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Nano - 2 Gallon Betta Bowl at the Office

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44K views 150 replies 22 participants last post by  Jimbo205  
#1 ·
I have Flourite as a substrate, use a 36 inch FloraSun cubicle bulb and daily dose Flourish and Flourish Excel.
I have Java Fern, something like a Sword Plant that just put out a new leaf (good), and a grass like plant that was doing okay for awhile and now turning yellow and slowly dying. I had put in a bunch of Sera Florenetta A iron and mineral tablets in the the gravel awhile ago.

Why is that one plant dying? I leave the light on overnight when I leave the office.

I do water changes once a week. What is next?

Or what is happening to that one plant?

:help:

:frusty:
 
#5 ·
Success out of a bottle. www.seachem.com Daily Dosage Schedule
Now trying to learn other methods (they are NOT EASY).

Now I want to keep the algae away, but just keep the status quo with the plants.

Should I just dose once a week? Or just not use the carbon (Excel)?

Suggestions?
 
D
#6 ·
Jimbo205 said:
Now I want to keep the algae away.
Click to expand...
What type of algae are we talking about?
If it's the stringy type, then just get a fork and add it to a Cup-O-Noodle.
If it's green water, just add some crushed ice and you'll have one of those ice thingies...

J/k.

In my 2.5G I was dosing the recommended amount of Flourish and *poof*... I had green tea for lunch for a couple of days. Also, you didn't say how long you leave your lights on. Try 8 - 10 hours or just turn it on when you go in to work and turn it off when you leave. If you have a normal work day like me, then you should have 8 hours right there. Plus all the rest of the lights from the office, that should help out.
 
#7 ·
For this Betta Bowl at the office, I have been doing exactly like you said - turn light on when I get to work and turn it off when I go home. (Now that I have the nice white 6,700K light and not that embarassing purple thing!)

So far, so good. I have not dosed it for the last 5-7 days and so far it looks okay, actually very, very nice. I am just waiting for the shoe to drop off the other foot.......

My 27 gallon 20 inch deep 1/2 Hex at home after 5-7 days of no ferts - got a slight fuzz on everything. So, BOOM! I hit it with the Daily Dosage Schedule again. I also reduced my lighting. I have the Orbit Dual Daylight fixture with Moonlight on that one and it has 2 X 40 Watt bulbs. I think my light may have been too much for a bit.

I changed my timers back to what they were at before. 1 bulb from 8am to 2pm and the 2nd bulb from 11am to 8pm. That way it has the effect of noontime with the morning and evening sunshine leaking into the tank from the room in the house. Never noticed this stuff before I got this seriously cool light fixture. (I spoiled myself finally with my tax return this year!)

I have 1 bag of PO4 which I have learned is Phosphate, which I have also learned is equivalent to Seachem Phosphorus; and 1 bag of Potassium Nitrate which I have learned is equivalent to Seachem Flourish Potassium and Seachem Flourish Nitrogen. I have the Dash, Pinch and Smidgen measuring spoons and sometime soon I will learn how to dose this stuff.

I am excited because the REALLY GOOD fish store in my area Eddie's Aquarium in Latham, NY said they have a whole bunch of those lab bottle things with the straw/spout that they use for rinsing out the test tubes when testing the water. I have been picturing those things in my mind for weeks now and could not for the life of me figure out where to purchase them. I explained that I want to use it for dosing my supplements to the plants/tanks. They said no problem. I am 'psyched' !!
 
#11 ·
Of the Seachem Daily Dosage Schedule which supplement do you think that the dwarf Sag needs the most?
It is fun to see the plants finally explode but you are right it is starting to get crowded.
Other than harvesting some of the plants for other tanks;
what other option would help maintain the plants without making them grow like crazy or die slowly?
 
J
#13 ·
Jimbo205 said:
Of the Seachem Daily Dosage Schedule which supplement do you think that the dwarf Sag needs the most?

What other option would help maintain the plants without making them grow like crazy or die slowly?
Click to expand...
You'll probably need all ferts to keep it growing well. It's like saying, which vegetable and vitamin can a human go without and still grow..Answer is none if you want to stay healthy. :)

Slowing down growth can be a matter of reducing the light, and selecting slower growing species of plants.

Although I know this is in an office, I would like to see a photo with all the surrounding lights off except the tank light. This would minimize the glare, and enhance this fantastic bowl of yours. :amen:

-John N.
 
#14 ·
There are no surrounding lights. That is just the 6700k light bulb that I have in the cubicle light fixture roughly 12 inches above the Betta Bowl. If I turned that off - it would be very, very dark.
But I will try sometime this week to see if I can get different photos.

I have changed the water in the tank hoping that the water hardness of my tap water will bring the Dwarf Sag back some Green coloring. It has slowly faded to yellow/green. I have backed off on the Seachem Phosphorus and Seachem Nitrogen hoping that would slow the rate of growth.

But to be honest, I realize that even if the plants grow packed, they only occupy the bottom 1/2 of the Betta Bowl.

Euro actually likes to sleep on top of the plants anyway, and when he wants to hide from the light (except when he is hungry) he likes to also hide under the Anubias(?) and other plants. The Java Fern in my opinion seems to have stayed the same basically but I have seen it pearl (wow!) I think.

