Newman's Shrimp Bowl

[Zeeke]

That tank is beautiful and the pictures of the snails are cool too. I just have a quick question. I tried surfing through the pages to find the answer. I was looking at using that same light from IKEA for a 1 gallon, heavily planted, shrimp bowl. Was it enough on its own to support all your plants? I would be getting similar low light plants. I'm sort of new to the planted aquarium scene.

[Newman]

it is not enough to START the bowl. I used a 13W CFL bulb back when i started, and i used it for more than 1 year. that gave the plants plenty of light to grow in lush and a little too crazy. Then I swapped to a display light - the IKEA one. Comparatively it is very dim, but it's enough to keep plants alive. moss and other things grow slowly. Its a good light to set the pace for an already full planted bowl.

However if you only use moss, java fern and maybe some other very low light stuff, then this light is good enough. keep in mind its only 1W of LED, so that equals very roughly only slightly more than 1 wpg of standard lighting (LEDs output slightly more light than equivalent wattage florescent) It goes even less if you have floaters (which you should have) and tall plants blocking the light to plants below them.

[Zeeke]

Thanks that was very helpful. I'm really excited to give the shrimp bowl a shot. That makes sense. Ill start out with a good grow light. Then someday if all goes well I'll switch to something less powerful. I have to order some plants and the shrimp.

[Zeeke]

I'm guessing you sell plants? haha. That would be great! My LFS (I'm learning lingo ) only sells a few, miscellaneous, mystery plants. Do people sell RCS on here too? I'm still trying to find my way around. I'm on a mission to make shrimp stew. I appreciate all the help.

[acejohn]

Are there any disadvantages with snails?

[Newman]

Yes those snails went fast. They are the most amazing FW snails imo. They went to a good home and all of them made shipping and are alive and well.

There arent too many disadvantages with normal snails. unless they overpopulate the tank and crash it. they can make the water smell bad with their waste if that happens.
Stay away from apple snails, columbian ramshorns, and sulawesi snails for planted bowls. those will eat some plants. and don't keep assassin snails in shrimp bowls, as sometimes they can kill shrimp.

Yes you can buy cheap cherry shrimp in the classified section of our forum here. plenty of invert sellers have them for cheap.

[tex627]

Originally Posted by Zeeke

I'm guessing you sell plants? haha. That would be great! My LFS (I'm learning lingo ) only sells a few, miscellaneous, mystery plants. Do people sell RCS on here too? I'm still trying to find my way around. I'm on a mission to make shrimp stew. I appreciate all the help.

Yep on this forum, you can buy a lot of awesome stuff at hobbyist prices! This forum is pretty helpful!

[roncruiser]

Hi Newman,
My bowl is cycled. The bowl was born on 11/2012. Ammonia is zero and nitrates are zero. I'm just about ready to add some Cherry shrimp. How often do you change the water? My bowl is 2 gallons. Substrate is ADA Amazonia. I've been doing 50% water change every 7-10 days. Was wondering what your thoughts are on water changes for bowls. I'll continue to monitor water parameters after adding the shrimp.

Thanks,

Ron

[Koi Kameon]

Originally Posted by Newman

Yes those snails went fast. They are the most amazing FW snails imo. They went to a good home and all of them made shipping and are alive and well.

There arent too many disadvantages with normal snails. unless they overpopulate the tank and crash it. they can make the water smell bad with their waste if that happens.
Stay away from apple snails, columbian ramshorns, and sulawesi snails for planted bowls. those will eat some plants. and don't keep assassin snails in shrimp bowls, as sometimes they can kill shrimp.

Yes you can buy cheap cherry shrimp in the classified section of our forum here. plenty of invert sellers have them for cheap.

I had to put a plug in for horned nerites. My favorite are the bumblebee black/gold swirl ones. They stay around a half inch and their waste load is miniscule compared to the larger nerites. And, like the larger nerites, they don't breed successfully in fresh water so no worries about a snail explosion. Just my two admiring cents. Although my all-time fav snail is the lowly ramshorn snail, but it is such a crap shoot as to whether or not they will populate the heck out of the tank. I have had ones nearly an inch across never lay eggs and a tiny one laid 70 eggs, which all hatched and the mom/dad snail promplty died leaving me to raise them until they could be put back in the pond...

[tumbleweedz]

It's been fun watching this bowl evolve, thanks for sharing.

[Newman]

Bowl is being taken down.
Shrimp are up for sale:
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/sh...026&highlight=
The plants will be given away in the RAOK section soon. (there is a good amount of moss in here and roughly 20 pygmy chain swords.)

[mosspearl]

Aw, sorry to hear that, Newman. It's been quite a ride. But I guess all good things must come to an end.

[Kehy]

Sorry to hear that. But this bowl has been a huge inspiration for me to make my own shrimp bowl, and I've really enjoyed watching both of ours grow

[dhgyello04]

NOOO!!!! Say it isn't so. May we ask why?

[Newman]

Plans changed. It's time somebody else enjoys the shrimp and plants from this bowl