Luminous Earth Aquarium 1-gallon Planted Nano

[hydrophyte]

I am trying something new and different, a planted nano setup. I found these real nice little bowls manufactured by Live with Nature, the one-gallon Luminous Aquarium (http://www.livewithnature.net/pages/luminous). The Luminous bowls feature artistically layered bits of color around their bases and top rim. I had never seen anything like this and the pictures in their online store were so pretty. While ordering I selected the Earth Aquarium. I liked the look of the natural, earthy hues in that one, and I imagined that the colors would contrast well with a little nano planting inside. Last night when I got home the box was waiting there for me.

I also got a quick shot of the Luminous in situ.

This will be a fun, refreshing little no-tech project. I intend to just light up the bowl with the diffuse sunlight coming through the window--It makes such a neat effect with the colors. I might dose with Excel. Now I need to think about plant selection(???). There isn't a whole lot of room in there for plants, but I should be able to find one or two selections that will fit nicely.

 

[Gfish]

Hi
Very unusual. Reminds of some algae I had a while back lol

 

[nayr88]

Very nice and very different. I really do mention this waaaaay too much, but d.walstad method uses natural sunlight and no fert to grow plants with really good results, she done a pair of 1gal shrimp bowls with just sunlight.

Riccia, spiky mosses some small manzanita(spelling?) twigs and floating plants would look great.

 

[a1Matt]

Cute bowl

I have a few picos (1litre ish) on the go at the moment, and follow a formula...

Amazon frogbit - for filtration (no filter). Seems to work better than other floating plants for this.
Moss - biofilm for critters, so that you do not need to feed the tank.
Beech leaves - more biofilm.
A very low number of snails (mini ramshorns) and dwarf shrimp (CRS, cherries, etc).
I use Sunlight like Nayr says (very bright windowsill sometimes). The ramshorns eat any algae that appears.

It works well for me

The frogbit slowly dies off as there is no (or almost no) food going in.
The critters eat it as it dies so it does not pose a problem.
I just top up with frogbit once a month from another tank.
If you keep the critter count low then water changes can be fairly infrequent.

I always think that wavy upright mosses look nice in this kind of setup.
Leptodytcum riparium (stringy moss), Drepanocladus Aduncus (crescend moss), Taxiphyllum sp. (Flame Moss).

Yours is a bit bigger than mine, so maybe some anubias (smaller varieties of course) would look nice as well.

Alder twigs are brown on the tree, but when broken off and submersed they turn into a nice reddy colour. Would go well with the earth tones of your bowl.

Hope that gives you some inspiration

 

[JohnC]

Cute bowl

.....Drepanocladus Aduncus (crescend moss).....

I had to go look this one up and was presently surprised to find out it is growing all over the UK. I've always wondered what local mosses I could stick into a tank.

Got any photos? I'd love to see how this one grows out submerged. Google is pretty sparse for good piccys.

Best Regards,
John

 

[a1Matt]

Sorry John, I have no pics.

It looks almost exactly the same as stringy moss (of which there are a few pics floating about... http://www.aquamoss.net/Stringy-Moss/Stringy-Moss.htm ), but has ever so slightly larger fronds.

 

[hydrophyte]

Thanks so much Matt for those suggestions and thanks everybody for your observations. At present I don't have any moss on hand, so I intend to just start out with a crypt or two. It would also be fun to try out some kind of floater. And I would also like to try out a real small sword, such as E. parviflorus 'Tropica'. I don't quite know where to get that plant right now. I do have some E. quadricostatus on-hand and that might be a good choice if it will grow in there.

 

[hydrophyte]

I got a quick shot with a single plant in there. This is a Cryptocoryne wendtii potted up in a Tank Planter.

 

[hydrophyte]

Here is another similar shot, with gravel in the bowl.

 

[Johno2090]

Really nice, just be careful it dosent get too hot in the sun and melt the plant, i did that once and it melted everything and even killed the snails it was that warm.

 

[hydrophyte]

Thanks. I think it will be OK in this spot. There is a large tree shading the backyard and it is diffuse sunlight coming through this window.

 

[hydrophyte]

Here's a quick update with a shot of the Luminous and a new plant and different gravel. I took this picture with a flash for a different effect.

 

[hydrophyte]

Oh here's another quick shot that I got the other day, here with a Echinodorus parviflorus.

 

[Gill]

Looks good, Saw one of these bowls for 50pence at the weekend. Should have bought one.