Walstad Jar

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/16/2023 at 11:18 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I wouldn’t have put the driftwood in, in the beginning. Walstad has a reason for not using wood. I forget what it is. Less room for oxygenating plants? Carbon matter? Personally I found that it just took up too much space, and the jar has a small footprint.

Anything that deteriorates uses the oxygen. I believe that may foul the situation over time.

On 12/16/2023 at 11:18 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

They were doing well in there but when the plants start getting thick, you can’t really see/enjoy all of them to check on them.

Interesting. I appreciate that, meaning I feel the gravity of that statement.

It's one of those things where I really do see that neocarodina shrimp seriously can be difficult and it's a pretty fine line at times between success and struggling with a minor shift.

 

Related.... And I flash back to a discussion I had where I was told by another hobbyist that I cannot care for my own shrimp because I recommended avoiding a small setup (under 15G) for a colony.  It was a tough day and the comments stuck with me for far longer than they should've.

Since then, I've seen a 75G shrimp tank with 1000+ shrimp. Hundreds. It was hard to put the activity of that colony into words and I can only now fully appreciate the effort it takes for that group of shrimp to thrive long term.

On 12/16/2023 at 11:18 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Overall I am happy with everything else! My friend made a jar in the same week, and her plants are now dead. I don’t believe she did water changes; only top offs. She used a vase, and I wonder if the height of that prevented the plants on the bottom from getting enough light. But she also had salvinia floaters at the top.

Interesting. Yeah, plants are a huge learning curve and have been. The focus for me the past 2 years or so. Maybe the surface plants cut all gas exchange and blocked out the lights as well. Tough to say.  I do get what you mean though about the height difference and issues that may cause as well. Sometimes it's a puzzle!

It's been fun to follow along and to see a successful journey with it. I genuinely don't think I could pull it off, but one day, maybe...

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 12/17/2023 at 2:51 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

I genuinely don't think I could pull it off, but one day, maybe...

@nabokovfan87 this is the one “tank” that requires the least effort! I don’t do anything for weeks at a time. You see how it keeps making flowers, etc. The initial setup is what makes it thrive:

Try it!

Edited December 17, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Katherine]

On 12/17/2023 at 1:18 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

 

Something about this snail has my brain convinced it's not a bladder snail, but I honestly couldn't tell you what, specifically. It just looks 'wrong' to me. I don't suppose it matters a whole lot though.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 12/17/2023 at 10:19 AM, Katherine said:

Something about this snail has my brain convinced it's not a bladder snail, but I honestly couldn't tell you what, specifically. It just looks 'wrong' to me. I don't suppose it matters a whole lot though.

Ha. It is a descendant of the 3 bladder snails I was given. I placed them into the jar, and then for awhile I had like 50 bladder snails of various sizes.

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/17/2023 at 3:22 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Try it!

😂 But right now I have some half dead and totally dead ZZ plants!

(That's on my plant table thinkamajig)

Edited December 17, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Interesting. Discovered a bladder snail in the Walstad jar. Have not seen any in there in quite some time.

On 12/17/2023 at 10:19 AM, Katherine said:

Something about this snail has my brain convinced it's not a bladder snail, but I honestly couldn't tell you what, specifically. It just looks 'wrong' to me. I don't suppose it matters a whole lot though.

It (that one pictured above which lives in the shrimp tank) finally laid some eggs. It put them on the glass; looks like little dots smeared on the glass with Vaseline.

Edited January 5 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I added trumpet snails to my jar to see if they can help with the fluffy hair algae.

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I can see the MTS attached to the algae I intended for them to eat, so that’s great. 
 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

The algae situation seems to be improving with the help of the Malaysian trumpet snails. However I noticed they seem lethargic, and I am certain that it is because the temperature has been low lately. I bought a tiny 10w heater and am testing it out in a bucket to see if the output is accurate, then I will add it to my jar. It is about the size of, say, a chapstick. A little wider. Controller is external and digital, which is nice. Walstad tucked a reptile pad into hers but I couldn’t find the one she used.

Water tests 0 across the board for “the big 3”. Always have been for this jar, every time I’ve tested. Even in the beginning when I set it up and tested daily for 2 weeks.

Edited January 25 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

After testing the heater for a few days, I’ve determined it’s a degree or two off. No big deal, and it will suit my basic needs. The jar is at 72 and most MTS are burrowed. I added the heater and set it to 72 and will take a reading with a meat thermometer tomorrow. I will gradually increase. At least to 74. The goal is to have some consistency for the MTS. They came from an 80 degree tank, so it’s understandable why they are not moving around so much.

