I started a 6 litre vase a few weeks ago:
Light: sunlight only (you know where this is going already) from sitting on a windowsill that gets good morning sun and catches the mid-day sun just cos that is so powerful.
Flora: Brazilian Pennywort, Frogbit, Watersprite, Java Fern, Sag. Subulata, crypts, a few random stem clippings. The Frogbit and Watersprite is doing very well. The Pennywort is doing okay. The other stuff is just sitting there.
Fauna: 2 male guppies and 2 amano shrimp taken from the main aquarium; a tiny snail that has given birth to an even tinier baby
Substrate: coarse sand/fine gravel with root tabs
Carbon: haphazard Dennerle Carbo elixir bio; I don't know if this is glute but feel it must be
Ferts: easy life profito (so trace only), 1 drop a day
Temp: currently swings between 22 to 25 degrees Celsius which doesn't seem to bother the inhabitants.
Ammonia: probably a background trace amount. It's never shown on a test but at first set up the fish were showing some distress which they aren't anymore
Nitrites: never
Nitrates: almost 0
Water: hard, so hard, and high pH between 7.6 and 8+ according to the water board report
Water changes: 25 to 40% once a week interspersed by smaller changes
I noticed a lot of algae growing on the java fern a few days ago. It's short hairs that give an overall fuzzy appearance. It pearls like mad in the sun, looks like Christmas lights. I don't want it to suffocate my plant.
I've decided to take the jar off the windowsill during the day while I'm at work rather than subject it to the full glare of a cloudy British day. Interestingly, even indirect clouded sunshine is very bright compared to my aquarium lights. The Sun God says "take that, you puny lightbulbs!"
I suppose the advice will be to take it off the windowsill permanently but I really like the location. It gives me something to look at while I do the washing up and I find I like to study it and its inhabitants quite closely. They are pretty much at eye-level.
Is there any way of making this work plant-wise (I'm not wedded to keeping the fish in there, as Winter is Coming)?
Has anyone else had success with a similar set up or is this doomed?
It was only going to be an experiment but now I've grown attached to it.
Light: sunlight only (you know where this is going already) from sitting on a windowsill that gets good morning sun and catches the mid-day sun just cos that is so powerful.
Flora: Brazilian Pennywort, Frogbit, Watersprite, Java Fern, Sag. Subulata, crypts, a few random stem clippings. The Frogbit and Watersprite is doing very well. The Pennywort is doing okay. The other stuff is just sitting there.
Fauna: 2 male guppies and 2 amano shrimp taken from the main aquarium; a tiny snail that has given birth to an even tinier baby
Substrate: coarse sand/fine gravel with root tabs
Carbon: haphazard Dennerle Carbo elixir bio; I don't know if this is glute but feel it must be
Ferts: easy life profito (so trace only), 1 drop a day
Temp: currently swings between 22 to 25 degrees Celsius which doesn't seem to bother the inhabitants.
Ammonia: probably a background trace amount. It's never shown on a test but at first set up the fish were showing some distress which they aren't anymore
Nitrites: never
Nitrates: almost 0
Water: hard, so hard, and high pH between 7.6 and 8+ according to the water board report
Water changes: 25 to 40% once a week interspersed by smaller changes
I noticed a lot of algae growing on the java fern a few days ago. It's short hairs that give an overall fuzzy appearance. It pearls like mad in the sun, looks like Christmas lights. I don't want it to suffocate my plant.
I've decided to take the jar off the windowsill during the day while I'm at work rather than subject it to the full glare of a cloudy British day. Interestingly, even indirect clouded sunshine is very bright compared to my aquarium lights. The Sun God says "take that, you puny lightbulbs!"
I suppose the advice will be to take it off the windowsill permanently but I really like the location. It gives me something to look at while I do the washing up and I find I like to study it and its inhabitants quite closely. They are pretty much at eye-level.
Is there any way of making this work plant-wise (I'm not wedded to keeping the fish in there, as Winter is Coming)?
Has anyone else had success with a similar set up or is this doomed?
It was only going to be an experiment but now I've grown attached to it.