siesta schedule; no lamp

2478 Views 36 Replies 6 Participants Last post by dwalstad, Apr 14, 2022

gabi.loraine

Discussion Starter · Jan 28, 2022

Hi! I've been reading the siesta schedule threads and lots of useful info there... per the APC's suggestion to make new threads instead of waking up really old ones...

Help with my siesta schedule? Or anything else which might seem off to you?

So far I haven't put a dedicated lamp out of stubbornness.
The bowl is next to a window and it gets a lot of sunlight.
We get 12 hours of sunlight year-long, from about 6:30 to 6:30. The bowl is also in my living room, so the lights are on in there pretty much all the time except when we go to bed late at night.
For two weeks I tried simply rolling down the shades from 10:30am-1:30pm, I figured 4 hours would be missing too much sunlight so I did just 3? This window is facing east, so it gets the best light until noon.
Then for the past two weeks I've opted instead for covering the bowl itself, with a microfiber towel which is like, essentially a blackout, to really shut out the light. During the same schedule. I'm unsure about what is best so I've been "experimenting".
My water has become increasingly green.
I didn't change the water for like 2 weeks to "let the nutrients build up" for the plants but I gave up yesterday because I couldn't see through the green water anymore and I dumped like half of it out and have been refilling slowly.
Another noteworthy variable is that I've been fighting aphids on my floating plants for about three weeks, and I believe they're underperforming both because they're suffering and also because I've been taking them out of the bowl so they haven't been there at all for some periods of time, which it would make sense that their absence would throw things off balance for the plants...?
I started this bowl almost two months ago.

I'll stop talking and start listening? I appreciate you.
Photos in the following comment:

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gabi.loraine

Discussion Starter · #2 · Jan 28, 2022 (Edited)

agh I cant post the photosss

johnwesley0

· #3 · Jan 28, 2022

That much direct sunlight is WAY over the top. If you can't or won't get a lamp then move the bowl someplace where it will get fewer hours of direct sunlight. Try cutting it at least by half, if you can.

gabi.loraine

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jan 28, 2022 (Edited)

6

ok apparently I was having connection issues last night because this was super easy to do today

December 10: beautiful day

Plant Flowerpot Houseplant World Interior design

January 8: experimenting also with having less water

Plant Water Liquid Aquatic plant Pet supply

January 14: just showing how bright it still is with the shades down

Plant Window Interior design World Wood

January 17: so I started covering it with this towel which essentially blocks the light by like 100%
looks like a muslim woman

Sleeve Grey T-shirt Automotive tire Electric blue

January 25: just showing the current situation

Plant Light World Art Globe

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mistergreen

· #5 · Jan 28, 2022

The green water doesn't look too bad. I have daphnia that'll clean out green water in a few days.

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gabi.loraine

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jan 28, 2022

2

mistergreen said:
The green water doesn't look too bad.

It doesn't???

Plant World Oval Terrestrial plant Circle

the water I dumped out into a white bucket

Flower Plant Dishware Terrestrial plant Serveware

mistergreen said:
I have daphnia that'll clean out green water in a few days.

Mmmmm doesn't the fish eat the daphnia though? I think I had daphnia before I got the fish... omg is the fish the problem???

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mistergreen

· #7 · Jan 28, 2022

I've had an opaque green tank of green water. Yes, daphnia is fish food.

gabi.loraine

Discussion Starter · #8 · Jan 29, 2022

mistergreen said:
I've had an opaque green tank of green water. Yes, daphnia is fish food.

I mean... in any case I would like to prevent the green algae from taking over. When I do a water change, it just reproduces because it can. I don't think some bugs are the solution, especially with their main predator living there. I only have the one bowl. Walstad says to make the plants happier than the algae so I'm trying to figure out the lighting thing... any thoughts on the nap schedule?

mistergreen

· #9 · Jan 29, 2022

The ideal solution is a UV sterilizer but it's not feasible for a bowl. You'll have to do water changes and live with it for a while until it's completely gone.
I wonder if dosing seachem excel will help. It's a pretty good algaecide.

dwalstad

· #10 · Jan 30, 2022

Your plants are growing nicely. Green water is often temporary. It sometimes just goes away on its own, perhaps from bacteria-eating viruses or competition from plants?
A 3-4 hour nap in the middle of the day is okay, but make sure the plants are getting a full 12-14 hour photoperiod.
Give the bowl another few weeks. Frankly, I wouldn't worry about it.

mistergreen

· #11 · Jan 30, 2022 (Edited)

I wonder if it’s green water actually. It could be tannins leaching from the wood & soil. I have the same thing in my shrimp tank.

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gabi.loraine

Discussion Starter · #12 · Jan 30, 2022

dwalstad said:
Your plants are growing nicely. Green water is often temporary. It sometimes just goes away on its own, perhaps from bacteria-eating viruses or competition from plants?
A 3-4 hour nap in the middle of the day is okay, but make sure the plants are getting a full 12-14 hour photoperiod.
Give the bowl another few weeks. Frankly, I wouldn't worry about it.

