Actually the best betta tank I've ever done was a 22 long, 12 x 12 x 36
for a plakat anyway. He LOVED speeding up and down that thing. King of all he surveyed, surfing in the outflow current, bubble nests for days 
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Journal Rocco's No-Tech Bowl Scaping Thread - with APT Feast!
- Thread starter Naturescapes_Rocco
- Start date
Actually the best betta tank I've ever done was a 22 long, 12 x 12 x 36
for a plakat anyway. He LOVED speeding up and down that thing. King of all he surveyed, surfing in the outflow current, bubble nests for days - Thread starter
- #62
The bowl has been moved into the new house! I've got black stone countertop and a similar backplash, and it makes the bowl absolutely POP in this kitchen:
A little overgrown!
At this point, 1mL of APT 3 per every 1 gallon isn't enough. Deficiencies are starting to show in older leaves. Probably K deficiency? lol if you know, you know.
I just need to trim and replant, and fertilize more.
Helanthium tenellum has completely carpeted, and is now circling the entire bowl with runners.
C
CRS constantly berried/pregnant, but no babies. I suspect the CPD's hunting them all down.
Where it started:
How it's going now:
Just gave it all a trim, will update with new photos in a few days!
Still just removing ~50% water, remineralizing incoming water to 30ppm Ca, total 8ppm Mg, and been dosing ~1.5mL of APT 3 per gallon water added. Stupid easy, no algae, just works.
A little overgrown!
At this point, 1mL of APT 3 per every 1 gallon isn't enough. Deficiencies are starting to show in older leaves. Probably K deficiency? lol if you know, you know.
I just need to trim and replant, and fertilize more.
Helanthium tenellum has completely carpeted, and is now circling the entire bowl with runners.
C
CRS constantly berried/pregnant, but no babies. I suspect the CPD's hunting them all down.
Where it started:
How it's going now:
Just gave it all a trim, will update with new photos in a few days!
Still just removing ~50% water, remineralizing incoming water to 30ppm Ca, total 8ppm Mg, and been dosing ~1.5mL of APT 3 per gallon water added. Stupid easy, no algae, just works.
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JayP
Valuable Member
How are things going with the bowl, your replacement for the previous larger tanks, and your healing?
JayP
Valuable Member
Following up on this. Inquiring minds want to know.
- Thread starter
- #65
Thanks for asking Jay!
The bowl is still beautiful. Everyone who enters the home gives it as much attention as the 120cm tank (still hidden from this forum as of now lol).
It is SO densely planted that even the richness of APT Feast is nowhere enough. I went a few weeks without a water change and the plants severely stunted, developed pinholes, and started getting a tiny bit of brown-ish algae. Tests showed 0ppm NO3, 0ppm PO4, and only about 5-10ppm K. 1mL of APT 3 per 1 gallon of RO water added wasn't really enough! I want to switch to 1mL of APTe per 1 gallon instead.
Unfortunately this year has me a bit traumatized and I need to downsize my hobbies. Even though the bowl is so little effort, it's one more thing that I couldn't work on while I was injured, and I want to get rid of it. Which is a shame because it's really awesome, but even it requires trimming every few weeks, weekly top offs, water changes, fertilizing, etc.
So, the bowl was a complete success. It never once had an algae outbreak. In fact, it has remained generally algae-free this entire time. The roots! My god, the plant roots are completely packed in there. APT Feast was a great substrate, but even a densely planted low tech tank can't survive forever without some decent fertilization, plant removal, root-zone refreshing, etc.
I'll provide some pics of the bowl for this thread soon! It really does look great, still. The good news is, it's likely going to a friend who's never entered the hobby. I'll make him a MgCl2*6H2O solution, give him a syringe, and my reminaing bag of APT feast. He's going to join me in saving a few plants from the bowl to re-use in his own bowl scape, and I'll be guiding him through the process of cycling, planting, fertilizing, trimming, etc. So, the bowl will live on! Maybe I'll post pics here of his scape over time.
This technique works, guys. It works stupid well. This tank was so steady, easy and consistent that it got a bit boring! It just grew and grew and never had algae issues. I could miss a few weeks of water changes and dosing, and it was still in good condition.
Someday if I ever bail on the high-tech tank stuff, I'll probably just scape my even bigger bowl and have that be my only aquarium lol
On my recovery: I'm at 4 months post-op, and I can finally walk and drive. My walk has a pretty bad limp, but PT is taking care of that over time. No sports or activities, but wow these last few months were some of the hardest I've ever been through.
I did set up my 120cm tank just to get my plants growing, but I think I'm going to potentially switch it to aquasoil? That'll be for a different thread
Water's a bit murky because this tank got horrible algae while I couldn't walk
JayP
Valuable Member
So how long ago did you plant that? I'm still struggling with my 120cm garden tank, getting algae and cloudiness under control. I've thought about giving up on the BDBS and switching it to aquasoil, especially when I compare it to the farm tank on the opposite wall which it was suppose to replace. That tank just keeps chugging along producing great looking healthy plants...in old aquasoil! I'm going to hang in there for awhile longer though.I did set up my 120cm tank just to get my plants growing, but I think I'm going to potentially switch it to aquasoil? That'll be for a different thread
Sorry to hear the recovery is slow, but happy to hear it is moving in the right direction.
Just out of curiosity, what phosphate test do you use?
- Thread starter
- #69
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