running fine. Except one stupid mistake with the filter which caused death of about 10 shrimps (lesson learned, never keep filter intake unprotected, especially with stupidly designed filters - well, at least for shrimps), nothing exceptional going on. Just that pennywort is flowering..


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## DutchMuch

lookin goood


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## JLingen

Hi Everybody, I just joined after starting a new Walstad Bowl. Mysiak, your bowl is amazing and an inspiration to people like me. Thank you DWalstad for referring me to this forum and thread.


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## hoppycalif

JLingen said:


> Hi Everybody, I just joined after starting a new Walstad Bowl. Mysiak, your bowl is amazing and an inspiration to people like me. Thank you DWalstad for referring me to this forum and thread.


Welcome to APC! And, good luck with your new bowl.


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## mysiak

@JLingen - thank you and please share your photos and progress, it's always nice to see tanks of other people 

Few days ago, I noticed quite heavy infestation with staghorn algae on the back side of the tank, which was only few centimeters away from the second lamp. As a result, I've removed a bunch of stringy moss and most of the algae + moved lamps a bit further away from the tank. I do not see any new algae, so hopefully it'll stay that way. Along with moss trimming, I rehomed about 100 of pink ramshorn snails. It sounds crazy, but they were noisy during night by making a "splashing" sound when they broke the surface tension of water, so off they went.

Otherwise all's good.. 



2 short videos:


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## JLingen

Thanks for the warm welcomes. I started the day before my first post. The pic with the rock is day one. The one without the rock is today. I used organic soil base layer covered by Samurai Soil by Caribsea for planted shrimp tanks. DWalstad recommended I remove the rock so that it does not cause an anaerobic situation. The bacopa looks to have done really well. I also have very small anubias nana, java fern and java moss. I was attaching the fern to the rock and switched to pebbles. Today I noticed some pearling on the leaves. The soil is still realeasing bubbles after many days. It only receives indirect sunlight from a window and maybe a few hours of desk lamp (clear 40W bulb)in the evening. There is a small amount of hair algae from my 55g transplant. I hope to introduce shrimp soon to clear that up. RCS do a great job keeping algae under control in my son’s 5g tank.


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## dwalstad

Situation looks promising, especially with the _Bacopa_ doing so well. Don't do any trimming, as there's plenty of room for more plant growth.

Just came back from visiting the fish room of a very knowledgeable hobbyist who has done well with his shrimp--reds, blues, and tigers. He feeds them string beans, French cut, no salt, 32 cents/can from Wal-Mart. Here's a picture of his red shrimp feeding on the string beans, which he keeps in refrigerator for his fish and shrimp.

Just passing this along. When I had my shrimp, I didn't provide any vegetable matter and the colony eventually died out.


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## FromReefs2Plants

oh that is very interesting. I think I will give that a try


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## mysiak

Idea with beans is interesting, never heard of it before. I am using purchased pellets made of stinging nettle or pumpkin - shrimps love them, they are easy to store in a bag, cheap and one bag lasts ages. You can't go wrong with such product


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## DutchMuch

ah man, we use to grow stinging nettle....

AND IT STUNG!


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## JLingen

One of my bacopa plants is emergent. Very exciting!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## JLingen

Special appearance this week by my mystery snail. It is going to town on the algae that came over with the plants.

Is a 1.5 gal NPT ok for a betta?









Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## DutchMuch

5 gallon is minimum for any fish.
Period.
(not including certain fish that need larger than 5 gallons)


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## mysiak

I believe that there are few exceptions (like Neoheterandria elegans), but for a betta 1.5g is indeed too small. I wouldn't put it into my 2.5g either. Couple of tiger teddies or 2-3 male endlers can be quite happy in a stable heavily planted 2.5g tank, but I'm afraid that 1.5g is just too small for any fish.

@JLingen - just a suggestion - could you create a topic dedicated to your tank? It might be easier to track the progress and provide answers to your questions


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## dwalstad

mysiak said:


> @JLingen - just a suggestion - could you create a topic dedicated to your tank? It might be easier to track the progress and provide answers to your questions


I agree.


