I suppose I never started a journal for this project here. Just last night I finally made a move and set up a tank that I have been working on for a while. I am using this 56-gallon tank as a high-humidity riparium. I have some pretty cool fish and pretty cool plants for it.
looking forward to see more pictures. can you post tank size? it looks really high. does the position the tank stands work? straight next to the window? sun, algae etc....
Hi I am trying to make some more headway on this so that I can get more pictures. This tank is 60cm tall by 45cm deep by 75cm wide. It is a nice shape for a riparium. This is right next to the window, but the sinlight is no problem.
Here's a quick update for this setup. I'm still working on the underwater area, but here's a quick shot of the riparium plants. I have an EcoXotic LED strip (can't remember the model name??) on the left side of the tank. It creates a wonderful shimmer in the water. I just put that white-variegated Aglaonema Chinese evergreen in there. It looks very nice, but it seems a bit too big and showy in the whole layout. It might start looking smarter as the other plants grow in some more. That Aglaonema is not a true semi-aquatic plant: the wild ancestor plant grows in upland forests in Southeast Asia. However, I had it rooting as a cutting from a houseplant and it grew many new healthy roots right in the water. I hope that it can adapt to being in a riparium. I filled the planter with hydroton so that there would be water diffusion around the roots. I will see how it goes.
nice tall tank, would be a really nice tank to fill in with stem plants but the riparium idea is something i'll leave to you. waiting for the final product. are you going to fish
Here's the tank sitting right on the floor after I swiped the stand. The stand ws too tall so I took 4" off the top. I refinished it and put everything back together. The tank is all set up now and I have a couple of FTS here I just need to format them and post them up.
what lights do you use? do the plant get burnt from the 100% humidity and light??? are you planning to put fish in the bottom area
Oh I haven't been back to this thread since I set the tank up again. I have a quick update. Here is the tank back in place and with water, fish, riparium plants and hardscape... I have another picture more complete with plants underwater. I'll post that one next.
that is truely inspiring! It is a really nicely done riparium. Well Done! what critters are you putting in??
Thanks! There are already several fish in there. There's a groupf six Pareutropius buffei catfish and a Steatocranus cassuarinus cichlid. I also plan to add a little group of Congo tetras. It's a lot of fish for that much water, but the cichlid is still small and it all has excellent biological filtration with those plants.
I cleaned up this tank tonight and got a quick picture... I removed the white-variegated Aglaonema. That is not a true water-associated plant and it wasn't doing so well. The stem was starting to rot. I wish I could get the fish to swim out front. I still haven't tracked down those Congo tetras yet. The P. buffei were actually swimming around when I took this picture, but they move so fast my camera couldn't even see them at this slow shutter speed.
Your emersed part of the riparium is really nice, but I think that pebbles? or rocks distracts the eye from the upper part. If you change them, the whole setup will be more "powerful". Anyway keep up good work!
How would you suggest changing them? I know that aquascapers like to use dark-colored rocks, but lighter colors tend to work better for the underwater portions of ripariums because the riparium plants throw a lof of shade. The light-colored rocks help to brighten that area of the layout.
To be honest, and I don't want to harm you, but I miss the "aquascape" from the water area. You have just taken some rocks in the water, but I can clearly see your talent above water. I miss the rock arrangement, your rocks can be good if they placed well.
I just rescaped this thing. When the water clears I am going to get some pictures for an update. I am also working on adding some more fish and have a few ideas in mind. I have been looking around on one online store that has some unusual barbs and I want to add a group of maybe six barbs for a better fish display.
I am going to wait for better light to get the full-tank shot, but here is a quick view down inside. I switched almost all of the background plants that I had in there before in exchange for various swamp and stream-associated palms. These include some really cool plants. These dark green Licuala paludosa are the largest plants in there and they have this great leaf pleating. Also really cool is this Iguanura tenuis. This is a swamp plant from Thailand. It was more expensive and it is rare in cultivation. The new leaves are rounded and have this awesome chestnut coloration.
Finally here's a quick FTS... I could work on the underwater hardscape some more, but I think it's good enough for now. The underwater area will benefit with a few more crypt plants. The main thing I want to do now is order those Barbus and get them in there. For better pictures I will also use a different color for the riparium background. Plants really don't look very good against that tan wall.
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