I just signed up as a new member--I anticipate spending most of my time here in the Water Garden forum.
I have a special interest in planted ripariums, which are a kind of freshwater planted aquarium that includes marginal emergent aquatic plants. Here is a recent shot from one of my riparium setups, a 65-gallon tank with a loose South America biotope theme.
I have this one looking pretty good right now.
Wow- that's really beautiful. I've never seen a setup like that.
Beautiful, I've never seen anything like this outside a zoo setting. Wow!
Thanks very much!
This message was edited Jul 19, 2009 11:46 AM
that is so pretty. Lots of work to set up too I'm sure. My luck though, I would kill the fishies. I can't seem to get those to live lol
I have a 125 gallon tank with clown loaches, 1 pleco and 4 tinfoil barbs. They are about 6inches long now. But I don't have any live plants. Those always die!
What do you use for filtration?
This one hasn't really been so much work now that I have it set up. I just do normal aquarium maintenance steps, including fish feedings, water changes and occasional plant fertilization. I do take care to clean that front pane of glass every time that I service.
This tank just has a regular canister filter, a Fluval XP1.
FrillyLily, I have a 140 gal. aquarium with one Angel, one Raphael cat, one large Channel Cat, a Black Ghost and 3 Tinfoil Barbs - all get along well, but the Barbs are greedy and want to eat everything - by the way, these are all large fish. I love Clown Loaches but aren't you afraid the Barbs will get them? I can't put anything else in there - I know the Channel Cat or even the Black Ghost ( though not agressive) will eat anything they can put in their mouth. Maybe someday....
My clown loaches are probably 4 inches long or so.
So they couldn't get eaten.
I have the same Q for you.... don't the tinfoil barbs pic on the angel's fins?
I have tried and tried to keep angels, but they die as fast as they can lol
I gave up on them.
Oh My That's N I C E !!! I have a 75 gal planted tank with mostly mixed Tetras, a small pleco, a pair of clown loaches and about 20 shrimp. It has a Fluval 501, Aqua 15 W UV, Co2 cylinder system and compact flourescent lighting system. It doesn't look as good as yours! My fertilization program isn't working as well as it should because when I get busy in the gardens outside I forget. I've got a really neat algae ball though. I just got the tank back on track with fertilizer last week.
I was tidying up my 20-gallon riparium tonight and got a quick shot.
I saw what I think was your thread on orchidboard.. are they all in pots? and go you run water through soil as a bio aid? I have been thinking for years about a waterfall type shelf where filter return runs through the planting media for borderline aquatic plants and it should double as a bio filter.
if you Google "planted riparium" and/or my handle you should find some other information.
Hi Frilly,
For some reason (thank goodness) the Barbs do not seem to bother the Angel. I usually check for fin nipping every or at least every other day. I even try to feed the Angel away from them but they're fast, very fast. My Black Ghost is 14 or 15" long and ditto the Catfish, so it would be risky to have them around other 4" bottom feeders. The Barbs are in the middle or upper part of the tank and the Angel at the top but all the others stay on the bottom - the Cat has the biggest mouth. Oh, well.
Hi All, I have been away for a while, but just signed up again.
This same 65-gallon setup was featured as "December 2009 Aquascape of the Month" at AquascapingWorld.com. Here is the link...
http://www.aquascapingworld.com/forum/aquascape-month/2639-aquascape-month-december-2009-south-american-stream.html#post26005
That is awesome, hydro.
hydrophyte: What type of water do you use? I always had a similar riparian setup (but nowhere as nice) for newts and fire belly toads in my classroom before I retired, which the kids loved. (No photos though) I also had a pond with fish, turtles, crawdads, and tadpoles (photo). My problem was white mineral-lines as the water evaporated in the tank setup. Your setup is pristine. Do you use rainwater?
Thanks HoosierGreen, I use straight tap in most of my tanks and it's pretty hard. It will leave a chalk line on the aquarium glass, but I service most tanks once to twice per week and I am always careful to wipe it clean each time. The chalk line becomes only barely noticeable in the intervening period.
That indoor pond of yours is very attractive. I have wanted to build something like that in a nice cedar enclosure--just have to find a spot for it. Do you have that Aglaonema gorwing right in the water?
The cedar enclosure I made allowed for kids to sit on the edge to feed the fish and turtles (and play with them of course). The pond itself is a rigid preform. the plants are mostly live and are all outside the pond (there is a bend in the form letting me plant outside of the water) in pots, some on inverted pots or on short 6"x6" "stumps" of wood. Anything actually in the water turned out to be a turtle and fish salad bar. It was amazing how the water stayed clear and clean for the whole school year, even with up to a half dozen turtles, a dozen goldfish, tadpoles, and whatever the kids brought in during the year (crawdads invariable got eaten). There is a homemade biofilter under the rock slabs in the water that I made from a plastic tub. Worked great just adding water during the year. I always emptied the water and took home the plants and animals for the summer though.
Well it sure turned out nice. I really hope that I can find a spot for something like that. I do have two goldfish that I want to get into a better display. How many gallons did that pond hold, and who manufactured the pre-form? Something like that could benefit from some partial water changes, especially with that bioload.
Here is another shot from the 65-gallon riparium. This one was dated 12 September 2009.
I had the preform for years before I used it in my classroom. I think I had bought it on sale at Lowe's. It probably holds 300 gallons. The first year I set it up, I planned on changing water periodically, assuming that it would get dirty, but never did. It never smelled or got cloudy either. At the end of the year, when I emptied it for the summer, the homemade bio-filter was full of gunk (I used quilt batting for the filter medium), but I guess that's why it worked so well. Notice the waterfall for looks and aeration. That probably helped. It was great fun, and when the principal finally got over her fear that a student would drown in it, she always made sure school visitors saw it.
Last night I got a couple of quick update pictures for the setup that I now have in place of this 65, a 50-gallon tank with Synodontis catfish and Ilyodon furcidens livebearers.
Hydro, I could sit and look at the 65 all day long. It would make a great screen saver, so peaceful and relaxing. Great job!
Don
Beautiful work hydrophyte. You have my admiration.
Helen
I especially like your use of the round stones. Very very nice. Just beautiful.
Helen
Thanks very much dgal and helenchild!
I have another quick photo-update for the new 50-gallon setup. The plants are looking happy enough.
I have some good tropical pond marginal plants going in here, including the Echinodorus 'Tropica Marble Queen' and the Cyrtosperma johnstonii.
Your riparian tanks are gorgeous. How are you fertilizing them, how often and what type of fertilizer are you using?
My son recently asked me if I though he could use pond tabs in his well planted aquarium. What do you think?
That is amazing! I just got a hexagonal tank that was being discarded where I work. Now I know what to do with it. Do you know of a site that has really good step by step instructions including filtration setup?
