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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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#34 ·
Subscribed - I love little projects like this. They help keep my idle hands busy while I'm waiting for things to happen in the bigger tanks!

I also really like the light you've chosen. I'm going to keep an eye out for those... I can feel a vase coming on for my desk at work!
 
#38 ·
You're right - it'd be a decent deal even for a 5lb bag. I think I paid $8 or $9 locally for 5lbs after you suggested I check it out. Currently $12-something on Amazon.

If I see any at Meijer this weekend (gotta hit the clearance lawn & garden section this time of year), I'll grab a couple bags and offer it on the forum for what I paid. Will shoot you a message if that's the case.
 
#40 ·
Did a 100% water change and added some Rotala 'Bonsai' here and there:




Plan to add more Rotala in a few weeks. Just want to see how everything else is going to grow in.

Hedyotis salzmannii is growing in well:




Moss is beginning to grow out of the water and a tiny little Buce is taking root on the wood:




Replaced the dying Red Root Floater with Frogbit and Salvinia.
 
#41 ·
I so much love all of these. Where and how do you have them displayed?

Im still working on a vase of my own- just temporarily side-tracked with eliminating the BBA in my 60 gallon.

Then, back to that project. But, I probably will explore it for awhile to get something that really calls to me.

At first I was thinking a tall vase; but, now I am thinking a long, low glass container that I can put on top of my glass coffee table---
 
#43 ·
Decided the Mini Elite filters I have aren't to my liking for this vase. Gonna stick to using them to fill/control my HOB breeder boxes.

While I don't need a filter for a vase like this, since plants (when larger) will definitely consume the ammonia from a small population of shrimp, I still need some basic water flow.

Right now I'm toying with DIYing a small sponge filter or just using an airstone on a timer to help provide a bit of movement. Maybe even a tiny DIY sponge filter on a timer - that'd provide more flow than an airstone. We'll see. Not in a rush, as the vase is several months away from any possibility of housing shrimp.
 
#45 ·
I've got some tinier hobby pumps usually used in "zen" vases and tiny vivarium waterfalls but even those are a bit too powerful.

Thinking a sponge the size of a film canister (or smaller) will be about right if I go that route. There's just no room in this scape for anything to look great. If it's tiny, I can try to disguise it behind driftwood.

Airstone is probably the path I need to take despite wanting a filter.

Who knows, though? Maybe I'll bust out one of my old RedSea Nano filters. They fit perfectly on the vase but ruin the look & vibe. Probably wouldn't be too terrible once stems begin to grow out of the water.
 
#46 ·
Something like a tiny tiny external filter/sump starts coming to my mind. Use one of those tiny pumps, place it in a jar with a return line hooked up. Airline hose with sponge covering end constantly pulling water from the jar into the glass. Maybe glass can have various sizes of sponge and media? Important thing would be to get the right head height so that the pump is controlled. It must be doable.
Way too much to design for such a small tank, but I love the tinkering of it and who knows could work out. It would also remove the need to place anything obvious into the tank.
 
#47 ·
From what I can see the 41 GPH ones are no longer made. Yeah, they're about the size of a zippo lighter but probably still too much flow for a 2-3 gallon vase. I used them on seahorse baby tanks (usually 10 gallons) when I was into those. Which looking back was everything I'm trying to avoid now in the hobby -constant care. You needed water to flow, but not so much that it would make food fly by the mouth of hitched baby horses that needed constant feeding all day every day. This was probably 15 years ago but at that time, they were the smallest GPH powerhead I could find that worked. I still have a couple somewhere and use 4-5 but I know the day those impellers go I'll have to toss them which is a real shame. Wonder if the 42 GPH ones use the same impeller? I'd almost buy them just for that part, but if so surely they would make impellers as a spare part. If someone would design a well-made tiny pump like 20 gph, I think there would be demand for it for Waldstat tanks and nano folk. And they may well exist, I haven't shopped for such in a long time.
 
#48 ·
The vase sits in the corner of my bathroom counter, so there's not a ton of room. Couldn't fit much behind it.

If I go the filter route, I'll have to use one of the tiny air pumps that's small enough to clip to the side of the vase in the back. Gonna tinker with some black sponge and small rigid tubing I've got. Super-slight flow is all that's really needed.

Placed one of my RedSea Nano HOBs on the vase late last night just to see what I thought. Could probably dial flow down enough for it to work but it looks terrible. Sticks up about an inch above the lip of the vase.

