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xenxes's Balcony Planter 24g - "Mud Bucket"

29K views 144 replies 31 participants last post by  pweifan 
#1 · (Edited)
Current Status (6/17):

Not really a pond, more of a puddle in a bucket. But it works ;) If you want to see the rest of my balcony, there's a thread here.

Tank Progression Pics








No filtration, no movement (just wind), no water changes (just topoffs from old tank water), feed liberally: 0/0/0 ammonia/trites/trates, TDS ~400 but I add a little aquarium salt:

Walstad / plants + worms ftw :)

Equipment:
- 24" Walmart Planter ($26)
- MGOPS, sand, river rocks, lava rocks (good porous biomedia)
- Lighting: sun; powerhead: wind; filtration: plants ;)

Flora:
- Frogbits, RRF, Dwarf Water Lettuce, Salvinia Minima
- Petco Lily
- Banana Plant
- Mixed Moss

- Water Cress
- Water Mint
- Variegated Water Celery
- Pennywort

- Trying Flowering Rush & Blue Pygmy Lily from Seeds

Fauna:
- 2 RCS (I think)
- Pond snails
- ~20 platies



Original Post
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Been wanting to play with a bucket of muddy water for a long time (since living conditions won't permit me to do a real pond). So I finally picked up the largest plastic Walmart planter I could find (24" across round, $26). Decided not to go with the wine barrel, too heavy.

Calculated capacity is around 24g. Threw in some dirt, river rocks, lava rocks on the bottom (what I had lying around). Filled in a measured ~20 gallons of water. So far it isn't leaking ;)

Not sure what to plant, probably clippings from my tanks.

Pics in the morning, too dark right now, and water is brown/black.
 
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#2 ·
Made some impulse buys @ 2AM (someone stop me :()

Have the following coming:

- Water Cress
- Water Mint
- Variegated Water Celery
- Pennywort
(Edible water garden!)

- Flowering Rush Seeds
- Blue Pygmy Water Lily Seeds

Just realized lilies take ~6 months to grow out from a seed, ugh. And my balcony doesn't have full sun. This'll be fun.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Lol I don't want to, it's still muddy.

Re DIY from your other post, all I have done was chop off 4 wood blocks. All lighting I bought have been premanufactured, just set it up.

For this I don't know how I would run a power cord outside unless I drilled a hole in the wall or left the balcony door open. I might be able to shine a desk lamp inside towards the bucket but that would look awkward. Solar powered is too weak (no direct sun), battery powered is a hassle, nah I won't look at it at night lol.

Hehe thanks fisher, it was a combo order, was pretty cheap.
 
#7 ·
Blah, I snapped a few photos, cloudy day so pretty dark:



It looks pretty small for the area, but I settled for a cheap plastic bucket (biggest @ Walmart that looked decent)

My balcony:



Very cluttered, all our camping stuff is outside.

Fairy shrimp jars:




Much better hatch rate and survivability compared to last time. I guess they like temperature fluctuations outside? Wind also provides a lot of surface movement.
 
#21 ·
Hm... those all might do really well with the indirect light. The only way to know is if you see how they are after a week. Or buy an expensive par meter.

All the other potted plants do well right?
 
#22 ·
I did some reading (after buying), all 4 herb plants prefer shade :) They're all perking back up nicely and coming above the water level. The water is clearing up dramatically, credit to floaters. I don't know if I'm going to use the pump as a fountain, maybe just as a power head (horizontal) for a little movement during the day.
 
#24 ·
Pump still isn't here yet, shipped from China.

Water cleared up a bit so I threw in 2 RCS (1 male 1 female), wish I had more to experiment with. I lost track of how many pounds of frogbits I've thrown away from here (can't RAOK them fast enough).


Entire surface fills with floaters each week, frogbits grow fastest


Where frogbits go die


Pennywort finally coming to life


Variegated water celery


Water mint


Water cress


Old lily and banana plant from 20g


This is how red RRFs get outside (even in shade)


Current FTS
 
#30 ·
Platies that nobody wants :( I couldn't bring myself to freeze or vodka dip them, so into the mud bucket they went. All surprisingly healthy. Lava rocks = great biomedia, and the planter's filled with them on different levels (I stacked smaller planters inside).

Another batch of fry just popped out in my 20g, I think only 2 or 3 didn't get eaten. The dwarf corydoras seem to be keeping the population in check.
 
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