Sustainable Aquarium 1.5 liter

Sustainable Aquarium 1.5 liter

Here you can see about 3 years old sustainable 1.5 liter aquarium as it is on April 2023.

It's been populated with scuds and snails from the beginning.

You can see the whole setup of this tank shown in the video "Seashell aquarium jar".

Scuds and snails feed only on what is growing in this aquarium.

I never change water and I don't use filters. 

I only add water to the level once a month or so when it's necessary.

I've been using this aquarium for different projects in the past including keeping small fish.

Here you can see 29 gallon sustainable paludarium with newts, fish, scuds, snails, isopods and springtails.

I don't change water and I don't use filters in any of my aquariums no matter what size they are :)

It all works great year after year.

Let's catch some baby fish to put in the tiny 1.5 liter tank.

I use a pipette to catch newborn Blue Star Endlers fish.

Here you can see I got one baby in the tube.

I pull out 5 newborns.

And now I am going to transfer them into the tiny 1.5 liter tank.

The size of this "tiny" aquarium is suitable for growing this small fish.

The fish start hunting baby scuds right away :)

Only large adult scuds would survive the fish hunt and they will keep the population going.

The population of scuds in this small tank is not large enough to sustain five hungry baby fishes. 

So I have to provide additional food for the fish.

Fish enjoy any food more than any dry food.

Vinegar eels make great live food for small fish.

I've been feeding all my fish various food 3 times a week in addition to what they find growing in the aquariums everyday.

Here you can see fish eagerly goes after Vinegar eels.

A couple months later all the fish have grown noticeably.

The largest male is about 1.5 cm long now and looks very pretty.

I am going to give all the fish grown in this aquarium to one of my friends for keeping in much larger tank.

Notice how long the roots of the land plants have grown in this aquarium over past years.

Land plants growing with roots in water compete with algae keeping aquariums clean.

Here you can see sizes of all 5 fish.

I use aged water for refilling my aquariums and for transporting my fish.

The fish is ready to go to their new home now.

And the old "tiny" aquarium will sit without fish for scuds population to regrow.

This couple of scuds waste no time - they are already mating :)

I've been using this aquarium for growing new plants and testing my never tried in aquariums ideas.

Once I test it safe in here - it would be safe to use in my main large aquariums.

 This "tiny" aquarium also serves as my emergency tank.

I use it for housing 4 Least Killifish when a friend gave them to me.

My Least Killifish stays in this "tiny" aquarium until the larger cube tank was ready for them.

Here you can see the young pregnant female.

Small and beautiful aquarium garden with snails and scuds.

I only add water to the level in this aquarium - that's all it takes to maintain it when there is no fish.

The small size makes it easy even for taking it with some of my fish for walk outside :)

I've shown it all among many other things in my old videos ;)

December 2024.

It's a many years old aquarium without water changes...

I am about to disassemble this tiny tank for making space to a bunch of new tiny aquariums.

I already removed the land plants - the water gets a bit cloudy as I pull out all the roots grown to the bottom.

Now let's take some water out - I want to see scuds.

Adult scuds grow smaller size in this tank compare to those scuds grown in my larger aquariums.

Here I got half a dozen adults and who knows how many baby scuds.

Slow growing Subwassertang has been growing fine in this aquarium.

Some of it gets attached to the seashell.

I am going to reuse it all in my other aquariums.

Interestingly, the fast growing Guppy grass has never grown fast in this tiny aquarium.

As a matter of fact I never needed to remove any part of Guppy grass from this tank.

So, let's move the shell with plants into the larger aquarium.

And the scuds go to the tank where I culture scuds for feeding my fish.

Now to the bottom part of the old tiny aquarium...

There are many more scuds hidden in the gravel.

And here you can see a layer of organic waste accumulated though the years.

It does not really cover the less than one inch layer of gravel.

I like this rock - let's pull it out for later use ;)

My hand does not fit in this jar...

I am going to clean the rock later to use in another aquarium.

And the gravel with all the waste goes into the tank with scuds.

Now I can smell the old waste :)

I never smelled it while the aquarium was in use - that's what really matters.

It was a great many years long adventure - I learnt many things thanks to this tiny tank!

And now I am ready for new adventures!

Have fun and happy aquariums :)