PICKLE JAR AQUARIUM | no filter, no heater, walstad method, setup
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- Опубліковано 6 лют 2025
- Turning a pickle jar into an aquarium using the walstad method
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next episode I will be adding shrimp into the jar
No filter no heater no maintanance shrimp jar. ramshorns snails. nano scape. walstad.
MUSIC - LAKEY INSPIRED
Looking for the LED light I used? Find it in my online store!
aquavivashop.co.uk/
So nice
omg THANK YOU SO MUCH i love the music in this video also ty for the whole video :) i LOVE it
very straight to the point LOVE that :D
@@nirmalaquarium/ั
@@nirmalaquarium 😊
I did this by accident once, scooped up a bunch of muck from a freshwater canal in a 3L jar with the intention of watching microorganisms. I went on holiday for a week, came back home, and the was a FISH in my jar. A lil platy. guess it was small enough for me to miss initially. That platy lived in the jar tech-free for like, 2 months. I did my research, bought water testing stuff: the parameters always showed up perfect, except for the ph being a bit low. The algae and other plant life served as a food source, produced oxygen to the point of pearling, and never really choked the jar like I anticipated. I had detritus worms, rhabdocoelia, copepods, bean shrimp, and one hardy platy. I never touched the jar, never fed or cleaned. It was sealed a majority of the time. I was very lucky to capture an entire ecosystem capable of supporting a fish in such a small space. Eventually, i got my hands on a 20L tank, then a 50L where 'Platymir' currently lives alongside some other wild caught platies, tetras and kuhlis. I am now looking at an 150L plumbed sump tank. I am addicted. My wallet cries almost constantly. How did I get here?
I can relate man, this hobby is so hard on the wallet, out of curiosity which part of the world do you find these fish just out and about in canals
@@saryans8726 Australia, we have a huge problem with invasive species. I probably should also specify it was a rainwater drainage canal in a horse paddock, not a city canal with boats and stuff. I also ended up with some mosquito fish I had to kill as they are so invasive it is illegal to own them here. The Platies are a different class of invasive, legal to own but definitely illegal to release into the wild. Neither really have any predators here and easily overtake and decimate native frog, fish and insect populations.
That aside, you can totally just go collect (invasive) fish from the wild if you don't want to buy them, I've heard that some places in the US have established populations of fancy, colourful longfin platies and mollies because people don't want them anymore so they just release them and screw up the local ecosystem. The ones I have are probably several generations wild though, as they're much smaller than domestic platies--more neon tetra sized--and all grey/olive browns.
Update: bought the sump tank. -$300 (to be fair thats a very good price)
bought some more kuhlis, plants, substrate and water treatments: -$250
_cries_
@@saryans8726 excellent question 👌💯
Seems like you were already addicted, how do you know the names of all those species of little creatures? I have no idea what some of the things you mention are. Not that it is a bad thing. This whole concept is utterly facinating.
@@rebeccamassey337 It is common reasoning that after becoming addicted, he began to investigate what he had in his hands or simply, knowledge acquired by chance. Finally, after all those events, he decided to share his experience here.
Word of advice: do not skip the step where you take out the pickles
lmao, Imagine someone forgot to do that.
@@rvxn The smell. Oh no the smell
We were supposed to take out the pickles????
@Manny Blackstar what?
Darn. I knew something was a miss when my sea cucumbers decivingly looked, acted & smelt like land cucumbers.
I’m glad you portray snails in a favorable light. When I had aquariums years ago, snails were most often smashed and fed to the fish, viewed as undesirable. I think they are cute and interesting
As a kid I'd gather pond snails from the creek and raised them in all my tanks and put one in a fish bowl and watched it ley eggs and loved watching the tiny babies the size of grains of sand with a magnifying glass lol. When I found my first wild rams horn snails those became my absolute favorite cuz of their neat shape. 🐌😊
Snails are cute but when they absolutely overrun a terrarium they ccan and do become problems.
@@HidekiShinichi yeah
Saaame
@@HidekiShinichi
Snails overrunning are often rather a symptom than cause of a problem - usually it's overfeeding the centerpiece animals.
