nano in a 5 gallon glass jug?

[Janice]

I have some 5 gallon glass jugs and was wondering if anyone had any ideas or thoughts about whether I could use these to make planted nanos. These jugs are made of heavy, clear glass. The largest part of the jug is 10" in diameter and 15" high. After 15 inches the upper part of the jug slopes gently inward and upward for about 9 inches ending in an opening that is about 1 1/3 inches in diameter. These jugs were previously used for making wine so they also come with airtight rubber corks with holes in the center, and tubing that fits into the holes. Maybe this could be used to used to input CO2 or O2.

My primary concern is the narrow neck opening.

Any ideas?

[GulfCoastAquarian]

I guess the most challenging thing to provide will be light. Unless it came from the side and this would cause algae on the glass more than plant growth. If only that neck was large enough to house a screw-in compact fluorescent bulb!

[Schala]

Maybe I misunderstand, but if the opening is only 1 1/3", how are you going to get your hand in there to plant it?

[Ray1214]

Well you would probably be able to plant in it by using really long necked tongs. I would be more worried about cleaning it if you keep fish.
Standard gravel and a skinny piece of driftwood with Javafern would be my first thought, then perhaps a piece of hornwort.

Ray

[Slaigar]

Awhile back, I toying with the idea of putting terrarium plants in a glass jug. But I ended up giving up because of mainly getting things in and out of the jug.

You would not have any problems fitting foreground plants glossos and microswords but planting with tongs may make it very difficult. It can be done, but it would time consuming. You would also have to be very careful on water changes. Pouring water from so high will cause some turbelence.

[evan]

you could always smash the jar... and glue it back together! hahaha. you could break off the bottom of the jar add gravel and plants... and glue it back together. the gravel would make it harder to see the break off part.

[Janice]

I guess I could use a class cutter and cut the top off of the jug.

I was attracted to the challenge of trying to make an ecologically-well balanced tank in the jug. I've got a lot to learn!

[evan]

o yea java moss would be a nice plant. with some fish. you can use high light and get the java moss to be a brighter color. im sure that would look nice.

[jonah]

Originally Posted by Janice

I guess I could use a class cutter and cut the top off of the jug.

That's really a pretty good idea. You'd want easier access to the interior for maintenance and you might be able to rig up some kind of lighting in the neck.

[evan]

but then you will have to disassemble the jug and it won't be as "neat" as having the jug untouched with a mini ecosystem in it. you can get a stick shaped driftwood and stick in there with some kind of moss on it like christmas or java moss. then you can just let the rest of the moss fall on the ground. it will grow into a sort of messy lawn. the wood will give it a nice effect and make it look like your looking inside a lake or something. you can drop a few greyish round stones in there. make it look random and natural. for the lighting just get a desk lamp and a screw-in fluorscent bulb 20 watts+. this sounds pretty cool... maybe i should try it myself! hehe.

[evan]

o yea another problem would be getting dead fish and invertebrates out of there. unless you have really long tweezers that won't be hard. o yea and with moss you don't have to worry about planting. the moss will find a place for itself.

[Janice]

Good ideas, Evan. Now I'm inspired again. I really didn't want to have to cut the bottle. I like the moss idea a lot. If a fish dies and its really tiny, could it be left to decay and fertilize the moss or would that cause problems?

[evan]

if a fish died... it would have nasty stuff growing on it. eventually it will be fine after maybe a "millenium". a dead fish will get fungus on it and yucky stuff. plus it will practically kill your water. it may stink too. the other fish may die too.

[cousin it]

I currently have a 1gallon (aprox) jar which i have planted with hairgrass which lives in my bathroom window. works out quite handy as the hairgrass loves the natural light and very quickly covers the substrate. Im still working on additional plants to use in there to add a different leaf shape.
the substrate consists of 1" lily compost and 1" playpit sand and that seems to do the job quite nicely.

[evan]

cool. i wish i had some hairgrass. there aren't any aquatic plant suppliers near my house. thats too bad. i really like the hairgrass look. maybe i could get a 2.5 gallon and plant it with that stuff. the last time i bought plants was online. i don't feel like going through that hassle again. the plants came in crap condition, and they are still growing nice new leaves while most of the leaves that the plant came with are dying. they've lost most of their green, and become clear. o wel. it will take time to heal.