Creating an Underwater Ecosystem Inside a Glass Bowl!

In this video I'll show you how to make a no filter bowl aquarium for cherry shrimp and I'll even show you how it looks after 50 days of growth. Let's waste no time and get straight into the build. I'm going to use this 8 litre glass bowl and the first step is to create a base layer of nutrients at the bottom. This here is some regular garden compost and it's going to work great for this. I've used this stuff in a few underwater ecosystems before and the plants absolutely love it. You really don't need to add too much as it's very high in nutrients and a thin layer will work perfectly. This method is a much cheaper alternative to using something like aqua soil and to be honest I actually think it works better. Before capping it off with gravel I'm going to spray it with water to ensure that there's no air bubbles trapped at the bottom. This is a mix of fine gravel and I'm going to use it to cap off the nutrient layer. There's a variety in size, texture and colour and I think they look quite natural. Capping off the compost will keep the nutrients from getting into the water column. It's really important that I do this because if I left the compost open it would leach nutrients into the water and lead to some serious algae problems. I've poured in about an inch which will work well but I am going to add a bit more to the back to build up some more height. Now it's time to start creating the hardscape and for that I've got some geo rock and spiderwood. The rock has got some really nice detail to it and I think that in combination with the dark contrast of the spiderwood will look really good. I've got a good selection of pieces so I'm trying out multiple different layouts until I find something that I'm happy with. After a bit of trial and error I've settled on this rock placement. It's certainly nothing crazy but I it serves as a good foundation for the spiderwood. I'm trying to keep this hardscape relatively simple and doing my best to leave as much ground space as I can for the plants. This is even more important in a setup like this one as it's not going to have a filter so I'll be solely relying on the plants to keep the water clean and healthy. I like how this spiderwood looks so I'm going to lock it in place with some gel type super glue. If I don't do this it will float up to the surface as soon as I fill the bowl up with water. Despite the hardscape being relatively simple I do really like how it looks and it is budget friendly. Before I can start planting I'm going to give the gravel a really good spray down to get it nice and saturated. To start off the planting I've got this pearlweed that I'm going to plant in the background of the scape. I'll be honest I bought this online and it's really not looking too healthy so fingers crossed it bounces back. I guess that's the downside to buying plants online as you can't pick out the healthiest looking ones like you can in a shop. This plant should grow nice and tall and create a lush green background to fill out all this space. I want some more plants growing in just behind the georocks so that's what I'm going to add next. This plant's leaves will be bigger and wider than the pearlweed but it's not going to grow as tall. As with most aquariums the denser you plant right at the start the less chance you'll have of running into algae problems. This is a crypt and I'm going to plant it in the gap between the two pieces of spiderwood. I want this to be the centerpiece plant as it's going to grow much bigger than the rest. I'm using some long tweezers to dig a hole into the gravel and then going ahead and planting the roots inside. For the foreground I'm going to plant in a mix of these two plants. They're both low growing and will slowly spread and carpet the foreground which is exactly what I'm looking for. I've taken them out the pots, washed off the nutrient-rich gel and split them up into smaller sections ready to plant. I think having a mix of carpeting plants instead of just one species is really going to make the foreground of this aquarium look more wild and natural. I'm liking how it's looking so far but there's still a few more plants to go in that will add some nice detail. After giving the bowl a light spray down to keep the plants from drying out I'm going to plant in a couple different species of Bucephalandra. To plant them I'm simply wedging them in the gaps between the rock and spiderwood. These are slow-growing plants that will pull nutrients from the water column to grow. That's the planting complete and although the bowl does look relatively empty I'm confident that the plants are going to grow in nicely and fill out the space. Now it's time to get the bowl filled up with water. A small piece of paper towel helps disperse the water and stops it from disrupting the sand too much. As for the water that I'm using it's just regular tap water that I've dechlorinated. With the bowl filled up I'm really liking how it looks but one thing's for sure it's only going to get better and better It's only a month later and yet this underwater ecosystem has completely transformed. It's quite unbelievable just how well the plants have grown in over the past 30 days without CO2 or even a filter. When looking at the roots it's clear to see that the nutrient layer at the bottom of the bowl is definitely doing its job. The roots of the plants have quickly made their way through the gravel down into the compost and the result is this lush green plant growth. Now I'm going to do a quick bit of maintenance before introducing some life. I'm going to trim a couple of the plants back and then give the inside of the bowl a good clean. There's been no problems with algae so far other than a small amount building up on the glass every couple weeks which is to be expected. The bowl has only had two water changes so far but I have stirred the water up quite a lot so I am going to do another one. In a small no filter ecosystem like this one I think it's beneficial to do small water changes rather than big ones. This helps keep parameters consistent and algae blooms at bay. Now let's introduce the first bit of life that will call this bowl aquarium home. Here I've got six tiny aquatic snails. They'll help keep the aquarium clean by eating algae. A lot of people worry about these kind of snails overpopulating the water but that's never been a problem for me. If you've got a ton of algae and decaying plants then you might run into problems but if not I wouldn't worry. Now it's about time to introduce the creatures that this underwater ecosystem was made for. I've got five of these beautiful cherry shrimp and I think they're the perfect inhabitants for this small bowl aquarium. After about 45 minutes acclimating I'm going to release them inside and then let them settle in for a couple weeks. This no filter bowl ecosystem is now over 50 days old and things really couldn't be better. The plants in the foreground are slowly carpeting the space just as I hoped they would and the pearlweed in the background is actually doing really well which is a surprise considering how it looked when I planted it. It's still got a bit of growing to do but it definitely bounced back strong. As for the cherry shrimp they've been thriving and it's great to see their vibrant red colours pop out amongst the green plants. They haven't started breeding yet but I'm confident in the coming weeks we're going to have some tiny baby cherry shrimp exploring the bowl. The snails have been working hard to keep the glass free of algae and to my surprise they do move really quite fast. This bowl aquarium was an absolute joy to make and it's been super easy to care for which is always a positive. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this build in the comments below and as always thank you for watching.