I did this and followed each step and my blue dream shrimp and two snails are loving it
Tell that to dead shrimp
@@ogueyratogeyrat7448 fun fact shrimp don’t need oxygen to survive because they make air bubbles with there fans so it’s one of the only things that can live in a eco sphere but I still won’t recommend it
@@ogueyratogeyrat7448 it say dream on dead
@@lcfishing859 ?
Are they still alive?
Not gonna lie I watched this getting ready to be incensed but am SO pleased to see a PROPER fish keeper not making novelty aquariums but rather making beautiful spaces for water animals where they will be happy. A subscribe for you good sir(or siress).
@Richie FuckIslam alright Karen
@@qtrek985 🤦
This is a stupid comment when held in context.
You think a pickle jar is a happy space?
@@chazs6854
The inhabitants don't care about a container's former use. You could make a happy place even from a toilet seat. For snails and dwarf shrimps a sufficiently sized pickle jar is perfectly fine.
The snails are so cute :)) their mouths are like oM nOm NOm nom
I can understand why you love them, but i hate them for serious reasons. And the reason is that they have got in my fish tank with some kelp and multiplied and pooped without stopping, I think their poop caused my betta fish to die, not to mention, they ate all kelp.
@Percy I didn't see any eggs on those kelp, they came with kelp by accsident
@Percy This kelp was bought from pet store, and the seller hasn't told me the possibility of having snail eggs on this kelp.
@Chris Mccune it's all going under the gravel, not to mention that my filter is actually very good
@Nicholas Huang oh my god I’m so stupid. I keep researching aquarium stuff and they keep saying they add snails. My stupid ass thought they meant snake. What the hell 😂
That water is so clear even without a filter 😳 this must indicate THE PERFECT ECOLOGICAL BALANCE!!
You go little snail guys! I got an aquarium snail for the tank I put my pond goldfish into during the winter and I seem to be strangely fascinated by him. I don’t know how but he doubled in size, maybe tripled since I got him only about 3 weeks ago. I started giving him crushed eggshells and blanched veggies to round out his diet. He was hanging on to this small spear of broccoli for dear life yesterday. He hasn’t found the apple slice I put in there last night as yet. He’s got such an interesting face. Reminds me of an octopus or squid. His name is Herbert.
Nice to see a Walstad method. I did Walstad tanks big and small for 10 years. Great method...😍
Thanks for all the recent support on this video, check out the newer videos on my channel while you're here 😁
Hi! Great video! I have some question. Is necessary change the water after some months? Did the plants needs some fertilizer or the shrimps' poo is enough? Can you keep the cap closed? Thank you
Do you change the water sometimes or does it not need a water change?
Does the shrimp can survive ?
Tiny seahorses ?
What can I do if I don’t have aquarium water? Can I fill it up with tap water or bottled water? How long should I wait to put shrimp and snails in?
I really like it. The crystal clear water filled with plants reminds me of the Black River in southern Missouri that I canoe in.
Looks really nice. The snails are lucky to have such a nice place to live in.
Am I the only one who screamed NOOO! When the duckweed was put in? ;)
This is really cool. I've wanted an aquarium for a long time but didn't want one that would take heaps of maintenance or space. This looks like exactly what I want.
I think it'd be cool to have three of them, all with different layouts and different colours of shrimp.
Tip for beginnners: duckweed grows like wildfire so only add one or two to prevent removing loads every few days :)
I did not know snails can clean up the algae so well. It was interesting. Thank you for sharing I enjoyed watching.
I have a round aquarium, 3 gal that has clear gravel and air plants, you gave me some ideas to jazz it up.👍
Great video. I stumbled across this video by chance. It was impressive to see. Just watching the finished result with the little shrimp swimming around. Great to see. I imagine within six months the Pickle Jar Aquarium would be over run by snails given how quickly they grow and lay eggs. How it stands now was perfect. Adding too much would spoil things. An enjoyable video upload. Thank you for sharing.
I love how gentle you are with such little living species. Respect.
I switched all my tanks to filterless, I like it better. I wasn't brave enough to do it with the 100 gallon tank, but I have a few tens and a thirty that have been running five years with no filter. I keep snails, shrimp and fish.
There's a ton of plants in each one and I've never had any issues yet
How often do you clean the water?
I have a 10 gal tank. May I ask what steps you took to get it to filter less?
