Microbe aquarium

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Sauerkraut
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Microbe aquarium

#1 Post by Sauerkraut » Fri Aug 09, 2019 6:26 pm

My pond is a little out of control, microbe-wise, so I thought it would be fun to start an indoor aquarium. This one is more of an aqua-terrarium that makes pleasing fountain noises. Is anyone else growing an indoor microbe farm? Any tips, thoughts etc.?

This one is not established yet - just arrived today and is not even in its proper place. There is a live plant at the top from the garden - figured it will grow since they won't die when attacked with garden tools. All the rest are fake plants for the time being. This tank is too small for fish (inhumane) but due to an unfortunate judgement call, I have some baby shrimp growing in a temporary tank that might tolerate this arrangement.

There's duckweed in the regular pond but perhaps too much algae would transfer to the aquarium. I'm interested in adding moss but maybe from seed/spore to avoid transferring all the bugs and etc. that thrive in collected moss.

As far as the regular pond goes, everything in there came on its own. Nothing was intentionally added to increase the plants or microbes. That's quite the testament of the adaptability and portability of microbes. Water is life.

One tip on a small pond like this is it's highly recommended to use a UV filter unless you like wasting a lot of time and resources doing complete water changes due to algae overgrowth. And fish keep the mosquitoes at bay.
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MicroBob
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#2 Post by MicroBob » Fri Aug 09, 2019 8:15 pm

Hi Heather,
you seem to have a very different situation there with your algae over growth compare to Germany. What water temperatures o you have in your outdoor pond?
I have two plancton aquariums and no real problems with them. In summer I had to install an air pump and let it run for a couple of hours each day as the water started to become green. Occasionally I have to cut back the water plants with long scissor and pinceps (aqua scaping set from ebay).

What I can recommend is a stereo microscope on an articulating arm. This allows observation through the side wall or on the surface. I have posted links to a couple of videos I made this way.

Bob

Sauerkraut
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#3 Post by Sauerkraut » Fri Aug 09, 2019 9:47 pm

Bob,

The pond is currently at 67 F (apx 20 C). Maybe the algae is due to the pond being man made and rather small at perhaps 200 - 250 gallons. But the non-motile algae thrive so wildly that they live in communal clumps on the sides of the pond, making it hard to tell one species from another. We've had an unseasonably cool summer here and still there is algae so hot or cool does not seem to matter. The free floaters need the UV treatment or it goes green and bad for the fish.

Do you keep fish in the plankton aquariums? This will be my first aquarium where growing - rather than deterring - microbes is the goal. It just seems like there still needs to be levels of growth control so that the aquarium does not get out of hand. And how do you introduce specific plankton, or did you just let them arrive on their own?

With too many other wish list items queued up, I'd better not get another stereoscope, but that articulating one sounds like a cool idea.

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Crater Eddie
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#4 Post by Crater Eddie » Sat Aug 10, 2019 12:59 am

I like that indoor setup. How big is it and where did you get it?
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Sauerkraut
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#5 Post by Sauerkraut » Sat Aug 10, 2019 2:23 am

Amazon has them:

https://www.amazon.com/Penn-Plax-Terrar ... way&sr=8-2

I went with the medium. There are some negative reviews but so far it seems like a decent set up. The main mistake people are making is trying to stock them with fish.

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Crater Eddie
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#6 Post by Crater Eddie » Tue Aug 13, 2019 12:03 pm

Thanks for the link. Keep us updated on progress.
CE
Olympus BH-2 / BHTU
LOMO BIOLAM L-2-2
LOMO POLAM L-213 / BIOLAM L-211 hybrid
LOMO Multiscope (Biolam)
Cameras: Canon T3i, Olympus E-P1 MFT, Amscope 3mp USB

grahamma
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#7 Post by grahamma » Tue Oct 13, 2020 3:24 pm

I hope it's ok to post to this old thread, I was wondering how this aquarium turned out. My goal is to set something up inside that I can take water samples from to view under my microscope and I really liked the look of your setup along with the flowing water element.

