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Jake's Random Planted 1gal Vase

21K views 78 replies 21 participants last post by  byunative 
#1 · (Edited)
Have had this 1-gallon-ish vase sitting around for a while and decided to use it for random trimmings.

The goods:

  • Vase - formerly used for aquaponic tulips
  • 3w Deep Blue Professional Solar Flare LED
  • Black Diamond Blasting Grit






It's currently in my kitchen but I'm not sure that's where it will remain. May eventually be moved to a counter in a guest bathroom.

Plopped in an Osmocote Plus capsule and five or six DIY clay fert balls. Then planted some random Bacopa monnieri and five stems of Staurogyne repens in the front portion of the vase. Added about ten drops of Excel and some micros. Will add macros tomorrow. Plan to fertilize about once per week with regular water changes. No plans for livestock. At most I'll add a Ramshorn or two and maybe a few Cherry Shrimp. But that wouldn't be until a couple months down the road.

Also have a spare RedSea Nano filter that may eventually be added to allow for water flow. Just want to keep this as simple as possible.

Not sure how frequently this journal will be updated but wanted to create it to help me keep track of things.

Thanks for reading along.
 
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#6 ·
mosspearl: Thanks

OVT: Yep. Got tired of tossing tiny clippings that weren't really suitable for RAOKs.This way I can grow them out, give them away and start the vase over. Now that I've hidden the cord a bit and positioned things better, it looks pretty neat. Since it's in a windowless room, it will serve as a decent night light.

FungusTroper: You can buy them from any number of aquatics retailers. 3w Deep Blue Professional Solar Flare LED. Just pick your preferred retailer.
 
#9 ·
Since I'm thinking about adding shrimp to this vase, I'll want to properly "cycle" it and have some sort of filtration.

I've got a Hagen Elite Mini internal filter that would be perfect, I think. But I've only ever used them as tiny pumps/powerheads and never filtration. Anyone have thoughts on their use for filtration? (I also use them to supply water to HOB breeder boxes.)

Suppose I could always just use one of my old RedSea Nano filters. Would mean less equipment inside the vase.

Decisions, decisions.
 
#11 ·
If you're set on having filtration, there's certainly options out there, but I've found them to be unnecessary in these smaller planted vases with the minimal stock they have the room for. Nor do I bother doing a full cycle. A couple ghost shrimp, or a few snails, or a half dozen juvie cherries offer so little load that the bacteria that come in with the plants will carry the load--a quick squeeze of used filter media can help that along if you're particularly worried.
 
#12 ·
cbachmann: Not much to update, as I just started it a couple weeks ago. Will snap more photos and such as things grow in.

Knotyoureality: I'm aware that filtration isn't always necessary. But it's not something I'll likely risk when housing more sensitive types of shrimp. May actually end up keeping some Crystals in it toward the end of summer.
 
#13 ·
I have rcs in. A vase with no water movement and filtration and they are happy. I have since added gravel from the main tank and i originally used tank water.

Green Photograph White Leaf Botany


This was a test as i can go onto larger vases and put the light you suggested on it. I guess Rcs can live without filters and movement anyway.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#15 ·
S. repens has totally melted. Not sure if it's dead or what. Will snap a few photos tomorrow. If it's died off (kind of hoping that it has), I'm going to plop in some other plants I need to use up.

Bacopa has slowly grown a few inches and is looking healthy as ever. B. monnieri may be one of my most favorite simple stems.
 
#17 ·
Still chugging along. No shrimp yet. But I picked up another Hagen Elite Mini to serve for flow and filtration.

Am currently prepping for a big move and will be draining the vase. Will set it back up upon arrival, install the filter, "cycle" everything and then move four or five shrimp into it.
 
#19 ·
Nice. Interested to see what you do. When I started here I was working on a 1gallon planted tank to house a couple shrimp and a snail. I designed a filter to be as small and hidden as I could.
It sounds like you have a good solution, but here is my design for a small and quiet sponge filter. I believe the dimensions were about 1"x2"x3". It was just a small water pump with a box to contain a sponge attached over the intake and mesh over the output. It worked well for a few months and was easy to maintain since the sponge is easily removed. Are you using an air-pump based filter? I didn't like how loud the air pump was for use in an office environment.




