# Bowl in Garden Window



## Luffy (Aug 23, 2012)

So my mom has noticed how nice my el natural tank looks and how easy it has been to maintain and wants me to set up an el natural bowl in her garden window. Here are the challenges:

1. The Garden Window: This is a bay window surrounded on the top and sides by windows and she lives in Sacramento. The winters are relatively mild there but the summers are pretty hot. Keeping fish or shrimp in there could get dicy because of the extremes. I was thinking that maybe we could put a nice white fabric on the window ceiling and one of the side windows to keep things from getting too intense. Any thoughts on conquering this problem?

2. Fauna selection: The only things I can think of that would survive in this kind of condition might be cherry shrimp or a guppy. Do you think they could handle it or any fish could?

3. Single Gallon Bowl: A small bowl will have much greater temperature fluctuation especially in a window. Walstad has an article about keeping shrimp in bowls, which seems to work. I've seen threads of outdoor tanks that look great but don't have any critters. Will this small of an ecosystem work in the conditions?

4. Plants: What plants might work in a bowl? I have stem plants I can put in, but the rooted plants are going to be the issue. Many will get too big and many of the smaller ones spread really fast. What would work to keep the soil aerated but is manageable?

Lots of questions! If I think this might actually work, I'll start working on something and post some pictures as this goes on. I feel like a planted bowl I help my mom with will be much better for the critters than what she might set up. My mom is a notorious fish murderer!

Thanks for your help!


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## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

I would emphasize the plant aspect of that sort of set up. No animals. 
Yes, shade the window from the summer heat, either with an awning outside, high enough so the view is not cut off, or with curtains inside (very difficult to handle in a greenhouse window). 

You are absolutely right that 1 gallon of water can get deadly hot in that sort of setting. Point that out to your Mom, and make sure she understands that is why it is not a good place for livestock. 

As for plants... 
I would start by looking at anything with the word 'Dwarf' or 'Nano' in the name. 
There are some Anubias, and the Wendelov variety of Java Fern stays smaller. 

I think I would go for a light colored substrate. It might not heat up as much in the direct light.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

This will work. I usually have 5-6 of these bowls going at any given time, mostly to propagate plants or keep species I don't have room for in my large tanks.

1. Heat is probably your biggest problem. Which direction does the greenhouse window face? South or west will give more problems than north or east. Is the window space fully airconditioned? Some type of shading may be necessary in the summer--you could even put a lamp shade on top of the bowl. Floating plant species will also help reduce heat and light.

2. See below. I keep cherry shrimp, ramshorn snails, and Endler's livebearers in my bowls. A beta or a paradise fish (larger bowl) is also possible. There are some very attractive snails that would do well. The common ramshorn snail is available in red, pink, blue, purple, and spotted color mutants, and some of these are truly spectacular. Mystery snails are also available in lots of colors--yellow is my favorite--but a cover may be necessary to prevent escape. I do not recommend nerites because they tend to crawl out if conditions are not exactly to their liking. Rabbit snails (_Tylomelania_) crawl out and eat plants.

3. One gallon is the absolute minimum size to use. If you could use a 2 or 3 gallon container, that would be much better (and the smallest size I would use for a paradise fish). All these very small aquaria can crash quickly if overstocked, or if over-fed. I suggest that you set the bowl up with plants but no animals at first, then monitor temperature for a month before adding fauna. Start monitoring temperature again in late spring, and be prepared to move the bowl if it gets too hot.

4. Any plant that does not get too big is possible. Rosette plants that spread rapidly by runners (vallisneria) are probably the most difficult to control. Fast growing stem plants are easy to trim, and are useful for maintaining water quality. Slow growing plants like anubias, Java fern, or cryptocoryne are easy to keep in bounds, but may develop a lot of algae on their leaves in a high light situation like a greenhouse window. Snails are your friends!

Be prepared to experiment, and quickly remove any animals that are in danger. I predict that you will find a combination that will work, and your mother will want a bigger tank!


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## Luffy (Aug 23, 2012)

So we have 1 for and 1 against... hmm... 

Luckily this is an east facing window, which means the most sun will happen in the coolest part of the day. Maybe I'll buy a larger bowl and trade her for the old one which I'll keep plants and some of my snails I catch from my 10gal in. Also, I've had great luck with Crypt Undulata so maybe I'll grab one of those for it's roots. The sand I have is white and I've got more floating plants than I know what to do with so the substrate and floaters will be easy. Thanks for the suggestions!

Anybody else have suggestions?  

Also, I'd love to see pictures of your NPT bowls with a flora/fauna list so that I can get some ideas from all you experts from what you have done successfully.


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## Luffy (Aug 23, 2012)

Well, I have set up an experiment bowl in my bedroom. It's by the window which is as close to her conditions as I can create in my small apartment. We'll see how it goes. 

In terms of plants, I just filled it with extra from my tank. It's got a bunch of clippings of Pennywort planted, and one clipping of it floating, about seven or eight stems of the water mint which has a scientific name I can't remember, two stems of ludwigia repens, a tiny java fern I found floating in my roommate's tank, a string of chain sword shoots, a couple crypt parva that weren't doing well in my other tank, water lettuce, and duckweed.

In terms of critters, I raided my backyard bucket for seed shrimp and cyclops which I threw in there with some ramshorn snails I found at the bottom of the bucket. I also got 5 guppy fry for $2 at the LFS. They guppy fry weren't in great shape (the store just lets them starve or get eaten usually but I convinced them to sell me some) so I've lost one but the other four are doing fantastically. 

If my experiment bowl goes well, then I'll move to setting my mom up with one and giving her one of the guppies to start with.

Pictures coming soon...


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## Luffy (Aug 23, 2012)

Well, here's the bowl. It's actually a rather attractive set-up. I even enjoy the distortion the all-round bowl creates. It naturally magnifies the seed shrimp which is very entertaining.



















The fry are doing incredibly well. They get very excited when I come around and are already begging for food. They seem to love the plants and will sit on the leaves comfortably. The seed shrimp are always working away; they're very entertaining. The guppies will actually follow them around every once in a while.

The only question I have is in regards to the soil. Some of it escaped during planting and is sitting on top of the sand. I've vacuumed some of it off but there's still some left. Is that bad or will it just eventually get gobbled up by bacteria?


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Nice! That bowl will become packed with plants in no time. Don't worry about the soil on top of the sand. As the biofilm forms, the soil will clump and become less likely to be disturbed.


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