So last week I basically gave the tank a water change for the water hardness and the entire Seachem Daily Dosage Schedule except for the Seachem Nitrogen and Seachem Phosphorus. I almost shut off the cubicle light for the long weekend to limit the light, but after thinking about how long that would be (Saturday through Wednesday) I left it on.
I left a co-worker to take care of my Betta Bowl last year for a week vacation and came back to an almost dead Bowl! I don't want that to happen again!

:yo:
 
#15 ·
John N., tonight when I get home I am going to try and find the print out I made with your help on putting the link into my signature. Summer has reduced my time spent online. I would like to at least add this tread to my signature. Thanks again.

:yo:
 
T
#17 ·
John N. said:
Although I know this is in an office, I would like to see a photo with all the surrounding lights off except the tank light. This would minimize the glare, and enhance this fantastic bowl of yours. :amen:

-John N.
Click to expand...
?? What you don't like the looks of the mouse in the lower portion of Jimbo's nano? :p

TAM
 
#18 ·
I didn't get my digital camera into work this past week. I was focused on my Van in the shop. Sorry. I don't know when I will be able to try to take different shots at work. I have a ton on my home computer. I am afraid of posting too many in one shot. I really wish I could just dump a ton of my shots into Photo Album and then choose which ones to use in a thread. Oh well, I'll get this stuff down someday.
 
#19 ·
Tomorrow is Monday, and I have been on vacation for 7 days.
I will see what my Betta Bowl looks like at the Office.
I remember what it looked like last year after a week vacation. :shock:
 
#22 ·
Well, the top half of the Betta Bowl is for swimming and when Euro is not being shy (when he wants to eat); the bottom half of the tank is for hiding in which Euro loves to do. Sometimes he will find a leaf (Anubias) that he likes to rest on.

So long as I keep it filled to the top with water, Euro has PLENTY of room to swim around.

I am hoping to duplicate this with the Dwarf Sag in my 10 Gallon tank. LIKE NOW! Oh well, patience I guess is required. shoot.....
 
#23 ·
OH NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Betta Bowl EXPLOSION AT WORK!!

I just today discovered in my 'overgrown' Betta Bowl
a BEAUTIFUL new, fresh, bright green (I love that color) leaf on my Anubias.

I went to turn the Bowl and forgot to hold it from the base or bottom and went to turn it around gripping the top edge rim to change the view, AND BROKE THE BOWL!!!! The water came out so fast I was trying to hold the bowl and tilt it to keep most of the water in the Bowl and keep Euro okay, all while trying to untangle my mouse cord and keep the water from ruining my entire cubicle desk with papers everywhere!!!!!!!!! Luckily a lot of the paperwork was a project I just finished last week. I set it aside to dry (I could actually throw it out) so I can work on mailing letters to clients that I was not able to reach.

Well ladies and gentlemen, I guess I have no choice! I guess I 'have to' rescape, replant, harvest or whatever you call it for a new Betta Bowl or Tank.

I have the Betta Bowl in a small Trash Can somewhat on its side to keep the rest of the water and Euro safe inside. I left a note for the office cleaning guy to leave it for me to take care of.

This is going to be the biggest pain in the neck! Well, I will bet anything I will have more than plenty of Dwarf Sag to 'harvest' and plant in my 10 Gallon Tank. Try doing this in an office without attracting any attention!! (Way before work, or way after work - only time to do it.)

So what do you guys suggest? Get another Betta Bowl the same shape and size from Wal*Mart or get a 5 Gallon rectangular tank from the local pet store?

Honestly, I don't think the 5 Gallon tank will be tall enough to look good on the desk. I think I might just get the same thing.

This time I am going to invest the money in a Lazy Susan to turn the Bowl around with to admire.

Suggestions?
 
J
#24 ·
Sorry to hear about the demise of your avatar bowl. At least you get to start all over again and make it even better!

The lazy susan idea is a good idea. I don't care for round bowls. For a nano, I would want a finnex 4 gallon from ebay, or maybe a JBJ 6 gallon.

-John N.
 
#25 ·
My Anubias is absolutely gorgeous! I have not seen that in its entirety in awhile. No algae at all and just a beautiful specimen of a plant. Pulled that out of the center and it came out with the perfect combination of Anubias, Java Fern with no algae at all, and a small bunch of Dwarf Sag. I will use this in the new bowl. Looked at all the great shapes in the store, but finally caved and got the boring regular 'goldfish' bowl 1 gallon with very thick glass.
 
#26 ·
My Dwarf Sag was a hearty gorgeous circular matt!
Maybe I should have put that into my 10 Gallon Tank as one piece but I didn't.

I completely tore down my entire 10 Gallon tank and redid it. I would never do this unless I absolutely had to. I redid the substrate as best I could to slope from Back to Front. I put nice threads or threads of bunches of the Dward Sag all along the front of the tank.

I even had a good number of huge bunches with great roots that I put in the 27 Gallon Tank.

When I eventually bring the Betta Bowl back into the office, it will start out again with a 'slight' ring of Dwarf Sag that I know with time will regrow.

My hats to those that do teardowns on a regular basis.
That is A LOT of work!
 
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