 
#22 ·
What you folks ( @Jamo33 & @ohaple ) don't know is that I have a new vase and have been working on hardscape for months. :nerd:

Found the perfect one at IKEA. Just can't settle on hardscape.

The tiny filters I have are the Hagen Elite Mini - roughly the same size as the one in the pic above.
 
#23 ·
What you folks ( @Jamo33 & @ohaple ) don't know is that I have a new vase and have been working on hardscape for months. <a href="http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/images/PlantedTank_net_2015/smilies/tango_face_glasses.png" border="0" alt="" title="Nerd" >:)</a>

Found the perfect one at IKEA. Just can't settle on hardscape.

The tiny filters I have are the Hagen Elite Mini - roughly the same size as the one in the pic above.
Well then I am happy that this thread was refreshed! Interested to see how you set this one up! Thinking of getting myself a little tank for the bedside table actually.
 
#26 ·
It's been sitting like this for several months. It's 8in tall, has a diameter of 7in and is roughly 1.33gal.



(No, the vases won't be on that flimsy shelf - only there for the photographs)


I may just go ahead and plant it with this hardscape. I don't hate it and think it could look good with a hardy stem plant in the back, some moss on the wood, crypts.

Thought about using sand but am leaning toward Aqua Soil Amazonia so the root-feeders will require less effort. If I go that route, I'll just use the type of water I'd normally mix up for Neo & Tiger shrimp and not worry about the substrate losing its buffering ability. The vase will likely never house more than a few adult shrimp and snails even with the tiny filter I plan to use.

Decided to use a shallow 8.75in x 3.75in, 1gal vase (came as part of the set) for extra floating plants:




Almost always have extras when I have tanks at home and have no place to put them other than buckets. This ought to look decent enough. Likely no intentional livestock beyond snails.

Speaking of which, I need to get my hands on some pond snails (not bladder) and ramshorns for my home tanks...
 
#28 ·
Decided to plant the vase with some Hedyotis salzmannii in the rear. It's tissue-cultured, so tiiiny at the moment.

Take a look:



There are probably a thousand stems of it but they're so small I had to bunch them together before placing them in one of my tubs of extra plants.

Moss on some of the wood, various crypts all around.

That's one of tomorrow's projects, though, because... hoo boy, planting is exhausting. But it's nice to have this kind of setup at home again.

Note: Photos may not show up for a bit because my host is updating.
 
#29 ·
Planted and flooded!







The Aqua Soil was a bit dusty but I'm pleased. Once that Hedyotis salzmannii in the rear grows up, it ought to look pretty cool. Same goes for the crypts.

Opted not to use the filter after I put it in because I'm confident the vase be able to handle a small number of shrimp culls.
 
#30 · (Edited)
All plants in the vase are tissue culture, none from established tanks. Even the bit of moss I added was tissue-cultred. They're all really small. So not much in terms of established tank bacteria could have made it into the vase.

But the system is already eating about 1.5PPM of ammonia per day, nitrite is at just under 1PPM and it's pretty nice to be so into the cycle so quickly. Tends to happen when I use Amazonia. A reminder of why I prefer this substrate over others.

Haven't had to do a water change yet and am not sure when/how I will. There's no way I'll be adding shrimp until it's fully grown in, so I'm not too worried about it at the moment.
 
#31 ·
Most of the photos I've seen of Caribsea Peace River sand/gravel on the forum have looked extremely washed out and less than appealing. So I decided to pick up a couple bags of it when I found it for $2.

Here are a couple photos of it while I was rinsing it in small batches earlier today:




Plan is to use it in my low & wide vase with a bit of pool filter sand and some larger, natural pebbles. But also in some Neo & Tiger shrimp tanks down the road.

Thought it'd be a good idea to share the images here in case others were wondering about it as a suitable (Neo/Tiger) shrimp substrate. Darker than pool filter sand, just a bit larger, looks pretty good if you ask me.
 
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