Tanks with no filtration

SilvrStar7 · Post by **SilvrStar7** » Tue May 09, 2006 9:48 am

I went to a recent meeting of the local aquarium gardeners society here in town, and I was introduced to liter bottle gardening.

They're just liter soda bottles with topsoil and baked clay as substrate, live plants, and fish. Usually 2 small platies. There's no filtration, no water changes, just top offs. They'd been going for around a year with no problems. Plants looked awesome, fish were beautiful. Anyone heard of this before? I'd love to do this with shrimp, but I'm afraid to kill my lil babies.

~Laura

Newjohn · Post by **Newjohn** » Tue May 09, 2006 10:07 am

There are a few post talking about ecosphere. This is a total enclosed system.

The comments are not good.

Shrimp are more sensitive to poor water quality, then fish.
They do need weekly water changes, just not topping off.

John

SilvrStar7 · Post by **SilvrStar7** » Tue May 09, 2006 10:50 am

The cherries I have don't get water changes very often, 2 months between at least. I have babies coming out the wazoo.

The water quality stays excellent, between the live plants and baked clay which locks excess nutrients in. Or so I was told. I'll have to search for the links to these pages.

Newjohn · Post by **Newjohn** » Tue May 09, 2006 11:19 am

SilverStar7

Baked clay ?
Would this be , like clay pots, or is it something special ?

Do you have to change out , the Baked Clay ?

John

SilvrStar7 · Post by **SilvrStar7** » Tue May 09, 2006 11:54 am

I wish I had the name of the stuff I got...I'll be back for the next meeting on the 18th, so I'll get the actual name. As it was explained to me (In simplistic terms) the clay soaks up excess nutrients, and these nutrients can be "unlocked" by plant roots.

Seems to simple to me, but the water quality on these gardens were amazing.

Maybe I'll try on some ghost shrimp first?

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Tue May 09, 2006 2:22 pm

What would Ghosts eat? They wouldn't last very long on just plants.

YuccaPatrol · Post by **YuccaPatrol** » Tue May 09, 2006 6:20 pm

SilvrStar7 wrote:I wish I had the name of the stuff I got...I'll be back for the next meeting on the 18th, so I'll get the actual name. As it was explained to me (In simplistic terms) the clay soaks up excess nutrients, and these nutrients can be "unlocked" by plant roots.

Seems to simple to me, but the water quality on these gardens were amazing.

Maybe I'll try on some ghost shrimp first?

Take your test kit next meeting and get a sample of that water and test it if you want to know if this setup has a chance of working.

SilvrStar7 · Post by **SilvrStar7** » Tue May 09, 2006 7:40 pm

I would still feed them, the fish get fed as well.

They had h20 test kits there, and the quality was great.

Any thoughts?

rymeyer · Post by **rymeyer** » Tue May 09, 2006 10:19 pm

That sounds like a really neat idea. If you find instructions on how to do it, please post them.

fishgeek · Post by **fishgeek** » Tue May 09, 2006 10:55 pm

even if the water quality is great , i wouldn't want to live in only 1 litre of water
not much space for any animal life

just my thoughts
andrew

rymeyer · Post by **rymeyer** » Wed May 10, 2006 1:09 am

I was kind of assuming that SlvrStar7 really meant a 2 liter bottle. Not that an extra liter makes a huge difference, but it would to a cherry shrimp. I'm not sure I'd want to put a fish in there, but a few shrimp might be nice.

Shrimp&Snails · Post by **Shrimp&Snails** » Wed May 10, 2006 4:48 am

I don't see the point of keeping anything in such a small amount of water.........would you like to live in a cupboard rather than a nice sized house?

I like to see my shrimp swimming around freely, crawling under and over driftwood and living their lives as close as possible as living in the wild.

They are living creatures after all.

SilvrStar7 · Post by **SilvrStar7** » Wed May 10, 2006 6:15 am

I agree with the fact that it is a small amount of space. I would just use them for grow out "bottles." I'm just being so overridden with cherries, my babies that I'm growing out are having babies...It's nuts.

And yes, I meant a 2 liter bottle.

~Laura

rymeyer · Post by **rymeyer** » Wed May 10, 2006 9:35 am

I don't think the comparison between a cupboard and a house is the same as a 2-liter bottle and something larger. For a few cherries, a whole 2-litter bottle with plants would be like a whole neighborhood. Of course, I don't know what kind of range various dwarf shrimp have in the wild. I would assume that since they are not territorial, take up very little space, and are so good at grazing on microflora and fauna it wouldn't be very large.

Post by **Mustafa** » Wed May 10, 2006 10:22 am

You cannot grow babies in a 2 liter bottle, period. It's neither economic, nor practical. Get a 10 gallon for about $8.00-$10.00, which will really solve your problem.

I know people have a fascination about keeping animals in as small a place as possible (i.e. "nano" tanks) but reality is that it's best for animals to have as large a tank as possible, even for just a few red cherry shrimp. It's under those conditions that water parameters can easily be controlled and the animals show their best colors and most natural behaviors.

And no, no shrimp has a natural "home range" of a 2 liter bottle. They move around quite a bit.