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## JLingen

mysiak said:


> @JLingen - thank you and please share your photos and progress, it's always nice to see tanks of other people


Will do. I'd claim pilot error, but was flying under your original suggestion quoted above.

Also, saw this link from live aquaria and they suggest 1 gallon tank minimum for betta:

https://www.liveaquaria.com/product/845/twin-tail-betta-male?pcatid=845&c=830+832+845

I'm seeing mixed opinions on this one, so I thought I'd ask. I'll start a new thread. Have a great weekend everyone.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## mysiak

JLingen said:


> Also, saw this link from live aquaria and they suggest 1 gallon tank minimum for betta:
> 
> https://www.liveaquaria.com/product/845/twin-tail-betta-male?pcatid=845&c=830+832+845
> 
> I'm seeing mixed opinions on this one, so I thought I'd ask. I'll start a new thread. Have a great weekend everyone.


For the recommended (and quite realistic) requirements of particular fish species I'd recommend checking Seriously Fish web page. From my experience they provide accurate data and very often also description of natural habitat (which we should mimic as much as possible, even if it's not always 100% possible). http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/betta-splendens/ 
I can't imagine having a betta in heavily planted 2.5g tank, there simply isn't enough space for an adult fish.


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## mysiak

Trying my new DIY feeder for shrimps and snails  For obvious reasons I can't have just a glass dish, so I had to come up with some alternative. For the next version I plan to upgrade it to a floating feeding thingy..


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## mysiak

Short video of feeder in action..


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## dwalstad

What's in the feeder?


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## mysiak

dwalstad said:


> What's in the feeder?


Just a piece of spirulina tablet, shrimps and snails go like crazy after that. No other food raises so much interest.


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## mysiak

Emersed growth is spreading.. unfortunately I'll have to remove pennywort from heating pipes in winter, but until then it's a nice cover 



First attempt for a "floating shrimp feeder" isn't going as planned, but it's functional, so..


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## dwalstad

Love that bowl!

After following your thread, I snagged a 4" segment of Pennywort at last aquarium club meeting. The segment has put out 4 new leaves and started to take root. I have never had this plant before, but I think I'm going to like it.


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## mysiak

Thanks! 

Pennywort is great, it creates amazing jungle from its floating roots (similar to frogbit/water lettuce), grows emersed with almost no transition period, grows fast..and has very pleasant smell when crushed/cut  

The only "disadvantage" is that it needs pruning of leaves at least every 2 weeks, but having that smell..I don't mind doing it.


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## mysiak

To trim or not to trim..? Tank is starting to act as a flowerpot for Pennywort. I kinda like it, but as I want the bowl to be primarily a tank, I will probably do some cutting of the emersed growth. It might help to slow down the water evaporation, currently I must top off about 250-300ml of water per day (~3% of tank volume). Otherwise all's good..


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## DutchMuch

Wow that last pic made me realize just how small those fish are, dang!!!


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## DutchMuch

Exactly what is the cone shaped (dark colored) snail in their? MTS? are they invasive and hurt any other snails? thinking of getting some but I have a nerite in my 40b and a few Chopstick snails which only have like 1-3 offspring and dont breed a lot (naturally).


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## mysiak

They don't call Neoheterandria elegans one of the smallest live-bearers for nothing  In fact I believe it is the smallest one (Heterandria formosa - Least killifish is being named as the smallest one, but Neoheterandria is smaller, so.. )



DutchMuch said:


> Exactly what is the cone shaped (dark colored) snail in their? MTS? are they invasive and hurt any other snails? thinking of getting some but I have a nerite in my 40b and a few Chopstick snails which only have like 1-3 offspring and dont breed a lot (naturally).


