Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've managed to acquire a set of five one gallon glass jars.

I'm thinking about using them to raise bettas, plants, or perhaps daphnia.

They stand about ten inches tall, two inches taller than a two gallon aquarium I got a while back. I'm thinking I could line them up on a shelf, and hang a light above them.

For some of my hairbrained schemes, it would be nice to provide heating, and filtration for these jars.

I suppose some dark gravel and a heat lamp might work with a little experimentation, or a regular heater and good water circulation... but I'm a bit stumped on filtration.

I guess airstones might circulate the water enough that a filter would be unnecessary, but I've never really liked air pumps, and such a setup wouldn't be too great for plants or daphnia.

I've been wondering if several U shaped tubes could be used to siphon water from one jar to the next, to the next, allowing me to use just one actual filter device.

the siphon idea would work, but you would need some superfine screen to cover the intake on the daphnia jar. As you may know, I have siphons that run between a 120 gal, a 20 gal, and an external overflow. I could see it working, either use the last jar as the filter, or use a separate container for the filter. The top of all the jars and the filter container would need to be level, and you would want a small pump in the filter to return water to the first jar after it has passed through whatever filter media you have chosen.

I siliconed small air valves in a hole I drilled in my siphons. I attach a piece of airline to them and suck all the air out to prime them. Because of oxygen in the water, I have to suck out the air that gets trapped inside every couple of months. If you decide to also include an airstone, make sure it is either away from the siphon or that it sits higher above it.

Here is another quality photoshop drawing of how it might look.

That's about what I had in mind... God all those pipes are ugly though!

Maybe I can get a few splitters and hook them up to a single pump. Then the outflow would go in as a waterfall... No, I'd need some elbows to send it in sideways if I wanted to keep any real plants or bettas...

Maybe I should drill holes in the bottoms, and then run the pipes through there, and silicone seal up the holes...

Maybe I should forget about filtration for them...

Maybe I should have just taken them to the recycle bin like my boss told me to... Nah.

Hmmm, drill holes in the bottoms... I'd need a stand to hide all the workings... I could change the water in them all by siphoning out of just one.... I'd have to seal it up pretty carefully... Drills hate me, so I'd probably break some of the jars...

Well, I might try that if I can get a good bit and some extra backup jars... After I get my own place, and move out of this dump.

It sure sounds like quite a project whatever you decide to do! Have you considered maybe just using them for plants?

I have thought about all plants. I have a fair stock of Java Fern I've been hoping to grow a bit faster, and I guess I could clear out a shelf in my closet, and hang... like a 48 inch tube over them for lighting, but that sounds rather boring. I'm leaning toward keeping bettas in them, perhaps using my 18 gal for a breeding tank, and then growing them out in my 50... although I'm not too keen on breeding bettas, since I know most of them end up living out a hellish existence in eight ounce cups at the pet store for a week or two until they die.

I'm wondering if I might be able to grow plants, and breed daphnia in the same containers. None of the pet stores seem to sell it, so I'd imagine there's a bit of a market that hasn't been tapped...

I suppose I'd have to feed them yeast, or something, since you can't get plants and green water in the same container... Could be messy.

The thing about siphons is the diameter of the siphon needs to be larger than the diamter of the pump hose. Water is being pushed through the pump hose with force, and suction through a siphon doesnt move water as fast. I would do some experiments in the bathtub before setting it all up.

if you set up 2 containers side by side with a pump in one pumping to the other and a siphon going between them, the water level in the container with the pump will be consistenly lower than the other container if the siphon diameter is too small, which can result in an overflow of the first container.

If I were to do a setup like that, I would find the very smallest pump I could possibly find.

Also, the pipes in my drawing were just lines I drew with the mouse in photoshop. They may be more pleasing with real materials. If you had a small enough pump you could possibly use some clear tubing even.

wider siphon tubing... yet another useful tip. I was thinking of using some clear uplift tubing, which I believe can join pretty closely with elbow joints for plumbing. A little silicone ought to seal them up sufficiently. Or maybe hot glue would be better. I'll figure it out. I've got an aquaclear pump, with a pretty narrow uplift tube, and I think I can step that down even smaller if I have to.

I just looked at the drawing, and thought about all the space the tubes would take up... I've got this fixed notion that filter piping is wasted space inside an aquarium. Having them in the middle of the jar doesn't help much either though. I guess it's not really that big of a deal. Fish don't know the difference between decorations and equippment anyway.

All the same, I'm becoming convinced that the best answer, if I want to use these as a decorative feature, would be to rig up something to go THROUGH the jars. Perhaps I could set up some sort of makeshift UGF... Sadly, such an idea will require a lot of tools I don't have right now, and will have to wait. Till then, some siphons will have to do, I suppose.

Hmm, if I used uplift tubes, I could stick those end caps on them upside down to keep the fish from getting sucked in. RFUGF kits include elbow joints I could snag, but the pipes for the side section of those are pretty narrow. I guess for that part I should stick with plumbing equippment.