DonSchaeffer
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#8 Post by DonSchaeffer » Tue Oct 13, 2020 7:19 pm

Mine is just in a jar--a fistful of old leaves in water.

grahamma
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#9 Post by grahamma » Fri Oct 16, 2020 4:51 pm

DonSchaeffer wrote:
Tue Oct 13, 2020 7:19 pm
Mine is just in a jar--a fistful of old leaves in water.
Ok, I'm not sure I should confess to my past crimes against microbes, but here goes anyhow.. I've been collecting about a pint of pond water along with some plant life and there's very little left after about a week; lots of bacteria, some worms, some very small stuff. Initially, there is plenty in the water (including all sorts of stentor) and I would like to figure out how to keep the stuff around for a long time. I saw someone post about a small aquarium with a bubbler running a few hours and occasional fish food additions.

You just throw some stuff in a jar and you have cool things to look at for a long time?

MicroBob
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#10 Post by MicroBob » Fri Oct 16, 2020 6:36 pm

grahamma wrote:
Fri Oct 16, 2020 4:51 pm
You just throw some stuff in a jar and you have cool things to look at for a long time?
No - but there is a good simple recipe:
- 2-3cm garden soil
- a layer of paper tissue /paper kitchen wipe
- 2-3cm of fine gravel
- fill up with pond water
- set water plants into gravel
- top up occasionally, add a bit of stamped rice grain or hay sparingly

This works very well with little attention. The paper tissue acts as a filter layer so the water doens't get muddy when filling up.
Tanks from 0,5l up are usable, the bigger the more stable.

Bob

DonSchaeffer
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#11 Post by DonSchaeffer » Fri Oct 16, 2020 8:06 pm

The bonus is that I can watch changes in the environment like the formation of biofilm and its effects on the organisms. The growth of the bacteria population. The downside is that I get little variety or range in the kinds of organisms. It's the kind of organisms that cling to grass not the ones from open natural water.

Chris Dee
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#12 Post by Chris Dee » Sat Oct 17, 2020 11:43 am

grahamma wrote:
Fri Oct 16, 2020 4:51 pm
--snip-- I saw someone post about a small aquarium with a bubbler running a few hours and occasional fish food additions.
Probably my post grahamma. The tank is 18 months old now and doing well. Tank contents all came from lake/pond (silt, root mass. stones, plants, water squeezed from aquatic plants etc), no filtering but runs a bubbler 12hrs on 12 off. Kept on a windowsill that doesn't get direct sunlight. Full of critters, this is what it looks like now.
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I keep it topped up with rainwater and feed it with one green algae fishfood wafer per week (not noticed anything special happening since I switch from regular fish food). If you can build your own I highly recommend it, you'll have a large variety of specimens to study. HTH.
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grahamma
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#13 Post by grahamma » Sun Oct 18, 2020 4:02 am

Yep Chris, it was your tank I referenced and I think I'll be giving your setup a try; thanks for the additional pictures / info. I thought the "falling water" setup posted by OP looked nice, but I guess I should go for "functional" if I want interesting microbes to look at.

Thanks for the advice / comments everybody, I now have a plan!

Chris Dee
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#14 Post by Chris Dee » Sun Oct 18, 2020 12:16 pm

Yes, not pretty to look at but the critters love it. Btw, leave any top-up water in a jug next to the tank for a few hours, that way It'll be at the same temp. Good luck with the project, keep us updated grahamma.

Greg Howald
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#15 Post by Greg Howald » Mon Oct 26, 2020 12:58 pm

I have a book - High School Biology Unlocked.
In the book it tells how to do this. Basically it says -
1. Go to the pond.
2. Collect things growing there - plant life growing on the bottom and floating.
3. Collect pond water.
4. Collect sediment and sludge from the bottom.
5. Take it all home.
6. Into the sludge and sediment, mix in shredded news paper. Some microbes like cellulose. Mix in egg yolk. Some microbes like sulphur. Mix in egg shell. Some microbes like calcium.
7. Put the sludge mix on the bottom. Add the plants that are rooted in the sludge.
8. Add pond water and vegetation that floats.
9. Plenty of light needed. If you don't have natural light use a grow light.
10. Room temperature.
11. Let things grow for a while.

