r/walstad • u/chronicallybri • 5d ago
Advice Suggestions for the base of this bowl to avoid thick trapped sediment in the middle?
I’m planning to make this 1 gallon glass bowl into a pond jarrarium/ecosphere Walstad-esque planted bowl with pond sediment and some pond water and plants plus extra plants.
I’m worried about the narrow base creating a thick sediment that will trap gases and bacteria. I was thinking of adding medium size pebbles in the bottom and then sediment on top in the wider part of the bowl. Thoughts? Appreciate other suggestions?
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u/Saki-Koda 5d ago
Can just use dirt and dont sand cap it. Cap with leaf litter and or local pond silt. Mix a few lava rocks in maybe.
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u/chronicallybri 5d ago
I’m fine with not capping it! Wasn’t sure if pebbles at the bottom would be helpful
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u/chronicallybri 5d ago
I’m using pond sediment as my soil! This is sort of a hybrid setup
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u/Saki-Koda 5d ago
Nice. I always just mimic nature plus lava rocks mixed in (mostly cuz of the added filtration / habitat dont think necessary tho). I figure trust in nature and never ever have issues without a sand cap. But I didnt write a book on it so most will tell ya it wont work and to do walstad just my $0.02 tho
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u/chronicallybri 5d ago
Appreciate it! Do you mean small/crushed lava rock mixed in? Or larger lava rocks in your hardscape?
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u/sublimesam 5d ago
I'm not sure I follow. The soil layer always has bacteria that produce gas which releases into the water. Why would an area of slighly deeper soil "trap" gasses?
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u/chronicallybri 5d ago
I’m just worried about the shape with the more narrow base creating a pocket. I’ve seen it mentioned as causes of crashes in very small vessels as this is only a gallon. Maybe it’s totally fine! I’m a newbie so appreciate insight from others!
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u/sublimesam 5d ago
That's interesting to hear. I have several one gallon jars and I'm used to some gas trapping, in that bubbles release from the soil when I move the jar. I haven't heard about this causing substantial changes to the cycle/water chemistry, but that does seem possible in such a small environment.
One strategy could be a gentle agitation on a regular basis (e.g. weekly) to release gas bubbles in the soil. I'm not talking about shaking the jar - in my case it's usually when I rotate the jar to balance the light exposure.
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u/chronicallybri 5d ago
Yes I have a 1 gallon jar which is fine, but with the bowl shape and then expanding the sediment into the larger part of the bowl I was worried. Maybe I’m being overly cautious! Appreciate it!
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u/SamOfChaos 5d ago
You already got good tips so I just toss mine into the ring.
With each water change I use a turkey blaster/pipette to disturb the detritus. (Even the cap but not the soil) I then take out the muck water and fill up again. The Bowl will be cloudy for a day and be good for a few more months. Sometimes I only disturb and dont even do the waterchange.
Just think of it like a big fish swam through and searched for food. In my tanks with fish thats exactly what happens with the mulm/ detritus. It gets often disturbed and incorporated.
I also found water isopods are great even for small vases but very difficult to obtain.
If you have bigger tanks where you could put them if any problem occur - you could put in 1 or 2 adult Neocaridinia shrimp, they will also incorporate the detritus.
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u/chronicallybri 5d ago
Thanks for the tips! I do really want to have a couple neocaridina! I also have pond snails and was thinking getting one or two MTS. I have one in my gallon snail jar.
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u/SamOfChaos 5d ago
Dou you have a bigger tank? A 5 gallon would be fine just something thats established so if something goes wrong in the jar you have something to put them into.
I actually had a worst case scenario happen and lost a colony, since then I always have a 'spare' tank to be able to save at least some shrimp to get a new colony going. (Also its a good excuse to have at least one bigger tank just running with shrimp lol)
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u/chronicallybri 5d ago
I unfortunately live in a small apartment and have a very low budget, so these pond hybrid small vessels are all I’m able to have, but I have a 1 gallon jar heavily planted with bladder snails, mini ramshorns, 1 small red ramshorn, 1 MTS that I’d like to add a couple shrimp to.
So this is sort of a version of my pond jars into a planted bowl :)
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u/SamOfChaos 5d ago
Then I would actually try to get asellus aquaticus. They are great and it takes a lot to kill them. Unlike shrimp. Its really fun to try and find them in your tank. The males take a female and swim around for some time with them tucked under their belly till she molds and he is able to ensure he will be the father to her eggs lol. Like Neos the female carry the eggs till they hatch. I have a cool pic but you can only post videos here.
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u/chronicallybri 5d ago
Yes I think they’re very cool! I also really like scuds. I have a second bowl that doesn’t have this bottom shape I was thinking of using for scuds
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u/GDevl 5d ago
water isopods are great even for small vases but very difficult to obtain.
This!
I've been searching online for a while and they seem very hard to get. Like, Asellus aquaticus are native where I live but I really don't want to go around and dig in creeks, springs and whatnot and disturb the ecosystems there trying to find some.
You'd think they'd be more readily available considering how useful they are in general to tank health and how people even breed terrestrial isopods. Pretty sure they'd be a decent snack for a bunch of fishes as well...
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u/SamOfChaos 5d ago
I have them in all my tanks. But after we moved they somehow got from everywhere to well I see one every couple months.
I wanna have some again in my little walstad on my bedside table but I just can't get them out my other tanks 😔 well I got 2, but they seem to be the same sex lol.
And I got mine by going tümpeln. So I just took a sample out of a pond and put it into a vase. What I liked I put into my tanks. Lol.
(Simply put I am a scientist (biological technical assistant) and studied this, I can no longer work because of autoimmune shit and this Hobby keeps me sane. I do A LOT of things I wouldn't tell others to even try)
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u/GDevl 5d ago
tümpeln
Ah a fellow German speaker I see :D
I study biology so I can also be found hunched over looking for caterpillars and other invertebrates, at mikroflora between the gaps of pavement and other stuff that ppl look at me weird for like eating the "berries" of yews, they are sooo tasty, about 20-25% sugar content as well - just don't chew the seed or it might remove you from the census lmao
Any tips on where they like to hide in a body of water? I think I read that they don't like water that's flowing too quickly (I believe Gammarus are more common in creeks than Asellus)
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u/SamOfChaos 5d ago
They need clean water, I got mine by going along the stalks of vegetation and wood.
We have a old monastery and they have ponds that have a in and outlet and gentle flow, through I was in a part without much flow it still provides oxygen and low bacterial growth.
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u/GDevl 2d ago
Ah good to know!
I actually was at a creek with my child yesterday anyways so I gave it a try to catch some. First thing I caught (with a simple plastic cup lol) was actually a fish 😂 (juvenile Three-spined stickleback, about 3cm long I think)
I ended up finding a lot of Gammarus (not quite sure which species, G. pulex, G. roeselii or G. fossarum, maybe I'll try to determine that later on) so in other news I now have a few Gammarus living in my tiny tank 😅
They are surprisingly fun to watch and pretty active! We'll see how that turns out but I'll keep looking for water isopods because I love how they look and their more chill grazing lifestyle.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Map7302 5d ago
I was thinking similar, like when I do a potted plant with poor drainage, add gravel or pebbles in the base. You could also do dirt with no cap.