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A lonely Tree 4 gallon bowl, now with clown kilies,

17K views 95 replies 25 participants last post by  Chris_Produces 
#1 · (Edited)
Updated. @@@@ new scape pics last page,,,Big thanks to newman for his awesome bowl which inspired me to start my own..

New scape,

Hi guys so i am a newbie here and saw newman planted bowl and i had a bowl lying around so though what the heck i will try something as newman planted bowl.
Tank: Its a bowl 4 gallon:icon_smil
Lighting is ikea table lamp says 7W equals 40 W or something CFl i thing as its spiral.
Substrate is:ADA aqua soil + a mix of gravel , just a tiny bit.
Starting my bowl as a DSM (Dry Start Method).
Plants: Lilaeopsis brasiliensis and i thinks its micro sword plant and also Green Pennywort + One driftwood.
Inhabitants would be just shrimps.

Day 1 . mixed ada soil and then topped up with some gravel. filled up with water and then emptied it to take out excessive nutrients.

Then added Lilaeopsis brasiliensis and sword plant. Also kept my driftwood in the bowl so that i know what space i have and where can i plant.

so pics now will keep updated.

let me know what you think or if my lights are ok or anything that would help me.:icon_smil
Pics:






 
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#2 ·
not to burst your bowl here, but that looks like a pretty big bowl, how thick is the glass? I have a 2 gallon that has thin glass, not made to be completely filled and I constantly worry about it busting... yours holds twice as much weight... Be super careful when handling it full; like cleaning the glass and I would never move or turn it even remotely full... I would hate to see that wonderful start end up in pieces...
 
#4 ·
week 2 update

Its been 10 days, carpet plants are growing at a constant pace, green pennyworth is growing real quick and tall now:icon_bigg. i have changed the driftwood layout, let me know if you like the driftwood layout standing or it looks better before a bit slanting.



driftwood with pennyworth






i soooooooo much want the carpet plant to grow quickly. i have cling wrapped it an put some holes in it for air.

is it ok.
anyone have any other suggestions.
 
#5 ·
Minor update

So a minor update , added some more plants, again i am growing immersed,so added wisteria as well as some rotala stems, also added some HC as foreground. leaves are still wet so will see how they react in a day or so..



so now it looks like this:icon_roll
 
#7 ·
a lot of us have found that the fast growing stem plants get to be a pain after a while. with not a lot of vertical growing room they get to the top very quickly and then grow out. After dealing with this for a few months, I finally ripped them out and used slowr growing non stemmed plants paired with moss. The stem plants are good while the other plants are growing out, but be aware, if they root, you will ruin your substrate trying to get them out later.... good to make a choice now. I think the HC could work, are you planning on using any CO2 source for it?
 
#9 ·
@ newman ; thanks newman, i am planning to put cherry red shrimps for now and may be some other shrimps later on :). any suggestion or advise is more than welcome newman.:D

@pedropete, i will be just keeping shrimps,yea thats my Fav driftwood as well, i have another one that looks like a big tree, but cant fit in my bowl lol :D. its winter in australia here, dont know whether i should get the shrimps now or just wait till its summer.

@ozedego, yea i am thinking of removing my stem plants as well..breaks my heart as i just spend 20 dollars on these stem plants and HC... i am thinking to japonica blyxa behind the tree, what you guys think.
 
#12 ·
hi bud, i had diy co2 for a while, ada aqua soil as substrate and 2xT8 tubes,
i used just Seachem Florish when ever i did water change and thats it. nothing else. after a while got lazy and stopped DIY Co2 as well . as long as you have a good substrate and proper lighting you cn get lush growh. the plants you see they are all plants that can grow with medium lightings. most of the stem plants will grow real easy if you have enough light , like hygro and stem plants, foreground it was micro sword and jave moss ,and the trees had java moss as well. With moss you can experiment in different ways. i made carpet of java moss as you can see and also in my driftwood and regular trimmings.
easiest plant to grow as carpet with low light would be java moss. just wrap java moss in a net and tie it with pebbles or rock after a while it will grow and attach together and looks like a carpet. the only thing is its very dense and so gets very dirty and collect debris. but still a cool alternative. just keep on trimming the moss and it will grow even better.
 
#13 ·
i think you should wait till summer and then get the shrimp. in the meantime just let things establish and grow out. maybe put in a snail that wont breed to build and keep some degree of bioload. but even if you dont, you'll likely have worms and other animals in the bowl once you fill it, so its no big deal.

cherry shrimp are great for this.

and yes i'd scrap some of the stem plants and do blyxa instead. it will look great there!
 
#14 ·
I have to admit, I rarely like these bowls. I think it's a combination of the way the curved glass distorts things, the fact they don't allow for much of a scape, and the fact many are not really scaped much at all.

However, I am loving yours. The driftwood is perfect. I like how you did a foreground, I like your choice of stems. I even like the shape of your bowl better than most. I don't know the term for "modern" 70's furniture but the shape gives it that sort of vibe. Can't wait to see where this goes.
 