This provides plenty of food. The book says you can put this in a wide moth jar and seal the top because some microbes and plant life will make sufficient oxygen but I'm a little wary about that.
I have four bars. This week I will set up everything.
One jar with just the natural sediment and nothing added to use as a control.
One jar with only cellulose.
One jar with cellulose and sulphur.
One jar with cellulose sulphur and calcium.
I will run an experiment for some time to see what I get.
Hopefully this will help to get through a covid 19 winter without too much cabin fever.
Good luck.
Greg

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Re: Microbe aquarium

#16 Post by grahamma » Mon Oct 26, 2020 6:15 pm

So far, my setup is sort of a combo of all the stuff I've read here..

I have a small tank with potting soil on the bottom, a layer of paper towel, and then (cheap fish tank) gravel. I collected some pond water and some of the plants growing in it. I planted the plants and added the water and I turn on the bubbler every other day. The green part of the plants above the water definitely seems to have grown so it seems they're doing fine.

I've been added a few pieces of rice every once in a while and was thinking of adding a bit of cut up timothy hay.

My next plan is to go back to the pond and get some more water to top my tank off and, this time, I'll also grab some stuff from the bottom and some stuff that's floating on top and add that. I'll also add a bit of egg shell and yolk for good measure.

Image

Greg Howald
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#17 Post by Greg Howald » Mon Oct 26, 2020 8:40 pm

Well, I played with the muck today and set up the four microbe aquariums. I got them set up under the grow light. Now I'm going back to the book to make certain I'm supposed to leave the kids on. If I'm wrong I'll add another post.
Greg

Greg Howald
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#18 Post by Greg Howald » Mon Oct 26, 2020 11:52 pm

Winogradsky columns should have the lids left on.
The microcosm aquarium I set up today should be open to the air. We live in a world of instant gratification, but this is going to take time.
Have fun.
Greg

BrianBurnes
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#19 Post by BrianBurnes » Tue Nov 03, 2020 3:41 pm

With winter upon us I decided to set up an indoor aquarium to get access to microbes during the cold season. A 2 gallon glass storage jar from Home Goods and a cheap USB bubbler pump seem to do the trick, for a total cost of $15. I don't have a grow light, and I will have to see if that will be my undoing - sunlight at the window will have to suffice.

During the day I can see the occasional daphnea and small worms in the jar with the naked eye, but under the microscope I have not been able to observe too many microbes yet. I added the foods suggested in this thread but thus far it has mostly attracted water mold.

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MicroBob
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#20 Post by MicroBob » Tue Nov 03, 2020 3:53 pm

Hi Brian,
nice setup!
Can you post a link for this bubbler? I like it more than my humming external air pump.

Bob

BrianBurnes
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#21 Post by BrianBurnes » Tue Nov 03, 2020 4:20 pm

Hi Microbob,

The pump I bought is this one, but the same pump seems to be sold under many names and from many vendors (it can also be had directly from china for a bit cheaper, if you are willing to wait).

I was very impressed with how quiet it is - the sound of the bubbles themselves is louder than the pump. Construction is quite simple, just a DC motor directly soldered to a USB lead, with a small plastic pump unit screwed on top. The lack of power supply makes it cheap and much safer (I'm wary of cheap electronics that plug into the wall). Funnily it also contains a dummy resistor to burn off power, likely to present a fake load to the USB host - this is to prevent the pump from shutting off when powered from "smart" USB battery packs that turn off at low currents. Speaks to how little current this pump draws. You can clip off the resistor to further save power if that is important.

SWmicro
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#22 Post by SWmicro » Mon Nov 09, 2020 3:11 pm

Thanks for the info on the pump, looks good, is it a vibrating type or some sort of clever rotary type to be so quiet ?

An interesting topic, something I had thought about in September with the prospect of winter in the UK not far off, but so far I have only made a micro-aquarium !
7cm diameter by 5cm deep.
Rainwater from the tray of a plantpot outside, with a very small amount of the 'sludge'.
Feed now and again (maybe each week) with a tiny drop of dilute potato starch water that stands in another small jar by the side to grow bacteria.

