My Walstad bowl

[Ratlova30]

I originally set this bowl up to house Malawa shrimp but they really do not like my water and they died so it's empty now with the exception of a snail or two. Might be putting H. Formosas in the bowl in the near future.

So these pics were taken a couple weeks ago, some of the pics I was drip acclimating the shrimp.








Here's a couple pics from yesterday. Some of plants on the sides are having trouble taking root because of how shallow the sand is but it'll grow in with time.





So what do you think :bounce:

I'm really loving the bowl, looks beautiful and green with very little maintenance.

 

[VsKitchen]

I do like how green it is, i think it would be a great home for some little wet pets

 

[DMD123]

I love the look of real plants. No matter how good they make plastic or silk plants you can tell they are fake. Looks good. :spoton:

 

[aquaman95]

sweet little bowl :!:

 

[Ratlova30]

@vskitchen-Thanks!

@DMD-Thanks! :spoton: :iagree:

@aquaman- Thanks!

 

[Kaosu]

awesome! Love it ^_^ iv been wanting to make one for a while now

you know what would look great in there?!

Tiger shrimp!

 

[Ratlova30]

oh geeze, you have tapped me out of the the mullah

Thanks for the comment

 

[Kaosu]

oh geeze, you have tapped me out of the the mullah

Thanks for the comment

aahah i dont have any for sale yet!

just saying those pretty colors and all that green would go well together!

love your little bowl ^_^

 

[Ratlova30]

That bowl is 2 gallons. I have a 1 gallon glass bowl that I was thinking of doing another walstad with but I think I'm going to hold off for now. I've got so many fish coming in and tanks to put up in a short amount of time the bowl will have to wait.

 

[Angelman]

Very nicely done!!!

 

[sandnuka]

I love walsted tech.... low light, no filtration, very little water changes, no co2, and it thrives with fish and poop! so cool. :spoton:

 

[Ratlova30]

@angelman-Thanks! Keeping two pea puffers in in it for QT but will hopefully have H. Formosa in it in the future.

@Sandnuke-I think they're very beautiful but I prefer heavily filtered tanks myself. I do a water change on this bowl about once a week anyways whether it needs it or not. When plants die it turns into an unsightly mess at the bottom. I do very much like the look of it though.

 

[pbmax]

Looks like a great start!

One question though: what are you using for your substrate? It looks like sand, but I can't tell for sure. If it is just sand, you may want to add some root tabs to bump up the nutrient content. The cornerstone of Walstad tanks is a fertile substrate of some sort. Soil is best, but you can fake it with root tabs, I think.

I mothballed my 1g walstad over the weekend. I just couldn't get the pygmy chain sword to grow in there for the life of me; I did grow some fantastic algae.... The H.Formosa I had in there were fine, thankfully. The only casualties were some RCS (but the largest female survived).

 

[Ratlova30]

Thanks!

It's just sand, I really don't want to fuss with dirt. Everything is growing great in the bowl except the plants you gave me with all the tiny leaves....Whatever it's called it isn't taking well in any of my tanks but the repens is doing great in every tank I have it in. It's started to grow out of the bowl and it's reached the top in my moms tall 15gal tank. The red rooter is growing great in the bowl too.

I have some osmocote and gel capsules to make root tabs out of but I've just been lazy and busy with everything that's been happening. So far no algae growth and I've dosed it a couple times with leaf zone. But everything is growing nicely in the bowl besides that one plant. It's like a jungle right now, the baby pea puffers are perfectly camouflaged in the bowl.

 

[pbmax]

I'm glad the bowl and the l.repens are both doing well! Don't be afraid to clip it off, yank out the bottom stems, and re-plant the tips from time to time if they get thin or too long. I don't have too much trouble with leaf death toward the substrate with it, but it does get way, way too long if left to its own devices.

Yes, dirt is huge hassle during initial setup. My 2.5g and 20g walstads are both nicely established now and growing very well (crypts, some swords, s subulata mostly). Sunlight helps a lot.

Yeah, I figured the pearl grass was a gamble; I had tons of extra though.

 

[Ratlova30]

I just figured with constantly planting or pulling up plants that it was a bad idea for me to have dirt. There's no filter in there to clean the water up.