Maybe some day there'll be a commercially available micro canister filter that's suitable for small tanks and bowls.
 
#49 ·
Rotala is growing so quickly that I think I may be able to hide a small sponge in the vase with ease.

Gonna stick with a tiny air pump for the time being because all I really need is something to break up the surface of the water a couple times per day to prevent film. But it's nice to know my plants will help me disguise anything I need to add.

Decided to start feeding the snails about once per week. Certainly makes brushing one's teeth a bit more entertaining.
 
#51 ·
Thanks! It doesn't look much different than it did a week or so ago, so I haven't updated the photos. Probably will this weekend or early next week. It's growing really slowly.

Only have Ramshorn snails at the moment. May add shrimp in a few months but am happy with snails for the time being - which is saying a lot for me.
 
#52 ·
Picked up a new LED fixture - Asta 20 - for my large/wide/low vase (second photo in this post) after someone traded an Amazon gift card for shrimp food:





I love it. But it's way too heavy to rest on the lip of the vase. Too heavy for my comfort, anyway. So I'll have to rig up something to support it. Surely I have something around here that can be put to use. Open to suggestions. Guess I need to crank up the music tomorrow morning and get to work.

This sucker is bright. Gonna be great this winter when I have houseplants everywhere. Haven't played around much with the 90 & 180-degree lenses to see what I prefer but I want more of them already. And having a built-in dimmer? Sign me up.
 
#53 ·
Vase is slowly coming along, Crypts are growing, stems are creeping up.

Floaters are enjoying the setup, too:




Found another LED fixture in storage and may toy around with using it to see if there's a noticeable change in growth. As floating plants expand, it'll be able to handle stronger lighting.
 
#56 ·
I love this vase.
My vase build is still in the back of my mind. Its just that I keep layering on more projects- so, the vase becomes one that is "in the works."

I will do the ( most likely 5 gallon) shrimp tank first.

Also: This Tuesday I have a small group of juvenile wild Red Spotted Green discus coming... super excited for that.
 
#57 ·
That's the beauty of vases like this: simplicity. Just set them up and kind of forget about them/let them do their thing. Water changes aren't that important if you don't have anything beyond snails.

I've had to manually remove a bit of algae the past week and that's the only real maintenance I've done. Decided to reduce the photoperiod rather than try stronger lighting after the algae hit.

Would only take you a few minutes to set one up. Throw in some substrate - even sand with root tabs, some plants, fill it up. Don't even need hardscape unless you have extras on-hand. No need to worry about the nitrogen cycle (I did) because it'll eventually balance out.
 
#63 ·
#67 ·
Salvinia has really grown on me the past few months. Who knew it could get so red or that the various types of it looked so nice together?

Frogbit has always been my go-to - it's been my avatar for nearly a decade - but this has been a joy to grow. I'm going to keep it in my outdoor tubs next year instead of just water lettuce and duckweed.
 
#68 ·
Finally set up my shallow vase with some extra plants recently. This one:



Put down a shallow bit of gravel and used a disposable plastic cup I cut in half and poked holes in to hold some Amazonia for the plants. Just some extra Rotala 'Bonsai' and Hydrocotyle tripartita 'Japan' - hoping they'll grow up out of the water a bit.

Here are a few photos from the day I put it together:







Setup is surrounded by a bunch of Tillandsia and other terrestrial plants I had to bring in for the winter. Just made sense to use the lighting I've already got in place.

Not sure what else I'll add but there's room for a couple more cups of substrate. Seems to be a pretty decent solution for extra plants since the cups can be easily removed and replaced.

Won't be adding any livestock but I won't be upset if snails show up.
 
#69 ·
Excellent! The tillandsia's and other plants around the vase is a great idea...
Im going to steal that idea myself ;)
The tillandsia's on the wood of my vase are all doing really good. But, I noticed that the bromeliad has very fine webs between the bracts. I suppose it is spider mites. If I spray for them I cant put the bromeliad back on the vase because of possible toxicity to livestock, so most likely will just replace it and hope that it doesn't get infested as well.
 
#71 ·
Yep - though, they look a bit different. Plants have all exploded and different things have constantly moved in and out of them.

The tall one is still on my bathroom countertop and the wide, shallow one is still where my excess floating plants go. I've also grown out a ton of tissue cultures in the shallow one.

I'll try to snap photos the next time I trim plants.
 
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