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Summer Tubbing

Know where all the slugs in your garden end up, size of their stomachs lol!

They didn’t get that fat on slugs, that’s Geoffer‘s Pearl Danios in there 😂

Slug lunch... Fish supper....

Between frogs, toads, a hedgehog living under the shed and a thrush that frequents the garden daily, the slug and snail population get a very hard time around here.
 
It’s inspired me to try it next year and show the youngster the life cycle of frogs and hopefully dragon fly. I guess it’s too late to start one this year.
 
Just love this thread! Keep it up Geoff :)

Good to hear @papa_c . Never sure if I’m just waffling on about something that isn’t very interesting to others so appreciate your comment. Will keep a close eye and update with new observations as and when 😉

This is great, your garden is wonderful and I love the tubbing idea :)
Thanks @Melll . The tub has attracted so much life for so little effort. It ain’t no pond and is only a basic setup. However, will put more thought into how it can be laid out to suit the inhabitants that have turned up throughout the year.

It’s inspired me to try it next year and show the youngster the life cycle of frogs and hopefully dragon fly. I guess it’s too late to start one this year.

That’s really wonderful @hypnogogia . Whole lot of Summer left... Why put off the fun you can have today? Present hedonism invariably pays off if you want to share experiences with your kids I’ve found with my lads and their nephews. Experiences will forever deliver new learnings as you layer more understandings across time. Their interests can change in a heartbeat so grab the opportunities to learn new things together with both hands if you can. Who knows what other interests it might cultivate in them?
 
:) Last year i had baby Touchwood feeling rather comfortable and about to fall asleep on my finger...

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:cool:
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:thumbup:
 
Got an update on that @dw1305

Frog... How do you plead to the slaughter of Geoff’s CPD’s?

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Ribbit... Not guilty.

And you know what...

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Frog is free to hop on... Case dismissed!

There’s two in the tub today and you can see one in the top right perched on the swords:

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Removed the frogbit to have a good look-see and found at least five CPD’s wandering about the tub so put the frogbit back.

Guyana is still trucking:

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The recent high winds battered the plants but calmer weather is here and things are bouncing back. The Pinnatifida got really dried out but seems happy again.

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Just waiting for the Lobelia Cardinalis to flower now.

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Whole lot of Summer left
You’re so right. I’m gonna start next weekend. Holiday start and it will be a project I can do with my 5yr old. Couple of questions for you: have you. Even heating during the cooler days we’ve had? Is there a substrate? How did you start off the lobelia cardinalis?

I was thinking of using an old eheim internal filter for circulation, I have a ton of frogbit and can also muster some H Pinnatifada cutting, and will get a couple of pond plants from the local garden centre. Fill it with rain water and fit an overflow into a flower bed for when it rains.
 
About the Lobelia, make sure you plant it the same as Geoffrey did completely surrounded by water never touching the sides not even 1 leaf. Because if snails and even worse slugs get to it, it will be eaten and stripped within a week with stem and all.
 
About the Lobelia, make sure you plant it the same as Geoffrey did completely surrounded by water never touching the sides not even 1 leaf. Because if snails and even worse slugs get to it, it will be eaten and stripped within a week with stem and all.
Helpful, thanks. We have lots of slugs and snails. So is it planted submerged right from the start, or seed grown and then the seedling submerged?
 
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Helpful, thanks. We have lots of slugs and snails. So is it planted submerged right from the start, or seed grown and then the seedling submerged?

If it has enough light it can grow from submerged to emerged.. I've had it growing submerged as runners on the substrate developed from a mother plant that grew emerged standing in 25cm water. If those runners receive enough light then they will come up to the surface. Outdoor that won't be an issue, but indoor it stays submerged there for its an ideal and popular aquarium plant but stays usually green instead?

What you buy in the shop is grown emerged, it is best to keep this emerged to grow on in the garden. As long as the tip is over the surface it actually doesn't matter how deep you plant it. It's a plant that can easily grow >3 foot tall.

I have no experience with growing this from seed, but what you buy as a plant is already quite mature and no longer a seedling, about a 5 inches tall or even taller. now this late in the summer you might find one that grew a couple months in the shop and it grows pretty fast. :)
 
Couple of questions for you: have you. Even heating during the cooler days we’ve had? Is there a substrate? How did you start off the lobelia cardinalis?

There’s a 300W heater in the tub on a timer to come on for 15 minutes every 3 hours. The CPD’s are from Myanmar and live at 1000m altitude in Inle Lake. Cooler water is not a big issue to them similar to White Cloud Mountain Minnows. If you decided on other species then obviously take their needs into consideration.

Here’s the PM I sent @CooKieS . Outline of the setup:


Kept it simple mate.

- The plasterers tub is 1ft deep (4ft length and 2ft across)
- The tub gets 6-7 hours full light but less probably wouldn’t matter.
- It has an Eheim dual air pump running one sponge filter and one Eheim air diffuser.
- The sponge for the sponge filter I put in one of the indoor tanks for a few days to seed it
- The sand at the bottom is just dirty sand siphoned out from the indoor tanks (think using dirty sand with diatoms/bacteria/other stuff on has helped get the other wildlife going)


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Plant wise I walked into the garden centre pond section and felt like an utter newbie again 😂


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From what I’ve understood an Iris and Typha was a good idea. Any species of Typha will filter the water efficiently and the Iris flowers attract butterflies/dragonflies. The Lobelia Cardinalis was bought as it’s a plant I’m familiar with but it could be replaced with anything I guess or left out.

The rest was an Amazon sword, then some frogbit and Guyana cuttings from the indoor tanks. I just used plastic punnets (with holes) you get fruit in and put aquarium soil in it as a make shift pot:


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The Guyana has turned out to be a pretty decent oxygenating plant species for the tub. The Guyana was planted in the soil just like normal, the swords I put in to the punnets with the rock wool and tipped soil over the rock wool to hold it down.

Last thing is a waterproof box for gear:


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This one came with a 10 metre, four socket extension cable and has proven to be very waterproof in the recent thunderstorms. Air pump fits in there and it can’t be completely airtight as air pump can draw air, but not found a drop of water inside.

Cost wise:

- Tub £30

- Weatherproof electrical box and extension cable £20

- Pond plants £20

- Sponge Filter £5

-Air pump (whatever you want to use)

- Plus whatever plants from your tanks you want to try

Fill it with rain water and fit an overflow into a flower bed for when it rains.

Just use sand underneath the tub to make it unlevel and tilt it towards one edge. When it rains it will gently overflow ... free water change.

Since the above message @hypnogogia have put the rocks in the middle with some Pinnatifida and a small internal filter to provide some circular flow. The heater is off now entirely.

Hope that helps.
 
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Loving the thread ...please carry on posting. Its inspired ne to have a go next year! BTW I couldn't seem to see the pictures on the last post.

Nice... Next year will be a summer tubbing revolution @Onoma1

Can’t wait to see it :cool:

I think because that other post was a copy and paste from a PM it won’t display the images. I can see them when logged in but not if I log out and look... not sure why that is though.
 
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