Glass Vase experiment II - Terrarium

I rescued 2 Anubis plants from the aquarium when they were being smothered with algae and placed them in damp containers in moist soil to encourage them to grow in an emersed environment. They have recovered quite well with new leaves forming, so I decided to add them to a terrarium I have created in a 5.5" glass vase.

The vase contains a layer of gravel covered with a plastic mesh, then I added a sprinkle of activated carbon granules to capture any smells and finally added about 1" of compost.

I left the rhizome of the anubis exposed with the roots in contact with the compost.
I also added some small pieces of a selaginella moss and some pieces of British moss.

I cut a perspex circle to cover the vase and keep the humidity high. I am interested to see how they all grow, and will updated the blog in a few weeks.

Glass Vase experiment

Here is a little experiment with a Glass Vase I have setup. I added some substrate, then planted it with 3 spare plants. It is in the window next to my 50 Litre tank. I am interested to see if the plants will grow. There is no heating or filtering so regular water changes are required. (I will not be adding any fish to the container due to its small size.) I just checked the temperature and it is 17.5 deg C.

I will post updates to show what happens.

Window tank back in position with new filter.

My 24" * 8" * 8" aquarium is now back in its usual position on the windowsill.
I stripped it down and resealed it, then added an acrylic divider with a large hole in to create a "Matten" style filter unit. The acrylic divider was assembled with "Super glue" and fitted with aquarium quality silicon sealant.

A piece of medium density foam is placed behind the divider. The hole in the acrylic divider provides an effective area of 250 square centimetres.

In the recess created behind the filter I have installed a Dennerle Nano "ThermoCompact" 25W Heater and a small filter pump unit that has had its small filter box removed. The filter label indicates that it has a maximum flow rate of 300 litre per hour. The tank volume is 50 litres so the water is filtered 6 times per hour.

A  2" inch layer of medium/course gravel has been added to the tank. The filter has been "seeded" with Evolution Aqua Pure aquarium bacteria / enzyme balls.

The tank will now be operated for a few weeks to allow it to mature.

View of Aquarium on window sill.

Interior view of Filter.

Filter cavity showing pump and heater.

Holding tub for White Cloud Mountain Minnow

I have just setup this holding tub in my greenhouse for my White Cloud Mountain Minnow that are still in the outside tub pond. It is a 35 litre "Really Useful" plastic box I purchased from Amazon for £10 delivered. These are excellent storage boxes and with having external support ribs I think they should be strong enough to hold water. I stood the box on a piece of plywood with bubble wrap on it ,to to provide a firm base. This should help prevent distortion. I have installed two airlift filters, the first is the Alfagrog filled one which has been running for a few months and the other is a twin sponge airlift filter. I have added rainwater to the tub as this is what the outside pond currently contains and the fish are used to it. The temperature of the water in the tub was 11.6 deg. The greenhouse air temperature is 19.3 degrees. I will transfer the fish into the tub once the filters have become established. 

Aquarium update - 15th October 2017

This is an update of all of my aquariums @ 15th October 2017...

This is the fry tank in the greenhouse. I removed about 20 White Cloud Mountain Minnow from the Summer tub pond and they are growing well. It also holds my stock of Ramshorn and Malaysian trumpet Snails. I like to keep a few of these in my tanks as a "cleanup crew", but when they become too numerous I move them out to this tank. The tank is filtered with the Boyu external filter and it is working well.

This is my Carnivorous plant terrarium. I bought these two plants from LIDL supermarket for £6 the pair. There is a Pitcher plant and Venus fry trap. I thought it would be interesting to try and grow these. The tank has a piece of capillary matting in the bottom and I keep this wet so moisture can be drawn into the plant pots. A plastic lid is on the tank to keep the humidity up but there are holes so any bugs can be attracted into the tank. They are doing well up to now but apparently you are classed as an "expert" if you can keep the alive over the winter :-), so we shall see what happens.

My plants in my small aqua nano shrimp tank are doing well, particularly the "Jungle Val". I removed about half of the red cherry shrimp from the tank and placed them into my tall shrimp tank. The reminder are doing well and there are some berried females so I am hopeful they will breed. I have covered the exit grill with foam to prevent small shrimp babies being drawn into the filter area. The 2 Amano shrimp also look well.

This is the 24" livebearer tank. The tank contains a selection livebearers from the Maidenhead aquatics "spares" tank, (were people bring surplus fish for resale). There are some guppies that look to be endler/guppy cross breed, some Wagtail platies, and some Temperate platies.  My 3 corydorus are also in there with a Siamese algae eater. All seem to be doing OK. I am using a large sponge airlift filter that is working well. The air pump is in the stand below the tank so the noise is kept to a minimum, Plants are fed with "easy" fertiliser once a week and 1 ml of "EasyCarb" liquid carbon each day.  I decorated the tank with a piece of driftwood and Dragon Stone, which I really like.

The Aqua One aquarium is still stable, it contains home bred Kribensis together with Cherry barb and 3 Ember Tetra. The Kribs enjoy the heavy planting with Cryptocorn plants as they can hide in the under growth. The tank is quite highly stocked but Aqua One tanks have a large rear filter area providing excellent water supply. The filter area contains multiple sponge filter medium and some of the Biohome ceramic media sold by Richard (The PondGuru). 

This is my second Shrimp tank. I have tried to achieve optimum conditions for the Cherry Shrimp to encourage breeding. Filtration is achieved with a " Hang on back" filter this also has a sponge fitted over the inlet tube and a pop sock stocking case fitted over this. The flow is good to the filter pump and the hose should prevent any baby shrimp being drawn into the filter. Temperature is maintained at about 24 C. There are 8 adult Cherry shrimp in the tank and I have spotted 5 baby ones. 3 of the adults are also "berried" (carrying eggs).

Close up of the Red Cherry Shrimp.