Ingrid

Hello, I learned about this site from Betty H. aka DataGuru. I have a 1 gallon bowl that I planted with soil in June. It's been doing OK, but I've had some issues. They are:
-the water turns yellow
-the ramshorn snails die
-the duckweed and water lettuce bleach and die
- brown biofilms develope on older leaves of the sunset hygro and water lettuce roots
-persistant cloudiness (except that suddenly improved this week after months of frustration )
-the sunset hygro doesn't want to grow tall

Now, the things that are going right with this bowl:

-betta is very happy
-shrimp are happy
-crypts and e. tenellus are very happy
-no nitrogenous waste buildup

I decided to upgrade Twizzler (betta) to a 2 gallon hex tank. I'm going to transplant the crypts and e. tenellus to the new tank and add some wysteria. I have a different soil that hopefully won't turn yellow. For the top of the soil, instead of gravel I was thinking of using Schultz Aquatic Plant soil, which is like little clay (laterite??) granules. Is this OK?

Here are some pics of the current bowl:

cs_gardener

That's a nice bowl and a beautiful betta. I've never used soilmaster select so I can't help you there. Try a bottle test of what you plan for your substrate to see if you get any turbidity.

Ingrid

Thanks, Catherine! With the current bowl, the cloudiness didn't start until after it had been set up for a number of weeks. I wonder if the potting soil was just too rich or perhaps I was overfeeding. It's hard to resist that little red face begging at you all day!

Mud Pie Mama

Wow! That is a beautiful Betta, I love your photo of him doing a nose dive into the gravel. What type of shrimp are you able to keep in with your betta? I have a betta in a 5g Hex and I'm hesitant to put in any shrimp, but are yours surviving?

Perhaps the turbidity was caused by some cycling the bowl was going thru? Or when I set up my soil based tanks I use a little deeper layer of gravel to cap off the soil, at least a good one inch thick up to an inch and a half (1 1/2). From the photos it appears your gravel layer is not even a half inch. Perhaps this might help prevent any future problems with cloudiness.

Ingrid

Thanks for the tips! The shrimp are Neocardinia sp., the same genus as cherry shrimp. I think the key to their survival is adding them in after the E. tenellus had really taken off. They spend almost all of their time hiding down in there, and Twizzler can't get them. Although he tries, as evidenced in the "nose dive" picture.

Jimbo205

Wow! Look at that color on that Betta! Twizzler looks great!

And the roots on those plants. Nice.

Ingrid

Thanks!

I tore down the bowl and set up a 2 gallon hex this week. Twizzler is loving the extra room. I think the soil/gravel combo will be much better in this hex, and the height makes the light not so bright to the plants (12 watt spiral fluorescent). The E. tenellus in the bowl was like a perfect a wreath around the edges, all chained together in stems and roots. I put a bunch of those guys, the little crypts, and some stems of wysteria in the hex.

By the way, the shrimp were all eaten or killed after being moved to the hex. <--- Twizzler

These pics were from Wednesay, and the water is much less murky now (Friday).

Jimbo205

I love it!

Whenever I look for these nice hex tanks, I can only find them in kits for a price that I will not pay. Where is the light?

ALL of the shrimp got eaten?

Ingrid

I think about 4 or 5 got eaten and the rest were maimed. I found 5 bodies with bites taken out of them. He had a big potbelly that day.

The light is a clamp lamp that I'm suspending from the shelf above the tank. This hex was part of a kit, but I got it for pretty cheap off ebay.

BiscayneBoulevard

That is a lovely betta! My betta does nose dives into the hairgrass too hehe. I recently set up an El Natural 2.5 gallon bowl for a new betta - the ammonia had been at a steady 0.5 for about a week before I added him - and I had no choice but to add him and some more plants on the same day... and by the next day, the ammonia was down to 0! I am amazed by the filtering quality of these plants.

I have a 5 gallon hex filled and waiting for its light and eventually plants, and then my other betta will go in there - I look forward to seeing how yours grows with the lovely Twizzler in there!