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

[diwu13]

Originally Posted by xenxes

Omg, of course Amazon has it. Not sure it's worth $71?

*Edit: just found one for $37, reviews aren't too bad.

Should I get it? I should get it. Not sure if north facing balcony gets enough sun though.

Evilbay has it for $15! I'm biting.

Haha as soon as someone mentions a good idea you immediately go onto amazon or evilbay :P. You ended up getting it right? Only bad thing about the fountain would be increased evaporation and that the floating plants might not do so well with the current.

[xenxes]

Tank Progression Post:

[Robotponys]

wish i had a balcony! Cool stuff out there. :P Ok, I have to ask, what in the world is evilbay??

[diwu13]

[Ebay Link Removed] LOL, can't even type it out. it's e-b-a-y.

[xenxes]

I got the 4 edible pond plants. Put them in planters and threw them inside. Looks like they'll live:

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



And here's a pic showing how much light I'm not getting in the middle of the afternoon.

[diwu13]

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?

[xenxes]

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.

[doncityz]

Water movement is always good. pics of the fountain?

[xenxes]

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

[diwu13]

Wow I wonder what makes the frogbit go banana's outside that they grow so darn fast.

[menoseloso]

natural spectrum from sunlight and a much higher CO2 uptake

[pweifan]

Even here in Ohio, I have to throw away frogbit by the handfull (from my outdoor water garden).

[xenxes]

The pump came in, but with the sun I have it just puts out a squirt every minute (lol). Decided not to use it, the wind's strong enough to prevent surface scum.

[sockfish]

This looks so pleasant--really gives your patio a garden feel. What sort of fish are those?

sox

[xenxes]

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.