Setting up a no tech glass vase

[neilsc]

hi Folks,
My first post on this forum and I am looking for a little advise.
I am about to set up a no tech, (apart from a light) large glass vase (30cm dia x 30 cm tall).
I am hoping to transfer some filter media from my already established nano tank and bury it in the new substrate. Will this help to kick start the cycle in the new setup? Or will it 'suffocate' if buried!
Also do you guys recommend using 'top soil' from the garden to help establish the plants? and finally can I get good the tank established without using stem plants?

 

[BanhMi]

HI, for the first two I can't say. Normally if I do a jar though I just use aquasoil.
Stem plant's I'd say it depends, I think they are very handy if you have any livestock in the jar because they just grow so fast they act as excellent water cleaners, they estbalish very quickly as well. So saying I have grown dwarf saggittaria and Echinodorus tenellus and they also grow very quickly once established. Crypts do well and grow quite fast, but not sure how well alone they act as good water cleaners.

 

[neilsc]

hi BanhMi,
Thanks for your comments. Just using aquasoil was my other thought. In my existing tank the stem plants (rotala) did not do so well, but the crypts did very well!
I think they ran short of nutrients after the initial setup. Perhaps I should try again in the vase.

 

[Jaseon]

Will this help to kick start the cycle in the new setup? Or will it 'suffocate' if buried!

I wouldn't worry about 'Cycling'. Im guessing you wont be adding livestock in such a small vase?

 

[rdk1402]

Here are two of mine. No lights, only a window. The only technology I use is a bubbler to keep the water surface clean. Water changes and a tiny bit of NPK.

Neocaridina shrimp in the left; caridina shrimp in the right.
Only epiphytes in the left; stems, rosette, stolon, floaters on the right.

I'm not a fan of bowls or anything curved, as it distorts the view.

Regarding cycling... it's part of nature, let nature take care of it.

 

[neilsc]

I wouldn't worry about 'Cycling'. Im guessing you wont be adding livestock in such a small vase?

hi Jaseon, Depending on how things went I was thinking of using this setup to house my ever growing colony of red cherry shrimp. the vase holds about 21l, so should be able to add stock.

 

[neilsc]

Here are two of mine. No lights, only a window. The only technology I use is a bubbler to keep the water surface clean. Water changes and a tiny bit of NPK.

Neocaridina shrimp in the left; caridina shrimp in the right.
Only epiphytes in the left; stems, rosette, stolon, floaters on the right.

I'm not a fan of bowls or anything curved, as it distorts the view.

Regarding cycling... it's part of nature, let nature take care of it.

View attachment 199767

hi, your tanks look good. How long did it take to get to that point? What is the water temperature? and what is NBK? TIA.

 

[rdk1402]

Only 1 summer is what it takes to get it to look like this. Sunlight is the best light we have.

But I do need to block sunlight in juli/august afternoons with a simple mat, as green algae can't resist to reproduce despite all the plants present. The stem plants need to be trimmed weekly in summer.
In summer it fluctuates between 25 and 30+, with heatwaves. The caridina shrimp breed a little in this tank.

The water temperature is 16-20 degrees C at the moment. And light is really dim as the weather is miserable. So all in all there's a lot of daily and seasonal fluctuation in parameters.

NPK: nitrogen, phosphates, potassium (K). In a low/no tech tank, water changes and life inside a tank provide the minerals your plants need. But I find N and K lacking sometimes, based on the color, the holes and growth of plant leaves. Hence I dose NPK in the water column from time to time.

There's aquasoil in these tanks, but for looks mainly 🙂. I use nothing but sand in most of my tanks and don't use root tabs.

 

[neilsc]

Only 1 summer is what it takes to get it to look like this. Sunlight is the best light we have.

But I do need to block sunlight in juli/august afternoons with a simple mat, as green algae can't resist to reproduce despite all the plants present. The stem plants need to be trimmed weekly in summer.
In summer it fluctuates between 25 and 30+, with heatwaves. The caridina shrimp breed a little in this tank.

The water temperature is 16-20 degrees C at the moment. And light is really dim as the weather is miserable. So all in all there's a lot of daily and seasonal fluctuation in parameters.

NPK: nitrogen, phosphates, potassium (K). In a low/no tech tank, water changes and life inside a tank provide the minerals your plants need. But I find N and K lacking sometimes, based on the color, the holes and growth of plant leaves. Hence I dose NPK in the water column from time to time.

There's aquasoil in these tanks, but for looks mainly 🙂. I use nothing but sand in most of my tanks and don't use root tabs.

Thanks, that's very helpful