Im going to try it. My filter is acting up
@@lifewithkathylee use a ton of substrate for starters. The first tank I used shrimp stratum, which looks like little balls, so tons of surface area. I used about 2-3 inches of that in a ten gallon.
Then I planted the tank pretty heavily. I bought a plant pack off Amazon, I believe it was a "Texas aquatic plant" starter pack. I couldn't tell you the names of the plants anymore, but it came with about ten different varieties.
I also added a proper grow light. I picked the NICREW led lamp, also on Amazon.
I used a HOB filter in that tank at the time, so I switched that to a sponge filter, and I just set the dirty filter cartridge from the HOB filter in the tank.
Then I waited. The plant collection I bought had 2 species that grow incredibly fast, so as they grew I'd cut the top half off when it reached about five inches and replant it. After 30 days the tank was very grown in, that shrimp stratum is insanely good.
I had a huge algae bloom at about ten days, so I added five ghost shrimp. It helped a little, but not much. Since then I've learned a better way to prevent that which I'll share next.
When I set up the 30 gallon tank, I tossed the sponge filters and my old HOB filter media back into the ten gallon for about a week. Since the shrimp stratum is so expensive, I decided to just do dirt and gravel for the 30 gallon. I bought organic top soil without fertilizer, and "washed" it in a bucket one or two times. I did this because it has a lot of mulch looking wood pieces that float and look bad. So I'd fill the bucket with water, move the dirt around, and scoop out the wood chunks. I didn't get them all, but I got most of them.
Then I put about two inches of the washed dirt into the tank, and capped that with about 1.5 inches of black gravel. I made a mistake and used fairly small gravel, so don't do that. Use something chunky. With fine gravel, if you have to move the tank, or if you have snails that burrow, the gravel falls through the dirt pretty easily and you end up with gravel below the dirt instead of on top. Not the end of the world, but it makes the water cloudy and makes it harder for root plants to get nutrients since they end up rooting in gravel not soil.
Also, don't use sand. Capping the soil with sand will choke the roots, and it won't allow the gasses from the bacteria to escape as easily, which is probably my favorite part about the dirt tank. I love watching the bubbles just shoot up out of the dirt all day.
Once you have the dirt and gravel cap, you can plant the tank out. I just took cuttings from the fast growing plants in my old tank, I usually end up with enough stuff to start a new tank every single month that I just end up throwing away. Also, I used root tabs. But only when I initially planted the tank. The plants I have will grow roots above ground and feed there if needed, and the other plant feeds on the water column only, but I had them so I used them. Then I filled the tank half way with water, added a splash of liquid aquarium fertilizer, and let it settle for the week while the sponges and stuff sat in the old tank.
And here's the trick I learned to prevent algae blooms. Use a shit ton of floating plants. Like cap the entire surface with them. Make a ceiling. Floating plants use so many nutrients that the algae doesn't stand a chance. Also keeping the water level at half to start seems to help a lot.
At the end of the first week, I tossed the dirty filter media into the new tank and I put a couple pinches of fish food in it (no fish yet). Then I added a couple ghost shrimp.
Waited again for the plants to grow enough that I could propagate enough to properly fill the tank, which took about two weeks between the two tanks, and then I added my fish, filled it to the top, and removed about half the floating plants.
I only keep labrynth fish these days because they don't bother the plants. I did have two gold fish in a 50 gallon planted, filters tank years ago, the largest one grew to be almost six inches and he would constantly eat the plants. So now I stick to gourami and Bettas. They're also naturally suited to more stagnant (as in not circulated) water.
As far as cleaning the tank, I don't. If I'm REALLY, really bored, I'll do just along the front edge. But honestly, maybe three times a year. That's also the only time I do water changes. Other than that, I just feed them and add water as needed.
I have 2 Bettas in the ten gallon with 3-5 shrimp and 2 nerites, and in the 30 gallon I have a blue gourami (who is a dick), 3 sparkling gourami, 2 ghost shrimp, 4 assassin snails, and anywhere from 15-40 "pest snails" because they seem to explode overnight then die off.
Oddly enough, there aren't many shells in the tank - I think the other snails or shrimp must be eating them.
Thanks for the tips, really appreciate that. But, I have a question, how the plants get light if you capped all water surface with floating plant?
Looks really good, can't wait to see how it grows out.
