Planting a large glass bottle

[meadeam]

How would you go about planting this?  The opening is 3cm.   I think it would be cool to house a shrimp colony, but maintenance would be a challenge.

Pint glass for size.

[lefty o]

gonna need a really long tweezers.

[DaveO]

I would put in a little sand and drop in a few seeds.

[TheSwissAquarist]

I would squeeze a bit of java moss through the opening, (after a bit of gravel/sand) and maybe a long stalk of this plant:

[PotatoFish]

On 9/27/2022 at 11:12 PM, TheSwissAquarist said:

I would squeeze a bit of java moss through the opening, (after a bit of gravel/sand) and maybe a long stalk of this plant:

That there is cabomba if you want to add it.

I say, why not go with something like a few banana plants (pic below)?

And add some water sprite or perhaps frogbit as floating plants...admittedly, the water sprite will require maintenence when the branches start to die off, so your super tweezers will be handy.

If you do not know what to look for, search out "aqua tweezers" like these ones below (these are 50cm/19.7in long), but I'm sure there are longer out there.

 

I think my main concern with a bottle would be air circulation (maybe a simple air stone?) and cleaning. Though a mini python would probably allow you to reach the bottom easy enough, you might have to DIY a more rigid stick to give you better(any) control of the sucking end.

These are just my thoughts, mate. I wish you the best of luck and would love to see what you decide upon as well as your journey.

"If there is a will, there is a way."

[TheSwissAquarist]

You could use one of those dog poop pickers?

[meadeam]

Thanks for all the ideas!  I recently learned the pothos will grow in and under water, so I could probably just poke a few cuttings in and let them go.  I'll see what I come up with.

[TheSwissAquarist]

Nice idea 👍 

[PedroPete]

Is the opening's diameter 3cm or the circumference? 

With a decent substrate bed (fertilized substrate, gravel, sand mix - or gravel/fertilized substrate/sand layers), you could definitely get a neat jungle going. If you get the right tool, you could potentially weight the roots down of vallisneria, drop them in, and then use the tool to plant a few in the middle. They would eventually spread, of course.  

Otherwise, you could do just gravel/sand, then a mass of java moss, with the middle being a pile of darker lava rocks, some with java ferns glued on them. A long poker-type tool could help re-orient all of those components, making it less complicated to set up. Potentially, you could float hornwort or limnophila sessiliflora (like cabomba), if needed, but their needle-like leaves get shed somewhat easily, which would make a mess. Guppy grass could be a nice alternative for floated bunch of plants. 

Keep us posted 🙂

[B7gwap]

I keep a 1 gallon clear PET water jug on my desk at work with 2 white cloud minnows, a few rams horn snails, some Java moss, some dwarf sag, and a “Moses in a Boat” dangling its roots in the top. One kibble of food per week, water top offs every two, and a sunny window in the morning make a nice thing to stare at during long Webex meetings. 
 

you don’t need heat, and plants are nature’s filters. I say go for it! 🙂

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 10/15/2022 at 11:20 PM, B7gwap said:

Moses in a Boat”

What’s that??

[B7gwap]

On 10/2/2022 at 8:33 AM, meadeam said:

Thanks for all the ideas!  I recently learned the pothos will grow in and under water, so I could probably just poke a few cuttings in and let them go.  I'll see what I come up with.

@meadeam

Pothos is awesome! I have it dangling its toes in almost every one of my tanks. It loves fish poop for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and makes a really nice accent to the top of the glass box in the room. 
 

The one I have in my son’s 20 long grew one of its leaves under the canopy and then under the water level, it is the only leaf I’ve had die off.  Pothos is semi aquatic only. Remember that it can be easily propagated by cutting at nodes, and will form roots there if submerged in a nutrient rich environment (like a fish tank). 
 

There are so many color varieties of pothos out there, experiment a bit. All of my 8 plants were started from cuttings at my workplace where a lady comes through every other week to trim up and water. Effective, beautiful filters are rarely free. If you know someone who keeps pothos in the house, they likely trim it regularly and will give you a cutting. 
 

Other common houseplants that have done well for me in this application are Moses in a Boat, and Begonia. 

[B7gwap]

On 10/15/2022 at 11:58 PM, TheSwissAquarist said:

What’s that??

So I got the original cutting from my sister in law in Portland who is a houseplant fanatic, but doing some research, I think what I have is actually Purple Heart plant. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tradescantia_pallida
Moses In a Boat looks bushier and less wandering than how my plant grows, although the leaves look similar, a pale green to deep purple with a soft fuzzy texture.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 10/16/2022 at 4:49 PM, B7gwap said:

@meadeam

Pothos is awesome! I have it dangling its toes in almost every one of my tanks. It loves fish poop for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and makes a really nice accent to the top of the glass box in the room. 
 

The one I have in my son’s 20 long grew one of its leaves under the canopy and then under the water level, it is the only leaf I’ve had die off.  Pothos is semi aquatic only. Remember that it can be easily propagated by cutting at nodes, and will form roots there if submerged in a nutrient rich environment (like a fish tank). 
 

There are so many color varieties of pothos out there, experiment a bit. All of my 8 plants were started from cuttings at my workplace where a lady comes through every other week to trim up and water. Effective, beautiful filters are rarely free. If you know someone who keeps pothos in the house, they likely trim it regularly and will give you a cutting. 
 

Other common houseplants that have done well for me in this application are Moses in a Boat, and Begonia. 

It’s very nice seeing greenery growing out and above aquariums!

[B7gwap]

Back to OP, that’s a fantastic use of a glass carboy. Once my brewing activity went to wide mouth PET, I never looked back. 
 

an idea for planting might be to add some weight to the roots of your plants.