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Well I've got a thread on my tanks, figured I should also start one on my tubs. I have a couple going at the moment. They're both a bit neglected but I might as well show them as they are...

The first - a rectangular storage container of about 40L.
This tub seems to swing between a green sludgy mess and clear water. It gets REALLY warm being on my front verandah and getting full sun in the afternoon.

Plants - hydrilla, baby tears, val, giant hairgrass (Eleocharis geniculata) and Potamogeton tricarinatus (which wasn't looking too great to start off with and looked even worse after I accidentally left it to dry overnight before planting it. Suprisingly it seems to be coming back a little.)

Wildlife - a pair of waterhouse snails, a handful of delicate blue eyes and a lone native glass shrimp.

I tested the water this afternoon for the first time and was really suprised.

Temp: 30.5C (the water felt cool compared to what it has been so at a guess it would be reaching 35-40C on some days)
pH: 8.6 or more (test kit only goes to 8.6)
nitrAte: between 0 and 5ppm
GH: 100ppm
KH: 30ppm




Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

The second - is a round tub that I picked up from Bunnings. I think it holds about 60L.

Plants - a bit of hodge podge of bits that I had lying around and some that I am growing out - 2 varieties of ludwigia (submersed), Vallisneria caulescens (submersed), watersprite(submersed), Potamogeton tricarinatus (same as in the other tub), Marsilea mutica (emersed) and my emersed osiris sword (looking a little worse for wear although still sending out regular flower spikes and plantlets - its time for more substrate ferts)

Wildlife - I originally put in a few each delicate and spotted blue-eyes - I haven't seen the adults for a while but there are lots and lots of fry that are too small to tell which species they are yet. the adults could still be in there just hiding. They're really good at that.



Have fun

G_T


Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

wow troppo your tubs look good my tubs have alot less plant varoiety ( i stick to hornwort and duckweed for hardy fry cover) I definatleywill steal some ideas from you!

although i'm sure the aussie cllimate helps your plants to grow so well! fall has arrived so its time to take my tuibs down and sell off the fry (my paradise pair spawned very well!!!)

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

*looks again at plants*

Found a four leaf clover found a four leaf clover found a four leaf clover !

Wher'ed you buy the plants from? bunnings or local garden places? I havent had much of a look around for pond plants...especially since that project is being put on hold

^_^

Thanks for dropping by Babel & brandeeno

wow troppo your tubs look good ... I definatley will steal some ideas from you!

Thank you and you're more than welcome to.

i'm sure the aussie cllimate helps your plants to grow so well!

must do because I'm not doing anything special... plants + water + a few fish, no ferts or special substrates & very little maintenance.

Found a four leaf clover found a four leaf clover found a four leaf clover !

Yup, you did! That's the Marsilea species that I think is M. mutica. I'm pretty sure its a native plant. I'm trying a few bits of this in one of my tanks to see if submersed growth is any different - so far its just sending leaves to the surface like small lily-pads in four leaf clover shape but it has only been in the tank for just over a week so it may be too early to tell what it will look like. At least its not dead yet - that is always a good thing!

Wher'ed you buy the plants from? bunnings or local garden places?

I've found a lot of the plants in the pond / marginal plants section at my local Bunnings - the ludwigias, swords and Marsilea have all come from there. I usually pay between $10 and $20 for a potted aquatic / marginal plant which is more than you would pay in an LFS for the same species, but the health and volume of the potted ones is much greater. Most of the plants i have picked up from Bunnings have more than paid for themselves with the number of cuttings and plantlets that have been put to use in my tanks.

Some of the plants have come from Aquagreen and if I expand to more pond-like structures I'll be getting some more plants & a lily or two from them as well.

I really should do the rounds of a couple of the local garden centres and pond places to see what else is available but I'd probably end up needing an Olympic sized swimming pool for all the plants I'm likely to bring home

This tubbing thing is almost as addictive as the tanks. I'm running out of space in the tubs for any more plants and I just can't seem to stop myself acquiring them - I'm almost motivated enough to re-landscape the front porch and garden beds so I can fit in some larger tubs/ raised ponds and integrate them into the garden a bit better than the current ones.

The round tub in particular has been really interesting to sit and watch lately, its teeming with life . I noticed a few weeks ago that there was a lone shrimp of unknown species cruising around in there (must have hitchhiked on some plants), I've been keeping an eye on it and was fairly certain that it was just the one shrimp but yesterday morning I looked and there were dozens of shrimp hanging out on the plants and sides . The newly discovered shrimp are all much smaller than the original one I had been monitoring so I assume they are offspring but I never saw the original get berried (not even sure how it would be possible given that I'm fairly certain that there was only the one in there initially and it usually takes two to make babies ).

Here's a few pics from this morning. I'm finding it really hard to get decent shots of the aquatic life without getting the water surface reflection so my apologies for the poor pics (if anyone has any hints in this regard I'd be pleased to hear them).

Tub life: snails, fry & shrimp


Shrimp


Snail
(no idea where this came from - its different to every other snail in my tanks & tubs but
I like the patterns on this guy and it doesn't seem to be eating plants so it can stay for now)


New emersed sword plant
(note that its in a tray of water, not a tub - need more space!)


Sword Plant Flower


Baby Sword Plant



Well that ended up being another monster post / update ... thanks for reading

G_T

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

well done gt,now that the weather is warming up,id love to give some tubs a go!the mistery snail is a groovey lookin dude...
you ever chuck in any food gt,or they just find there own in the tubs?

