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Ultra Low Tech Fish Bowl

Joined
26 Feb 2020
Messages
54
Location
West Midlands
Hello Everyone!

After binge-watching Youtube videos from George Farmer and MD Fish Tanks, I was inspired to aquascape a 17-litre fish bowl with no heater, filter, CO2 or fertilisers. This scape is mainly composed of Bucephalandra Sp. I find this species very interesting an unique and I wanted to try and included as many varieties as I could.

Tank: 35cm (17 Litres) Fish Bowl
Hardscape: Root Wood and Dragon Stone
Substrate: Tropica Substrate (Powder)
Lighting: 40W LED Desk Lamp

Plants:

Bucephalandra Caterina 'Pygmaea',
Bucephalandra Lamandau Mini Red,
Bucephalandra Mini Needle Leaf,
Bucephalandra Theia Green,
Eleocharis Acicularis Mini,
Hygrophila Pinnatifida,
Hydrocotyle Tripartita "Mini"
Microsorum Pteropus Trident

1. Added the Tropica Substate Powder.

Screenshot 2020-06-28 at 17.13.25.png


2. Arranged the hardscape (Root Wood and Dragon Stone).

Screenshot 2020-06-28 at 17.14.00.png


3. Plants are arranged and then planted.

Screenshot 2020-06-28 at 17.14.44.png


4. Filled up the bowl with fresh dechlorinated water.

Screenshot 2020-06-28 at 17.15.04.png


I also made a video on how I set up this fishbowl aquascape!



Here is a picture of the scape a day after when everything settled down.

104558492_886367878534802_9000095869625570415_n(1).jpg


Thanks for looking!
 

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Nice! It’s an aquatic bonsai in a bowl. Do you keep any live stock? With no live stock and no feeding, I don’t think No Fert is sustainable as the nutrients reserve in the substrate will eventually run out. How long have you set up yours.

I also maintain 4 shrimp bowls, zero tech, not even artificial light, on my west facing windows. But I supplement fert by feeding the shrimp and replacing some water now and then from my big planted tanks which I fertilize regularly.

Mine are fully planted with carpet plants and floaters, and receive direct sunlight for 4 to 6 hours in the afternoon, and bright shade for the balance of the day. I keep cherry shrimp and snails, no fish except made of glass. They have been set up for 2 + years with no algae after establishment except for spirogyra which I removed by hand from time to time. Now that I placed plastic grid screen behind them to cut off 2/3 light intensity, the spirogyra growth is under control. I have dwarf hair grass, dwarf Sag, guppy grass, frogbit and salvia floaters. Due to intense sunlight, I cannot grow low light Buce, Anubias or Java fern.
 

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Nice! It’s an aquatic bonsai in a bowl. Do you keep any live stock? With no live stock and no feeding, I don’t think No Fert is sustainable as the nutrients reserve in the substrate will eventually run out. How long have you set up yours.

I also maintain 4 shrimp bowls, zero tech, not even artificial light, on my west facing windows. But I supplement fert by feeding the shrimp and replacing some water now and then from my big planted tanks which I fertilize regularly.

Mine are fully planted with carpet plants and floaters, and receive direct sunlight for 4 to 6 hours in the afternoon, and bright shade for the balance of the day. I keep cherry shrimp and snails, no fish except made of glass. They have been set up for 2 + years with no algae after establishment except for spirogyra which I removed by hand from time to time. Now that I placed plastic grid screen behind them to cut off 2/3 light intensity, the spirogyra growth is under control. I have dwarf hair grass, dwarf Sag, guppy grass, frogbit and salvia floaters. Due to intense sunlight, I cannot grow low light Buce, Anubias or Java fern.

They look really interesting! At the moment I have a few yellow shrimp and a pair of endler guppys. The set is up about 3 weeks old and the plants are showing good growth and I have been changing the water once a week.
 
They look really interesting! At the moment I have a few yellow shrimp and a pair of endler guppys. The set is up about 3 weeks old and the plants are showing good growth and I have been changing the water once a week.

As much as I live your bowl, sad to see that it contains fishes...bowl aren’t made for putting livestock in it.
 
Have you measured temperature range?

Great to see these sorts of aquariums :)
There is diurnal temp fluctuation of as much as 17 to 26C in winter, and 21 to 31C in summer. They are in an HVAC room with moderation. Without AC, I’m afraid I may have cooked shrimp soup in summer heat. Another big gyration is pH which varies from 7.2 to 8.8 pre and post sunlight photosynthetic period due to stripping of CO2. I can observe oxygen streaming when full sunlight hit.
 
As much as I live your bowl, sad to see that it contains fishes...bowl aren’t made for putting livestock in it.

I understand your point, I am testing and changing the water regularly if I do see the fish starting to stress out I have another aquarium where they can be placed into.
 
They look really interesting! At the moment I have a few yellow shrimp and a pair of endler guppys. The set is up about 3 weeks old and the plants are showing good growth and I have been changing the water once a week.
Plants grow well initially with new soil that generates nutrients and CO2. Unless the soil is too hot that generates excessive nutrients, there is no need for weekly water change. What do you replace the WC water with?

My plants started to decline after the soil cooled down in about a year. So I started doing periodic WC to replace with not clean water but dirty water from my big tank to replenish lost nutrients.

Guppys will eat baby shrimp. So if you want to sustain shrimp population in a nano bowl, it has to be fishless. I keep glass fish.
 
Hello All,

Sorry for the late of updates from this aquascape, I have been super busy the past few months.

1 Month
118951878_3377179772348247_2692024302845908909_n.jpg


As you can there were some algae issues, which was bound to happen. So what I did to fix this was, I reduced the amount of light the bowl receives a day from 8 hours to 6 hours. In addition to that, I also reduced the intensity of the light by placing higher up for it is further away from the surface. After about 2 weeks and more water the algae issues went away.

I also made a video on how I did maintenance on this fish bowl.


If you have any questions please ask away!
 
Hello Everyone,

Its been a while since I have given an update on this scape! Here is the scape when it was 2 months old.
120963665_2879036508864340_3526024380989351624_n.jpg

I have managed to fixed my algae issues, I have reduced the light intensity and it has helped a lot! The plants have started to develop really nice now and are looking lush. I am impressed with how quick the hair grass and java fern has grown.

I have made a video of me doing the maintenance of this fishbowl!


Many thanks for looking!
Krish
 
Hi Everyone,

Just another update as another month passes on this scape!

139516075_736990593598927_4544771659303937186_n.jpg


The plants have really started to mature now to give me this nice forest effect I wanted. I kinda like keeping the hair grass a little bit overgrown it really adds a wild natural feel. I am really surprised how well the scape has done considering there is no CO2, no flow or no fertilisers.

If you are curious to see my maintenance on this bowl scape, have a watch below!


Any questions please ask away, I am happy to answer!
 
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