 

 

Another thing I did was reduce the light by a half hour with the Kasa wifi outlet.

There were 4 dead moths in my jar! And a few dead ones around the jar. They are attracted to the light, I’m sure.

Re: the algae. I didn’t really have the issue when I had all that dwarf water lettuce in there. I guess I need some more floaters. My friend is practically overwhelmed with floaters in her tanks, so I have a good source! ☺️

However I wouldn’t go with dwl again. It was sending down thick roots and anchoring firmly into the substrate which I didn’t like. I was always having to trim those to allow room and light for my moneywort.

Edited January 26 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Here is what the Walstad jar looks like today. It still makes flowers quite often.

There is still hair algae, but I tweak the Kasa timer sometimes to reduce light duration. I wait a few weeks to see how things go. And the water is pretty clear under the surface. Here the algae is pearling.

I do top offs with tank water which contains some easy green and nitrates from fish waste.

The trumpet snails are still in there. I rarely feed them, but they do have air and heat. They do get the occasional meat-based pellet.

This snail is huge compared to the others!

Yesterday I went to the Art & Foliage festival. I returned today to select some non-aquatic plants.

This is a carnivorous plant that does well on a windowsill. The “spikes” at the top attract insects. When the insect lands on a leaf, it becomes trapped and the plant absorbs it. The leaves do not close like a flytrap though.

It has already caught some bugs.

I will keep this plant in the kitchen in case of fruit flies.

 

It makes a sort of red dew. I guess it is an adhesive/digestive-type liquid.

This is a type of pitcher plant. This one likes direct light. I chose this to keep near the African violets I’m growing in the garage because the grow light out there attracts bugs fairly often.

Looking inside the “pitcher” I can see it is holding liquid and has a bug.

Technically these are bog plants, so when I say they are non-aquatic, I guess that’s not entirely true. I don’t know if they could work on the surface of a Walstad jar or not but that could be a neat idea. The first fuzzy looking one has a label that says it loves humidity and works well in terrariums. However, at some point it will need to get bugs. Also the shopkeeper told me never to fertilize these plants, because the pitcher plant will stop making pitchers and the plants will no longer catch or eat bugs.

Lastly, I had this little pot that I needed to put to use again, as its previous resident, the “mother of thousands” got an upgrade. So I went to see the bamboo guy, and he sold me a small trio of bamboo.

This is what the mother of thousands looks like. I hook trained her more than once as she got taller and started becoming a bit unruly.

She was in the little giraffe for several years! Now she made babies, so I upgraded her and am raising them up too. Look at the babies on the edge of her leaves.

enjoy nature daily 

Edited April 29 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

On 4/28/2024 at 5:13 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Here is what the Walstad jar looks like today. It still makes flowers quite often.

Do you think you'll ever swap it out for a shallow rimless?  I just realized I have a pretty big size glass jar I can commandeer one day. 🤔

On 4/28/2024 at 5:13 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Aw.... I love this.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 4/28/2024 at 9:46 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Do you think you'll ever swap it out for a shallow rimless?  I just realized I have a pretty big size glass jar I can commandeer one day. 🤔

Aw.... I love this.

Once it’s setup you really can’t because if you uproot plants you pull the soil up into the water column. The sand layer is meant to lock the soil in place to keep balance. 
 

 

On 4/28/2024 at 9:46 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Aw.... I love this.

Me too! I knew I couldn’t throw him in a drawer to collect dust. The bamboo is gonna be perfect, and I added some aquarium gravel.

On 4/28/2024 at 8:13 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

makes a sort of red dew. I guess it is an adhesive/digestive-type liquid.

So the plant is called drosera sundew and this is how it eats. Makes me feel squeamish, yet, fascinated?

It can have all the mosquitos. FL is mosquito capital of the US. 🙄

Edited April 29 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 4/28/2024 at 9:50 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

It can have all the mosquitos. FL is mosquito capital of the US. 🙄

Oh man guys, the drosera sundew caught its first mosquito!

 

It has caught a number of little flies/gnats as well. The black thing near the mosquito’s foot is another victim.

Also I smacked a HUGE mosquito yesterday with the flyswatter and fed it to the pitcher plant!

 

Edited Friday at 01:02 AM by Chick-In-Of-TheSea