Really nice tubs! The clover and the sword I am going to have to try next year in my tub.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

Hi again and thanks for the compliments.

you ever chuck in any food gt,or they just find there own in the tubs

Not so far - The adult fish in there were supposed to be for mosquito control and they must be earning their keep because I haven't seen any mozzie wrigglers since the first week after setup. There seems to be enough algae to keep the fry (and shrimp and snails!) happy at this point although neither of the tubs seem to be getting as much green water lately, which could be the changing season or the increased wildlife populations. The tubs are on a north facing verandah so as summer approaches here in the tropics they are getting a bit less direct sunlight.

Without the green water I'm not sure how much food is going to be available for the critters. I'm tossing up whether I should begin supplemental feedings as the fry get bigger or whether I should just leave it to nature.

The clover and the sword I am going to have to try next year in my tub.

Do that wings... especially if you want some additional plants to use in your own tanks or to swap & trade. The number of sword plants that have been produced from my original plant is just phenomenal - I must have harvested at least 50 plantlets so far and there is no indication that its going to slow down any time soon.

I really like the Marsilea but I get the feeling that its harbouring dreams of world domination I think to really do it justice I'd need a larger tub or pond and have it in several pots (or a long tray) then use it as a fringe plant around the whole pond or maybe just down one side (if I could contain it to that!)

Alright.. so now I need some input ...
With the wet season beginning here I'm noticing lots of frog calls again ... we often have green tree frogs breeding in the dogs water bucket and anywhere else where water sits for any length of time. I love the tree frogs and usually rejoice that they choose to breed around my house but this year I don't want it to be at the expense of the existing wildlife in my tubs. I'm not sure that the fry are large enough to eat frog eggs and they are almost certainly small enough to be tadpole food.

I'm fairly confident that the frogs won't breed in the rectangular tub because of the water movement provided by the small filter but I can't get power to the round tub to be able to do the same with that one and even if I could I'm hesitant to mess with something that's been working so well so far.

Any thoughts?

G_T

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

My pair of Paradise Fish reproduced a ton. When my numbers started to get kind of high I started the extra feedings.

I really like the Marsilea but I get the feeling that its harbouring dreams of world domination I think to really do it justice I'd need a larger tub or pond and have it in several pots (or a long tray) then use it as a fringe plant around the whole pond or maybe just down one side (if I could contain it to that!)

I think I know what you mean. Once the plant gets established it can really take over. I think your idea would look nice around the rim of the tub.

As for the tree frogs... I am not really sure of a good answer as your are in a very different area than I am. In my tub I didn't have any frogs or toads decide it was a good place to lay so eggs. I would probably let nature run its course.



55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

hey all

Quick update on the 'mystery' shrimp in the tub...

I caught a few and put them into a takeaway container to see if I could get any better pics. Well I tried and although the pics didn't turn out particularly well they did give me a bit more of an idea of the colours.





The photographed shrimp did not go back in the tub, but into my planted betta tank. Almost immediately they coloured up. They are so obviously cherry shrimp that I'm kicking myself for spending so long trying to work out what they are.

Now I know that a betta tank is not normally the best place to put small shrimp and I would usually advise strongly against it (unless you want to provide an expensive feed for the betta) but my betta is getting old, is half blind and incredibly docile so I was pretty confident it would be OK. I watched for several hours last night and again this morning and the betta has shown absolutely no interest in the shrimp except to startle a bit when the shrimp jumped on him or tried cleaning him (images of Jacques in Finding Nemo spring to mind).

I didn't want exotic critters in my outdoor tubs, preferring to stick with natives so that if something did happen and the wildlife escaped and somehow survived I would not be introducing a potential pest. Obviously I wasn't as careful as I thought I had been becuase I've managed to get shrimp from my indoor tank to the outdoor tub (I don't recall ever moving plants or water from the tank to tub though). So now I need to decide if I'm going to pull the tub apart to remove the cherry shrimp back to a tank somewhere or whether I just leave it and hope for the best.

G_T

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

I'm no help with the frog issue, I know we have some around here as we spotted one at the old house under a tree at the bottom of the drive.

At all possible to put a mesh cover up? Some of the black net from bunnings? Not sure about how effective it might be as I've never seen frogs in the act ... Course you could set up a separate tub for them to breed in, it's helping the native wildlife therefore it's not an addiction at all

Get yourself a pair of polarizing sunglasses, smack a lens infront of your camera lens that should help. Depending on the type of camera you can also get a proper polarizing filter for it, usually $50 or so but the sunglasses trick usually works pretty well.

^_^

Thanks for the tips babel. The camera I've used for these pics probably could be fitted with a filter (Nikon D80) but its a borrowed one so unless I can talk the boss into buying a filter for it I'll have to try to remember the sunnies next time I take outside water pics.

The physical barrier seems like its going to be the easiest way to keep the frogs from breeding in the tubs (might help to keep the dogs from drinking the fry too!). The only frogs I've caught in the act have been fairly large so hopefully some chicken mesh or something like that will be enough to keep them out while still letting the sunlight and bugs in to keep plants and fish happy.



I do like the idea of supporting the native frog population, especially with the cane toads becoming an increasing threat so a 'frog tub' sounds very appealing

G_T

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

someone looks happy

Hmm yes, those cane toads. I think it's the only time i've ever hit anything with my car and actually been happy about it.

^_^

So is that picture of the cane toad? I am guessing they are a non-native species? How big do they get?

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

The picture I posted above is a pair of native green tree frogs in my dogs water bucket last wet season. The bucket was full of eggs the next morning.

The cane toad is much uglier and a definite threat to our native wildlife. A little bit of info on the ugly critters and a pic can be found on this link.

G_T

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

Oh wow those eggs in that link are GROSS!

I think I'll use something other than my hands if we ever get a pond going. At least now I know exactly what to look for.

*shudders*

^_^