The Whole "balanced" Thing...

[hensonc4098]

I'm sure you've heard the school science lesson of how if you have a 2 litre drinks bottle and add some elodea, a snail and a guppy, they can live quite happily, providing for each other. I was just wondering if this was fact or myth, as I was considering something similar... well... a bit different actually

I was hit by a flash of inspiration today when I looked at a tall plain glass vase that my mum has as a decoration on the table in the house and I thought " what if you could have a mini planted tank in something like that?" Now, it wouldn't quite be the school science experiment, and it wouldn't quite be the small glass vase that I used, but the idea was planted (pardon the pun...) I'm thinking a rectangular vase type thing that has a base of maybe about 18cm square and is about 30cm high. I would plant it with some vallis at the back to create a kind of backdrop, maybe some small crypts or something similar in the middle and probably some HC Cuba as a forground covering. I would only stock it with maybe 2 WCMMs which are quite happy in coldwater/room temperature tanks and a snail. Obviously itwouldnt be like these horrible fish bowls some people have where the water never gets changed - I would be doing weekly water changes along with my other tanks, but it wouldn't be filtered as it would be too small and unsightly on a tank of that size.

So what do you think? Comments? Suggestions? I'm really tempted just to try it and give it a go for all it would cost to set up

Any ideas?

Thanks

Claire

 

[fatheadminnow]

I think it would be neat if it all worked out. I am not sire about the WCMMs though, I mean, I never heard of them before.

The main thing that may worry me is the lack of water movement, which might conflict with the plants not getting a supply of nutrients. But you would not know until you tried?

Do you have plants in your other tank(s)? If so, do they do well?

You may/may not have to add ferts depending on your water supply?

All in all, I think you should definitely give it a shot and see what happens! It can't hurt!

-FHM

 

[Kitty_Nin]

You mean something like this?

I'd only do it with snails and shrimp. WCMMs are very active fish and I can't help but think they'd be miserable in a vase. Some rarer fish, like the smallest fish in the world would be quite happy there I would imagine, but good luck finding them.

 

[hensonc4098]

WCMM stands for White Cloud Mountain Minnow - a bit of a mouthful!

I thought about that with circulation, but just when you said that, I'm sure I have a spare airpump kickingabout
somewhere - I could maybe use one of those air tube things that's like an airstone but along a line, and put it along the back behind the vallis. Then that would provide airiation too.

Yeh - I have a 35l planted which is going good - I dose easycarbo and TPN+ in that so I could
always add a wee bit to this if it gets off the ground. It would o ly need a tiny amount of ferts anyway so it would hardly cost anything to run and icould just sit itunder a
lamp or something for lighting.

Something along those lines, Kitty_Nin but a bit bigger.

 

[fatheadminnow]

WCMM stands for White Cloud Mountain Minnow - a bit of a mouthful!

I thought about that with circulation, but just when you said that, I'm sure I have a spare airpump kickingabout
somewhere - I could maybe use one of those air tube things that's like an airstone but along a line, and put it along the back behind the vallis. Then that would provide airiation too.

Yeh - I have a 35l planted which is going good - I dose easycarbo and TPN+ in that so I could
always add a wee bit to this if it gets off the ground. It would o ly need a tiny amount of ferts anyway so it would hardly cost anything to run and icould just sit itunder a
lamp or something for lighting.

Something along those lines, Kitty_Nin but a bit bigger.

Yeah, I would say give it a shot! Sounds fun!

-FHM

 

[hensonc4098]

Lol yeah it could be a laugh I just had a thought though - would you not need to half empty the tank if you needed to put your hand in?!! Otherwise it would overflow lol

 

[Assaye]

I'm sure you've heard the school science lesson of how if you have a 2 litre drinks bottle and add some elodea, a snail and a guppy, they can live quite happily, providing for each other. I was just wondering if this was fact or myth, as I was considering something similar... well... a bit different actually

I was hit by a flash of inspiration today when I looked at a tall plain glass vase that my mum has as a decoration on the table in the house and I thought " what if you could have a mini planted tank in something like that?" Now, it wouldn't quite be the school science experiment, and it wouldn't quite be the small glass vase that I used, but the idea was planted (pardon the pun...) I'm thinking a rectangular vase type thing that has a base of maybe about 18cm square and is about 30cm high. I would plant it with some vallis at the back to create a kind of backdrop, maybe some small crypts or something similar in the middle and probably some HC Cuba as a forground covering. I would only stock it with maybe 2 WCMMs which are quite happy in coldwater/room temperature tanks and a snail. Obviously itwouldnt be like these horrible fish bowls some people have where the water never gets changed - I would be doing weekly water changes along with my other tanks, but it wouldn't be filtered as it would be too small and unsightly on a tank of that size.

So what do you think? Comments? Suggestions? I'm really tempted just to try it and give it a go for all it would cost to set up

Any ideas?

Thanks

Claire

In a small, filterless tank you are best keeping it very understocked. WCMMs need quite large tanks, relative to their size, and would not be happy in a pair. What about shrimp?

Mini planted tanks with shrimp and enough plants to keep the tank ammonia free are very do-able. You'd do well to research lighting, carbon and ferts just so that you have more options for plants.

Ask in the planted tank section

 

[fatheadminnow]

Ah, shrimp, now that would look nice! Some nice Cherry Shrimp!

-FHM

 

[GAB99]

unfortunately the saying is completedly false and you cant do it in a soda bottle, BUT what would be very cool i to enlarge it to about the size of a large aquarium (1000g+) tank and do it, that would be cool


as for your design id go with shrimp and lots of plants and maybe go alittle bit bigger.

 

[fatheadminnow]

1000g+... that would be a swimming pool!

-FHM

 

[GAB99]

lol i just remebered telling my dad that the reason we have a vacuum cleaner for the pool is because e dont have plecos to eat the algae! and all we had to do was pick up the leaves

 

[K-Holed]

This reminded me of eco-spheres. I've no idea about the viability of them, I've never looked that closely into it.

Eco-Sphere

 

[fatheadminnow]

This reminded me of eco-spheres. I've no idea about the viability of them, I've never looked that closely into it.

Eco-Sphere

Those look neat!

-FHM

 

[Mikaila31]

I have a 5gal paludarium(a waters edge tank) that holds ~1gal of water. Currently just cherry shrimp and snails, but sometimes endler fry live in there for a month at a time. A little native toad lives on the land side. It hasn't been setup for very long only since late summer. So far though it seems to be very balanced and self sufficient. No running filter/ water movement. There is a filter, its just never on. No water changes, I top it off using water from a nearby aquarium a few times a week. Prun plants back as they need it. Its not a complete, forever sustainable tank. Its got a couple pounds of black dirt, but no nutrients are going into it. I am removing nutrients when I cut plants back. Eventually it will "crash" in a sense. As nutrients get less and less. At some point I will need to replace the black dirt to maintain it. So far its been doing great.

I did the same with a 2.5gal except just a humid terrarium. It did really good too for a while. Its kinda crapping out though. The plants are not very happy. All I've ever done is add water to keep the humidity up and that is only done once a month. Its been going about a year I think...

 

[hensonc4098]

The only thing with shrimp is that there wouldn't be a lot of floor space for them and it would be planted so you wouldn't really see them would you not?