I have Melanoides tuberculata (longer, slimmer) and Melanoides granifera (shorter, "fatter"). On the photo you're seeing probably tuberculata a.k.a. "MTS". Both are absolutely peaceful, they don't harm anything alive. Shrimp, fish, other snais and healthy plants are totally safe. They love to burrow through substrate during day and occasionally roam around the tank. Once lights turn off, they leave substrate at massive rate and look for leftover food. Also they are great indicator of water quality (pollutants, oxygen level,..) - as soon as you see massive outbreak during day, there is something seriously wrong with the water. Happened to me once when I didn't notice clogged filter. They are "invasive" by nature, single snail can populate the tank. But in tanks they are naturally controlled by a level of available food.

Btw. is your "Chopstic snail" Stenomelania torulosa? As far as I know, these do not breed in freshwater and as most bigger snails will probably munch on live plants from time to time. I had to rehome couple of "plants friendly" snails already, they could not resist to devastate some plants. Providing them with vegetables didn't make any change. But maybe you're going to be lucky


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## DutchMuch

they are these
https://aquaticarts.com/products/chopstick-snail
I read on several forums and they say the breed in FW, have 1-3 offspring and breed about once a month? They are new additions (only 2 weeks ago I believe) so we will see I guess  
They dont munch on plants At All in my experience and you know how my tank looks lol. They mostly go on the glass and only come out at night. it feeds on biofilm decaying plant matter and Heavily as its main diet on algae. When they do come out at night though they are Very entertaining and neat to see.

Whats weird is this morning I also saw my Celebes rainbows picking at algae??? like All of them!??? like it was an activity lmao idk.


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## mysiak

Yeah, as far as I know, those require brackish/sea water for larvae to become a snail. Just keep an eye on them, as soon as you see plant leaves or whole stems floating, I would suspect these guys  

I remember seeing my black Mollies to pick at algae like a flock, was interesting to watch as well


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## DutchMuch

eh... I did a ton of research, everything says they spawn in FW... im sure they have the ability to do so in brackish as well... haven't seen anything saying they eat healthy plants either.


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## mysiak

I am finding conflicting information, most sources say that they do not breed in FW  At least as long as we're still talking about Stenomelania torulosa. Tylomelania sp. (another very similar Sulawesi snail) breeds in FW as you describe - 1-2 snails every month or so. 

I do not trust big snails anymore, Brotia herculea and "Faunus ater" or common Mystery snail (Pomacea bridgesii) are considered to be plants friendly, but I saw them how they chew through bunch of healthy stem plants. Brotia and Mystery snails devastated also fresh young leaves.. I am now very careful about big snail with plants.


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## DutchMuch

do you have a link to that info so I may read up on it? thanks in advance!!


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## mysiak

I found most of the information in Slovak or Czech language, but other European sites/eshops provide similar info.

https://translate.google.com/transl...mp.sk/slimak-stenomelania-torulosa&edit-text=

https://translate.google.com/transl...gnasenschnecke-Stenomelania-torulosa/a-13672/

https://translate.google.com/transl...Path=/Shops/80329341/Products/1022&edit-text=

Here is a nice article about them, unfortunately in Czech language. You might be able to extract the text and use translator (page 20). http://e-akvarium.cz/casopis/akvarium37.pdf


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## kafkabeetle

Just read through most of this thread and just had to stop at to say how gorgeous!


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## mysiak

kafkabeetle said:


> Just read through most of this thread and just had to stop at to say how gorgeous!


Thanks! 

Small update - I took a short (and shaky) video after regular weekly trimming. What surprised me about Dwarf sag is that it continues to grow even when cut in half, so I often cut same leaves several times. Other plants are growing nice too, overall growth depends on how much of abundant fish food I provide. Water parameters are still 0/0/0.. It's really fascinating how plants keep such a small amount of water with dirt and living (=pooping) animals in pristine conditions.


