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Really nice project! I have pondered a similar concept that would use a second tank enclosure just as big as the main aquarium display, but holding a planted area with reverse-schedule lighting as well as media baskets with lots of surface area for both microfauna and bacterial biofilm. This...

I'm still reshuffling tanks here. I opted to move the Green Lake, New York biotope out of the 24" X 24" shallow and put this concept in there instead. I think this is a better use of that nice sandstone slab. No livestock yet, but I added some nice leaf litter botanicals and also got the ripple...

Thanks so much!

Shame and embarrassment fail to describe what I experience while observing the so-called freedom-loving US and Western Europe lend their half-assed, slow, inadequate support to Ukraine while complaining about the price of gas and while the Ukrainians get blown up, shelter in their basements and...

Finally got a quick Instagram reel up. I decided to resurrect the old Riparium Supply account... I still haven't wired the limit switches. The stepper motor seems to be missing steps, so I can't really leave it alone running. I need to figure out an Arduino shield option and then I can...

A few more pics... I'm using this new riparium planter design. I wonder about adding a black background to the tank to really hide them, although as the plants grow in they will become less and less visible in the shadows. Also wondering about botanicals for the underwater area. 🤔

Very nice!

Spaghetti Monster - UNS 45S Riparium With some continued observations and thought, I've decided to shuffle several setups around. My Tufa Waterfall Biotope is going into a bigger tank, leaving this UNS 45S on its 80-20 aluminum stand free for a new project. This aquarium is a perfect size...

Thanks for reading! I'll get a video up at some point. I deleted my Instagram account and also managed to lose my phone somewhere, so I don't have easy video upload right now. But I'll get on it.

I think I have a pretty good plant concept for this setup. I've been researching and rounding up plants that grow in seagrass ecosystems, but more in the upstream areas of estuaries with moderate salinity around 10-15ppt. This is the kind of habitat and flora you might find in Indian River...

Maybe Potamogeton perfoliatus is a relatively easy one. I do hope to collect some more wild species from the area around here this summer and try in a dedicated freshwater tank. I've rounded up several more of the things from the list. The Eleocharis parvula came as tissue culture, while...

Horses' Teeth - Desert Vernal Pool This project is subject to change, but I have some hardscape in the tank and a few ideas. For another recent build I used a sandstone slab that I just found to be very dramatic and appealing. So I decided to try something similar in a different enclosure. The...

Everything looks very happy in there! Very nice colors and textures. Impressive growth in a no-CO2 tank.

I've made some more progress here. There is sand in the tank. The updated paddle design swivels on the rod spindle from the gantry plate. A short peg at the top of the paddle indexes with a part on the spindle to control the degrees of rotation through each paddle stroke. Here I set it up so...

Crypts are the best of all aquarium plants IMO.

I'm picking this project up again. I have new CAD models for some of the tanks I have in mind. For the sake of planning, this is the best place to start. I really like that WIO super shallow. It's only four and a half inches deep. I could also alternatively order some 6mm plate glass to build...

Thanks for having a look! I have more updates on the way. I might add livestock pretty soon.

I had forgotten about it, but now you remind me about Zostera marina. Maybe I will try that one too. Some references describe it as higher-end brackish (20-31ppt) while others mention 10ppt as lower tolerance. I'll see how the Halodula wrightii—supposed to get here with the mail this week—does...

Gantry Water Ripple Generator Here's a new project I've started a continuation of a few related ideas. The basic idea is a ripple generating paddle held over the tank water with a gantry assembly and powered by a stepper motor v-slot linear actuator. This is just a preliminary setup. The...

Update. Good development of the epilithon—I have learned this term as more correct in comparison with periphyton—with at least four different things growing in a nice patchwork mosaic. The filamentous green Cyanobacterium in microscopy images above. This kind of looks like a hair algae Green...

Day 16 Update. Some of these things are responding. Requiring cooler temps, humidity and very clean water, wild mosses from my temperate climate area usually grow poorly indoors, but there is noticeable new green foliage on the possible Cratoneuron that I found covering most of the waterfall...