#15 ·
Thanks Talontsiawd, cant agree more, for me bowl was meant to be just some plants and a goldfish :hihi:, when i saw Newman bowl , i wanted to create a aqua scape in a bowl as well. don't know where this will lead me, may be nowhere or just another bowl.....would really love to get my bowl just the way i imagine it.:red_mouth an aqua scape just like tanks:biggrin:.

Thanks for your encouragement,
 
#17 ·
Lol even though there's no aquascape anymore, your shrimp bowl still looks nice Newman.

Anyone who have done a dry start method, can tell me whether it's really important to put some holes when you glad wrap your tank or bowl or can it be wrapped without any air letting in.
Which method is better for quicker growth.
 
#18 ·
little update, for my Dry Start Method.

lilaeopsis is doing great while immersed, i also had some other grass plant (dont know the name), basically i bought 2 pots of the other grass plant and one pot of lilaeopsis.

lilaeopsis is doing great ,shooting new leaves and didn't show any transition effect at all (i.e no leaves melted down), unlike the other grass plant which melted down in the first week, old leaves turned brown and melted but now growing new leaves again.


Green pennyworth is doing great and growing.

Water wisteria seems to be showing transition effect as the leaves are getting brown( have heard that water wisteria when grown immersed have a different leave structure than grown submersed). so will wait till it melts as well and start getting new leaves.

Rotala still looks like going through the transition effect. I have cut the rotala stems into smaller stems and replanted behind the tree. it still not showing much growth.



nothing diff at this stage, just looking same as before, just a bit more growth with microsword.


just a quick questions guys anyone who can give me some suggestion. its abt micro sword grass, it looks like the roots and the plants are on top of the soil rather than inside the soild. can i add some more aqua soil and cover the grass with aquasoil or just leave it for now and it will slowly grow like a carpet..
 
#19 ·
update

So finally lost my patience and decided to submerge the bowl with water,:icon_cool.. so as far as growth goes , i had slow growth , dont know why, but roots have established very nicely. bought some blyxa japonica and removed pennyworth. . I also topped up with ada aquasoil on top of gravel ..So filled up with water and water still murky.. wanted green carpet like look but till now its not happening.. nyways. let the pics decide .. any suggestions are welcome.

i have to say after filling the bowl with water it does distort the image, hopefully once the water clear up and gets settled it should look good.







from back


any suggestions are welcome
 
#25 ·
thanks FisheriesOmen , as per your suggestion i have planted some stem plants like rotala sp red. hopefully it will be nice and tall within a couple of weeks..:smile:

guys if any one can suggest, I have seachem TRACE and FLOURISH. should i also buy EXCEL or i should be fine using the one i have. Also when should start dosing it ????:icon_roll
 
#24 ·
Idleivey, thanks for the comments, i love that wood as well. I waited like month and a half before flooding,couldnt wait more as the micro sword were not growing.. could be cos its winter here and i dont have any heater in my bowl. good luck with your bowl as well. hope it will be nicely carpeted before you flood it with water.
 
#26 · (Edited)
new update

Another update, its after a week , did another water change yesterday. things are looking good and i added some pebbles beneath the driftwood.
Plants are doing ok even HC that i though will melt down. Micro sword is growing as well, can see several new shoots.:icon_bigg super stoked. Blyxa is melting down but got some new green leaves, so assuming it should do fine, will see in another week or so..
Also added a little bit of willow moss to the wood.

Guys feel free to criticize or give some suggestions or comments if you like :D
here are the pics:









view from top
 
#27 ·
So took some more pics nothing major, did some Photoshop as well , anyways all i did was added another branch and tied some moss to it lol.. this week will get the shrimps yeaaaaaaaaaaaa

Photoshop 1


original pic looks crappy lol, sorry cookie will soon buy some black background and will try for better snap.


photoshop2


original


photoshop2


original


Also blyxa japonica almost melted , but can see new leave shooting out so i hope they will grow back.
 
#28 ·
Small update i got 6 females and 6 male shrimps. females are really nice and bright. they are all sitting and chillaxing under the tree.. its like their tree house. :D







i havent fed them at all, when i put them in my bowl, they did shed there shell as i can see couple of hollow shrimps shell. they havent eaten that so i am assuming they are not hungry.
will feed them tomorrow.

Also as you can see i added some hair grass,
 
#29 ·
So this is current state, pretty bad, had massive cyno bacteria no matter what I did, it never went away. Just trimmed the plants, my stem plants are not growing Much at all , hairgrass seems to be growing, lileopolis not growing at all but not dying as well..anyways just thought to post the pics.
 

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#30 ·
looks good and the grass makes it look much better. once the moss gets going it will look insane. it just takes a long time.

i had cyano too back when i first started mine. you have to diligently siphon it out during each weeks water change. after a couple of months it went away. but then i had a major cladophora outbreak (had a moss ball in the bowl so maybe that was the culprit?) and after that its been more than a year now and i haven't even cleaned my glass. no algae on glass or plants. pretty amazing.

yours will reach that stage too!
 
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