Walstad Method planted 1g bowl

[fishycat]

Thanks, HP! Yep, all in the name of science.

Brace yourselves...:uhoh:

Day one of aeration - you can see how the water level had dropped & where the cyano formed near the surface and the bottom curve of the bowl.


Eleven days later (before I clamped the line off to a smaller bubble). The glass is ucky probably from too much light, but barely any cyano. There are spots still on the lower curve of the bowl & the gravel.


Salvinia & duckweed (& cyano) - hate the way the bubbles spray water onto the salvinia & then evaporate leaving uckiness.


Okay - so this 1g "tank" has been around since beginning of July, doing WAY better than the Walstad bowl. I don't seem to have any luck growing java fern past a few inches, so I chucked 95% in here and just do top-offs with tank water (that be tannins, yo). My poor pothos is hanging on... I think I need to do a major trim and cut off most of the vine so the light can reach the leaves.




Pretty nice leaves! On the other hand, I just looked in my 20H and saw black spots on the biggest (3.5"), nicest java fern leaf in there. :swear:



I should have probably used a lower wattage light on the bowl - maybe 9w instead of 15. Well, I'm ignoring the bowl for the most part... I am hoping to look at it in a few weeks and see nothing but happy dwarf sag. *closes eyes, puts fingers in ears, and goes "la la la!"*

Meh, knowing my OCD I'll be messing with it again by the weekend. :duh:

 

[FallenAngel]

"Knowing my OCD" thats my fishycat!
But all of us on here suffer from that so don't feel alone!

Good luck with the smalls bowls and tanks though

 

[dundadundun]

So... Does cyano disappear once issues are resolved, or is manual removal also required?

depends how bad it is, really. i'd do manual removal either way just to help push things along. however... if you can keep the water moving to deliver the ferts and keep your nitrates up the only thing you have to worry about is making sure you're not giving it too much light to let the cyano die off.

at least that's been my experiences. i will re-iterate one more time... my 30 barely has any water movement... and cyano has been kicked for quite some time. when i say barely i mean one internal filter trickling water out of a 1/2" ID hose... BARELY!!! i do have another filter in there as of now... but it wasn't in there for quite some time after i kicked my cyano.

hmmm... didn't see page 2... i would see how things go in that bowl without the airstone... just the hose. should be enough aeration and movement without it and should cut down on those bubbles.

your hex... i would cut a small piece of black foam or something... trim those pothos back to just the short portion with the leafs... clamp the sponge to the back so the top just breaks the water or is just under it and re-plant the pothos on that using the sponge to wick the nutrients/water up and a place for the roots to cling to... no leafs under water, though.

 

[fishycat]

Sounds good, Dun - I didn't think about having airline without the stone, interesting. I was thinking q-tips for manual removal...

Yup, I need to give that pothos a major trim... Have to see what I can rig without blocking more light to the java.

 

[dundadundun]

have the light shine from the front. the pothos leafs will bend down to capture it showing their tops nicely from the front... as well you'll get light to your moss. it's an idea... without paying attention to how you're currently lighting it of course.

 

[fishycat]

have the light shine from the front. the pothos leafs will bend down to capture it showing their tops nicely from the front... as well you'll get light to your moss. it's an idea... without paying attention to how you're currently lighting it of course.

Well, this gets light from a window to the left & up about 1-1.5 feet and filtered thru privacy glass. Mostly ambient, afternoons stronger possibly direct light. Plus whatever light reaches it from the cfl's blasting above my 20H glass top about 6' away. I'm surprised it's doing so well, actually.

No moss (I swear!) just fern... And seriously no room for another light, much as I do want to set one up. It's right behind my flatscreen monitor, so I think a lamp may be too distracting. I'm already bending the "no fish tanks on the computer table" rule.:

We'll see what I can whip out... I'm feeling inspired & want to apply sharp knife to some extra sponges I have! :devil:

 

[fishycat]

So the bowl is still looking okay... I actually just topped it off today and then realized "hm, now I can't do any cleaning/maintenance." :thumbsup: : There is a bit of yuck amongst the dwarf sag - detritus from the three crypts that totally melted/died. I'm not sure if any of the ramshorns are still alive in there... hard to tell. They were around when I added the airstone, but haven't seen any on the glass recently.

I'm updating this because I trimmed my pothos and set up the sponge holder for the 1g hex...





Yeah - I just realized that one whole side of the hex is badly in need of a scraping. Can't find my D&B card... :irked:




Here's the java fern in my 20H. I think it got spotty after I moved it around several times... perhaps the leaves are just very sensitive? :huh:
Off topic: Baby brigg! *squeal*