I picked up some Ceratophyllum at the LFS and it's currently in a culture tank with some other stuff. Maybe I'll put some in this setup, but at this point I'm enjoying the periphyton development as the main focus. If I decide to add the Hornwort or other plant a bit later, I'll use a bleach dip...

I should try Sparganium again someday. Definitely an unusual plant. Aquatic plants must disperse between water bodies to a certain degree with seeds and parts in the plumage of Ducks and other water birds. Fish, especially Cyprinids and others with sticky eggs, also get around this way. I...

I got the Moss and Algae planted in here a week ago. I don't see much growth yet, but they look OK. They're still green. I'll try to share a photo update soon. Meanwhile here's a pretty cool mechanism that should be a more durable option in comparison with a peristaltic pump for low-flow...

That's just a DIY internal filter. It's adequate.

Really interesting thing I'm reading with my coffee... (Source: Microbial Diversity in a Hypersaline Sulfate Lake: A Terrestrial Analog of Ancient Mars - PubMed )

Any other ideas among plants I might be able to find as tissue culture? It's easy to imagine a common aquarium alga riding in with plants and growing to become dominant on the stone slab. I want to maintain the Green Lake mixed culture as pure as possible. I only see Egeria, Elodea and...

Looking good!

Update - Day 37 The Green Lake periphyton continues pretty nice development. There are patches of the brown Cyanobacterium with vigorous oxygen bubble generation and presumably calcium carbonate precipitation. The weedy Diatom dies back and melts away wherever this organism establishes. I...

Stunning! Really very nice! Well done!

It would be interesting to know the conductivity TDS of that water. I bet it could make a real mess of home plumbing if drawn from a well. In many tufa waterfalls the tufa formation seems to be biologically mediated in part through action of photosynthesizers and other organisms. But in some...

Update - Day 29 Coming along! As anticipated, the weedy pioneer Diatom is beginning to melt away. For a week or so I was dismayed to see it growing all over the periphyton material introduced to the tank, but I now see new active growth from most of the obvious things that I had added. The...

Wow nice!

Chamaedorea elegans will certainly be very dead if planted underwater in an aquarium, but it makes an excellent houseplant. It is usually sold in the mass market with many seedlings in a pot to create a more bushy appearance. But for growing long term these seedlings should be separated with...

I was going to ask you about ID characters. The next time I have the microscope out I'll prepare some better slides. There is also a second species that has more of a Cushion Moss form. Above tank photos are from a couple of weeks ago. While turning everything on for the first time I...

Thanks for this tip! I've looked around a bit more and searches for tufa waterfall biota for the UK and Europe yield a lot more than for here. Thanks! Here's a couple pics in its more permanent spot and a water test. The waterfall feature is lava rock, which isn't exactly representative. But...

Tufa Waterfall Aquarium Biotope Last fall I had an opportunity to visit a local tufa waterfall. In this very unique natural feature, new tufa rock forms where calcium and bicarbonate-enriched water tumbles down a cliff face. Water agitation causes rapid CO2 off-gassing, dropping pH and...

Update - Day 18 Here's a quick update. There's quite a lot of this brown dusty Diatoms all over the top of the stone slab. This did not come with the field samples but was instead already growing here in a few spots before I added them. I had tried to keep substrates and the tank surfaces as...

Update for the hypersaline stromatolites tank... This system went through a long period where there was a lot of the Cyanobacterium dark green EPS grew all over the tops of the faux-stromatolite stone features. It looks to me as though this organism actually hinders calcium carbonate...

For comparison here are the species from a Institute of Botany, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine 1999 checklist. It is interesting to note the overlap from the North American species listed above. How have these plants dispersed across the ocean and between continents? (Source: (PDF)...