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## kafkabeetle

A thing of beauty! I'm loving the emersed pennywort. And I've had dwarf sag grow so densely that when I tore down the bowl the entire carpet came up in one piece and the underside was just covered in corkscrews of root searching for somewhere else to grow. That plant is serious about spreading lol I'm not surprised it's keeping your water so clean...it's awesome that you've been able to stock it with so many different creatures but on a scale so small that 2.5 gallons looks perfectly appropriate. A tiny microcosm 🙂


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## mysiak

It seems that I am going to have such root system as well - dwarf sag is doing exactly what you said - looking for any free space to spread  Funnily enough, it still refuses to grow in my bigger tank. 
This tank was supposed to be a short term experiment - to be honest I expected that it will fail after couple of weeks/months, but now I really like it and will keep it as long as I can. I was thinking about replacing this bowl with something bigger, but I can't make myself to tear it down..  Unfortunately I don't have enough time for maintenance these days (newborn baby in the house), so it's going to look like total jungle soon. Fortunately, fish and shrimps don't mind it..


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## kafkabeetle

Have your teeny fishes gone after your shrimp? I got excited when my cherry shrimp started breeding successfully, overfed a little and while the water is still at 0 nitrate, I've got loads of copepods. I would like some fish small enough to control the copepods but leave the baby shrimp alone. Prolly a pipe dream though since newborn they are very similar in size. But if these are the smallest livebearer, perhaps? Also they're cute with their little stripes


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## mysiak

Good question, but unfortunately I have no idea :\ Tank is so big jungle, that I am happy to see at least some shrimps here and there. Fish are often in front of the tank, so I can count them more or less precisely (about 20 now), but shrimps are spread everywhere and hiding.. Sometimes I see shrimplets, so I assume that they breed.. 

And this brought me to the big decision - I am going to move plants/animals from this bowl to a new one. I have these reasons - bowl shape is quite impractical:
- small footprint for plants
- harder maintenance
- attracts dust from outside
- doesn't have cover, so I lose a shrimp occasionally and quite a lot of water evaporates daily
- very limited choice of water pumps/filters

New tank will be box shaped, with inbuilt filter chamber and plastic cover. I will drill a whole in the plastic cover and squeeze emersed growing pennywort through it and put its roots into the filter chamber. This way I can keep tank tidy and utilize advantages of emersed growth. I am considering two tanks, 16 litres Sera Biocube Nano (~4g) and 34 litres Fluval Flex (~9g). I am checking availability of both tanks in my country and then I'll decide.  Until then I have to make my mind if I will transfer also dwarf sagittaria, I am not sure if I want the same jungle again.


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## kafkabeetle

Aw I'm sorry to hear this beauty is coming to an end! If I lived near you I would offer to buy it so it could go on lol. But I'm sure what you do next will be even better with a little more room


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## mysiak

I probably won't tear it down completely, my secret plan is to move the bowl with few plants in it back to the owner's house and keep it running there. I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to catch all shrimps, so some will stay in the tank and maybe survive and breed.. I will keep this thread updated, just not so often 

I wish I had more place at my home so I could keep this bowl with me..


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## mysiak

New start..Got bored, saw an opportunity, so here we go again 

Nothing fancy, just what I found laying around. "Substrate for woody plants" (no idea if such thing exists outside of Europe ), older sand for playground and cuttings from my other tank which I would throw out otherwise (mainly Hygrophila polysperma + difformis, Bacopa caroliniana, Hydrocotyle leucocephala, Najas guadalupensis and floaters). No artificial light, no heater, no water pump. Bowl is sitting by two big windows in a "winter garden", facing east. It's purely experimental tank now, with plants and couple of hitchhiker snails. If it's going to be a success, I might put few shrimp in there, but no fish as tank is not in my house.

Just few photos right after it has been filled with water:

Side view









Overall view









Tank position


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## zolteeC

Looking forward to see your "box" aquascape!

... and the bowl has been pretty awesome, too!


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## dwalstad

Looks very nice!


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## mysiak

I found some testing strips laying around and results are better than expected NO2 0, NO3 ~20. No tests for ammonia though, so no idea about that.

Planting plants in the sand was a real pleasure, they hold in there like there were glued. I'm really curious what will happen with the soil and the sand cap over time.

One quick early morning shot


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## mysiak

Had some fun with a flashlight. This tank would definitely benefit from a lamp, mainly for a viewing pleasure.


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