I love the aquarium made from a pickle jar. I kept spending so much money and ending up with dead fish . So I would order a new water filter and ton's of other thing's that never worked , so my last fish floated to the top and. I tossed everything ! I'll watch your video's and enjoy your expertise of aquarium life. 🤓
Awwww, the little sweet creatures of life! Great video. Thanks! USA
I've found Fantail Guppies are the perfect fish for my micro aquariums. They are graceful, colorful and super easy to care for. I also include a layer of activated charcoal in the soil. It seems to help keep the water fresh, although I also do weekly partial water changes.
Could you explain more..
Do you drain the water only
@@ablejose6171 I think they mean they drain around half and add more
Do you use a bubbler or anything pumping air? Or do the plants give enough oxygen?
I’m new to this
Thx
How many of them can live in a 1 gal aquarium?
@@Mervo3o none
I was always under the impression that you couldn't balance an aquarium under 5 gallons. You proved me wrong.
Man, this music is so relaxing. Caught myself falling asleep
I was memorized from beginning to end. Thankfully it's not really the end. There's more to come ! I loved the little snails.
Awww they r some happy little snails! ;)
Love the Petoskey stone you added ....
I always let the ads play through to give you the revenue, that's how much I love your Videos! :)
Yoooo....this was such a vibe!!! Thank you for posting!!
I do aquariums here in Ca. For more than 30 years. Great stuff. You inspired me. I mean I get paid to do aquariums. Lol
Thats pretty cool... with some decent lighting that is a nice showpiece, a talking point for sure. Nice work.
Beautiful and neat setup. Very nice
best trip-hop, lofi, downtown, etc soundtrack.
Nice sharing ! keep it up and thanks for the video.
Cool. 😊💚 Thanks for sharing.
I can do this at home now! Yes hank you very much for this video!
That beat was so good I first danced to the video then had to play it again to actually watch it.
Wonderful video, groovy but soothing music and easy instructions... easy 'Subscribe'.
beautiful jar for sure. i love small shrimp "tanks"
You are like the Fellini of fish......Great job.
Good day to you. Greate job you have done. love from Malaysia. ❤❤❤ 😘🙂
This was just great to watch. Thank you.
Wicked setup and great choice of music
A few Neon’s and a Siamese Fighting fish I think will look amazing. 👍
Small but cute tank🍀🙏🎏
Que benção, coisinha mais linda. Você é uma pessoa abençoada por Deus. Parabéns pelo trabalho e pela postagem. Sucesso pra você sempre 🙌 🙏. Eu simplesmente amei.
The snails are so cute
Had this song as my ringtone, was surprised when I started the video
omg this is great - a watersnail terran.... erm aquarium. I had a betta aquarium but actually wished I could get something smaller - more placement options. And I certainly didn't want to stick a poor betta in a pickle jar. lol.
i love this and had no idea u could rinse sand or dirt lol
Think you for the video ❤ now setup to may fish 😊
I love watching your videos
Big respect for you! Its amazing 😍
Cladofora is everywhere. funny!
I have a large plastic jug that right now has cheese balls in it, I'm going to make an Aquarium with it..not the first time I've done it.
Useful method and easy 2 follow
If you ever watch them eat it is sooooo cute snails are great
This just came in my recommended. I enjoyed watching :)
Thks for Sharing Mate..
Beautiful aquarium..
Damn, you ate those pickles quick
Hi, can you advise on the needed lightings for this jar. Thanks
nice shrimp
Greeting from Malaysia. Great job big thumbs up ❤❤❤❤❤❤
I never loved snails but after watching this be me like okay I need a snail.
i used to love letting snails crawl on me when I was a little kid cause I liked it when they sucked the dead skin off my hands and left them super smooth, also I learned their slime, mucus whatever it is has a lot of good things in it that are healthy for your skin, people even do snail facials where they let them crawl all over their face 😳
Absolutely amazing!