I hope you’re right!!!

gabi.loraine

Discussion Starter · #13 · Jan 30, 2022

mistergreen said:
I wonder if it’s green water actually. It could be tannins leaching from the wood & soil. I have the same thing in my shrimp tank.

I boiled the wood and it leached a lot but I figured it would be done by now? It could definitely still be leaching but the color has turned more green than the yellow it was before, and it’s regenerating super fast whenever I do a water change… that’s why I think its algae… but of course I could be wrong.
I stopped doing water changes for like two weeks per DWalstad’s recommendation to let nutrients build up… but then I couldnt help myself because the water was so green 😂 so I did like two big ones…

here’s a photo to try to show the color of when I think it was just the wood leaching:

Plant Flowerpot Houseplant Terrestrial plant Water

you’ve really made me think about the daphnia though, because it started getting green a lot faster after I added the fish, who I assume depleted the bug population

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dwalstad

· #14 · Jan 31, 2022

Is it just me or did that piece of wood suddenly get bigger?
No matter how much you boiled and soaked, the driftwood could be causing your algae problems. It leaches nutrients that stimulate both bacteria and algae.
The last picture of your bowl looks great, but if algae continues to concerns you, I would temporarily remove the wood.

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gabi.loraine

Discussion Starter · #15 · Feb 1, 2022

dwalstad said:
Is it just me or did that piece of wood suddenly get bigger?

You have a great eye. The last picture is from before I pushed the wood down into the dirt after reading about the anaerobic dirt, I had seen people put the wood first a bunch of times but I still did it wrong and didn't want to rip the whole thing out and start over. It's actually two pieces, one big one, and one small one.

dwalstad said:
The last picture of your bowl looks great, but if algae continues to concerns you, I would temporarily remove the wood.

The last picture was to show the water yellowing from the leaching wood before I started having the algae problems

dwalstad said:
No matter how much you boiled and soaked, the driftwood could be causing your algae problems. It leaches nutrients that stimulate both bacteria and algae.
... if algae continues to concerns you, I would temporarily remove the wood.

Do you recommend any treatment to the wood in the meantime to keep the process from repeating if I plan to put it back in later?

alisonc

· #16 · Feb 3, 2022

I get water that colour in a shrimp tank that has Catappa leaves added as tannins from them leach into the water giving it a slight brownish tinge. The photos you’ve put on look like water that tannins from your wood have leached into, but maybe you have other photos showing green water? The bowl looks good to me. I would personally get rid of the wood, I’ve always found wood to get algae sooner or later so I don’t do it anymore.

gabi.loraine

Discussion Starter · #17 · Feb 3, 2022 (Edited)

9

A couple of things... the most important being that I've felt since the beginning that my phone's automatic white balance is messing with the color of the water in the photos.
I started getting tannin-colored water within the first few days. I did a bunch of water changes and the water started to turn from that yellow/brownish to more green, and increasingly cloudy.

I’m putting these photos with dates on them because I think it’s becoming confusing:

December 7 - First day set up

Plant Flowerpot Houseplant Pet supply Shelving

December 8 - immediately turning yellow

Plant Water Green Houseplant Pet supply

December 11 - I added 1gal water, and it's getting yellower

Plant Water Flowerpot Houseplant Interior design

December 12 - pushed the wood down into the substrate

Plant Liquid Water Houseplant Terrestrial plant

December 18 - 25% water change

Plant Flowerpot Houseplant Terrestrial plant Wood

December 22 - 25% water change

Plant White Light Green World

December 30 - changed about 25% water two times after the previous photo and filled it to the very top

Plant Flowerpot Houseplant Branch Table

January 14 - between the last picture and this one, I made larger and multiple water changes, scrubbed algae from the walls of the bowl, added a fish and 4 MTS, took the floating plants out and tortured them trying to get rid of aphids

Plant Water Botany Pet supply Terrestrial plant

January 17 to February 3 - implemented siesta schedule with blackout towel 3hrs a day
scrubbed algae again and removed all of the browning leaves/stems from the floating plants, they became nearly depleted, multiple and large water changes...

(today) February 3 -

Plant Terrestrial plant Shelf Art Glass

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gabi.loraine

Discussion Starter · #18 · Feb 3, 2022

I think it goes without saying but I will just in case: I don't care about the color of the water, the problem is it's become cloudy

johnwesley0

· #19 · Feb 3, 2022

I don't remember you ever mentioning what sort of substrate you have. What is that?

gabi.loraine

Discussion Starter · #20 · Feb 3, 2022

3

johnwesley0 said:
I don't remember you ever mentioning what sort of substrate you have. What is that?

Hi! It’s soil from the pots in my apartment, and 2-4mm gravel…

I don’t know a lot about soil, they call it “black soil” here and I’m not aware of it being special in any way.

Here’s a photo… it’s about an inch of each, bit it’s super irregularly distributed throughout

Rectangle Window Plant Wood Houseplant

on another note I just noticed a couple of zooplankton… maybe if I feed my fish enough he’ll let enough of them live to help clear the water???

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