Small, but it is keeping me well entertained with 3 types of rotifer so far, a harpaticoid and some copepod nauplii of (probably) the harpacticoid, or maybe (below for ID !) a nauplus another copepod ??
Many cilliates as yet unidentified and flagellated algae.
Lots of micro-microbes as well !

The plant is a piece of "creeping jenny", Lysimacha nummularia, to help keep the pot sweet. It is quick growing, the light green bits are all new growth in just 2 months in the ambient room lighting (I have carried it outdoors for better light for the pic.). Normally a terrestrial (it likes to spread out over my stone pathways) but grows ok part submerged.
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BrianBurnes
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#23 Post by BrianBurnes » Mon Nov 09, 2020 4:31 pm

SWmicro wrote:
Mon Nov 09, 2020 3:11 pm
Thanks for the info on the pump, looks good, is it a vibrating type or some sort of clever rotary type to be so quiet ?
It appears to be rotary but it doesn't look like I can take it apart without some destruction.

As for my water tank, it seems to have suffered from sudden mass extinction - everything in the tank has died overnight. All the plants are limp, the water mold (growing on dead plant matter) has curled up and died, the water fleas have disappeared, even the biofilm growing on the tank interior is detaching in sheets. The water itself has gone from milky blue to clear. A number of nematodes have crawled out of the water onto the lid of the tank, seemingly sensing (and escaping) the impending fate of life in the water. Perhaps the lack of grow light is to blame, or maybe some small critter in the tank is doing chemical warfare and winning - it is hard to tell. I will leave the tank as is to see if it recovers, or at least to see if the perpetrator will make himself known.

It's an interesting outcome, but a bit unfortunate. The samples taken from the tank last week showed a lot of diversity, with an abundance of paramecia, amoeba and rotifers. There is hopefully enough time before winter to try again!

hans
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#24 Post by hans » Mon Nov 09, 2020 5:57 pm

For the oxygen issue, presumably the size of the sample matters a lot, due to changing ratio of surface area to volume? I have been keeping an assortment of very small samples 1-2 cm deep in baby food jars. The bacteria population has increased a lot from when I first collected them, but now appears fairly stable, and no stench or die-offs yet.

DonSchaeffer
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#25 Post by DonSchaeffer » Thu Nov 12, 2020 9:43 am

Informally, I'm watching what happens in my jars of leaves and grass. The bacteria form a film that traps protists. The process lasts for a few weeks. Then I have to start over.

Challenger007
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#26 Post by Challenger007 » Thu Nov 12, 2020 12:03 pm

In my personal experience, no matter how you use UV lamps, the water in the aquarium still needs to be changed. Ultraviolet rays help to avoid the multiplication of infections and diseases of the inhabitants of the aquarium. But still, replacing water is a necessity, it is better not to be lazy in this matter.

Nubee-70
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#27 Post by Nubee-70 » Fri Feb 02, 2024 4:25 am

Cool thread. Thanks for sharing.
Any updates?

macnmotion
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#28 Post by macnmotion » Fri Feb 02, 2024 6:23 am

I've had a 20L pondwater microorganism aquarium going for about a year now. I've probably posted a bit about it in my own thread here, but when I have some time I'll post images and descriptions of the adventure in this thread so it's consolidated.

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Free2Fish
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#29 Post by Free2Fish » Fri Feb 02, 2024 10:21 am

Last fall I collected some bottom sludge, a few plants and about a gallon of water in a round goldfish bowl from a river I live on. I added some dried oak leaves and some waterlogged wood pieces. The tank sits in a SE facing window sill so it get a couple hours of full sun daily. The microbe population is varied and healthy and daphnia, cyclops and seed shrimp are all doing well.
About three weeks ago, in fear of a crashing population , I started a small jam jar with samples of all the constituents of the fish bowl, again with the addition of a dried oak leaf. It’s also doing really well with large numbers of specimens.
I give each container a daily feeding of yeast and the odd thin slice of cucumber.

Harry

Nubee-70
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Re: Microbe aquarium

#30 Post by Nubee-70 » Fri Feb 02, 2024 11:39 am

Thank you macnmotion and Free2Fish for your updates. I find all this very interesting and inspiring.
I too hope to be having my own pond aquarium soon.

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