Java ferns are great. They bud little plants on their big leaves and also their main root grows to the point where u can split the plant in two
I love how he pushed the snails into the water. Super cute
This is soooo cool!!! Lots people use plastic and throw in a couple fish and good luck!! Dead in a couple days. But this pure natural way is just so inspiring, and great!!! Thank you for sharing, and please do more videos for all of us!! Thanks again!! 🌊🐳🐠🐟🐚🦀🦑🐌
This is very cool. I am in my 70s, and once had a saltwater tank. It was a crazy amt of work, swore off aquariums. But I love the little life forms like snails, shrimps, etc. So many questions. Can you buy dirt, sand? Never mind, on Chewy and not too bad. Subscribed.
thanks for sharing. beautiful. im making mine soon
Shrimmmpppsss si excelente idea voy en esas Thanks for the idea
Stunning
Hi, nice video.
i want to have a floaters and i really loved to do this...
Love this type of videos!!
This man is God of many worlds! 🦑😜👽
How to clean the water. How frequently we should change the water?
Hasil yg sangat keren banget
Nice cheers friend and spin out more works
I'll show this video to my mom, we have a jar (with olives but I'm guessing it would work too) and hopefully we can get snails and shrimp maybe
Did you do it? Olive jar aquarium 😀
I must try to do this one.
Wow! That's amazing! When the snails are finished with algae, will they start munching on the plants? With so much algae to feed on for two tiny snails, will it end up with a proliferation of snails due to too much food? Love the shrimp! It's so cute!! How big will it grow to? Thanks for sharing your work, very inspiring!!
Thanks for watching 😁 the snails won't eat plants, no. You can feed them vegetables too if you like. They may lay a lot of eggs but without enough food the babies won't grow up into adults.
@@AquaViva1 my pink snail eating the plant, I end up removing them from the aquarium to other aquarium. :(
Snails will eat plants as they're leaves start to die
@@SuperMeanny then you don't have algae in there for them to eat likely. Are your plants even thriving?
@@SuperMeanny if the snails are healthy they will just keep the algae at bay, so it appears but they consume it before it gets out of hand. If you are not getting enough algae bloom on the sides of the jar then put it in the filtered sunlight or shine a lamp on it for 24 hours and that will start it growing.
I have one in a 4,5 litter bottle of Johnny Walker closed since february 2014 with a lot of live
I cant believe you cleaned substrate in a bucket with paint stuck on the sides. You are adding paint into the substrate, into the tank, into the water, into the fish.
Fascinating!!
i can't get over the boulder inside haha
Ramshorn snails breed a lot and make the aquarium over populated with little snails that eat the plants out.
Hi. I’m getting ready to make a similar terrarium. I was wondering what you used as a lid? It looks clear in the video. Is there a lid? I’m sorry for all the questions but I’d like ideas on how to make or what to use for a clear lid. Thanks.
I'm not the creator,but yes there's a lid and the jar is sealed
Love this video. I'm inspired and getting ready to set up a 2.5 gallon. Want to keep nerite snails and a female betta. I miss fishkeeping after I had to stop due to health concerns. Ready to start up again, just on a much smaller scale.
Nerites will be fine but bettas should be in a minimum 5 gal :) I hope it works out for you!
@@procrastinatinginsomniacs2521 Thanks. With further thought, and making some space, I did go with the 5 gallon.
Hii..this is amazing. . Would love to do it. Just one question, does it require water change?? I am just a beginner so please advise. Also if i add a few guppies here still would it require water change or water pump.
@@procrastinatinginsomniacs2521 just remember that bettas breathe air. They do not filter oxygen through the water like most fish.
@@kavyashrotriya8970 well, what tank size do you have?
OMG thats pickle Jar we don't have those size here😳
WHOW RAMHORN SNAILS SOO COOL 🤩 😳 😯 :o :0
Do you have recommendations for someone who doesnt have a preexisting aquarium? I really would love to start on a small scale with something self maintaining like this.
U still gonna clean it tho every other day cuz smaller aquariums takes more effort to maintain. Just with water cleaning
@@lasseel3724 every other day?
@@kal5214 Yes. The smaller the aquarium is, the harder to maintain. A breeder told me that and he said: If you put a slice of bread in 1 gallon of water, it will kill everything living there. If you put it in a 100 gallon, it won't be that bad. So, the smaller the tank is, the more dangerous the animap waste becomes.
Cada cuánto tiempo le cambias el agua y que acondicionador usas ??????
could you add livestock on day one? if you included some food as theres no algae yet but if the water is from an aquarium already i imagine they'd live in it right?
Top Job👍
Superb content !