It's my view that the interesting botany of aquatic plants is an area we could explore quite a lot more as aquascaping hobbyists. And you have some good ones listed here! Sparganium are quite intriguing plants and among the "weird Monocots". Do you have this growing as an emergent, or fully...

Well this project was put aside and I haven't made any more progress with it. I'm thinking about picking it up again, though. I have that top that I made special with the IR LEDs that runs well. My current new favorite idea is the Opea Ula shrimp, but using a small microbial wild field...

I've observed the same. I had figured it was because I'm on the other side of the Atlantic though.

Right here in our area we have limestone bedrock and a lot of the low-lying terrain has old marshy sediments with marl. Yes I know the illuminated background would look pretty contrived, but I think it's just an option for illustrating the concept and creating the general appearance. This...

Thanks for following along! I would like to develop more of that to reinforce the old-time natural history idea. I also have a more specific plan for a retro sci-fi aesthetic with a series of astrobiology-themed setups. So far I just have the Mars biotope terrarium and the unfinished thing in...

LOL I'd say the locals certainly are "hard to tame". They are an absolute inspiration, in fact. Tank is looking good! Did you mention what the soil substrate is? I hope to make some more headway with aquarium simulation of these hardwater systems like the Chorhun River, chalk streams and...

Biomineralization | Tufa Waterfall Biotope Last fall I had an opportunity to visit a local tufa waterfall. In this very unique natural feature, new tufa rock forms where calcium and bicarbonate-enriched water tumbles down a cliff face. Water agitation causes rapid CO2 off-gassing, dropping pH...

I wonder if this might be a very small leafy/scaly Liverwort. I have seen some develop in terrariums with such a fine texture they looked more like Green Algae.

Those videos are really something to see and thanks for sharing the links! Among my favorite things to do is browse evolutionary/taxonomic relationship entries on Wikipedia. It looks as though order Charales (consisting of two families, Characeae and Feistiellaceae [elsewhere lumped together as...

A few summers ago I went snorkeling in the little pond where I learned how to swim many decades ago and found the bottom to be covered in Chara bank to to bank. I think there must be a mineral spring at the bottom of that pond because the water is very clear and the Chara were pearling like mad...

Lovely little setup! This has only been going for ten days? It looks mature already.

Envious every time I see these rocks.

Looking good! I like that first tank so stuffed full of crypts.

Really interesting article to bookmark... Lamprecht, O., Wagner, B., Derlon, N. et al. Synthetic periphyton as a model system to understand species dynamics in complex microbial freshwater communities. npj Biofilms Microbiomes 8, 61 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41522-022-00322-y

Here are five distinct things I sampled from the mixed culture for microscopy while transferring material to the display tank. Photographs were captured at 100x, 250x and 2500x magnification... I was extremely pleased to see this Chara sp. Macroalga pop up in the mixed culture. I hope I can...

Exciting! It took a few days and I had to use to CO2, but I got almost 92 grams (leaving just a little sediment on the bottom of the pail at the end) of the Green Lake salt blend to dissolve into about 56 liters of RO to make this very hard water... There has been excellent periphyton growth...

Utterly baffling how after everything that's happened Ukraine still hasn't seen delivery of real air power. The UK and Eastern Europe seem to know the score, but France, Germany, etc. with their very deep pockets apparently are paralyzed with denial, fear and complacency. Even with this horrific...

This thing's coming along pretty nice. The organic material sank a couple more inches with continued decomposition, so I refreshed with some Corn husks and more Oak leaves. I also added a layer of tree roots, and charcoal pieces to the underground area. I've observed good reproduction...

Actually the tank is currently just filled with tapwater. It finally dawned on me that instead of measuring out individual portion salt blends, I can just make a big batch, then use the scale to take 16L portions from that for mixing in a 5-gallon pail. I've been thinking about this thing...

Wow very nice!

Here's a 7-month growth update for the branch feature. It took them a while to establish, but the mini Ferns, Begonia, Mosses and Peperomia have covered well. The branch has sagged about 1" with moisture absorption and the weight of the plants and water. A future version will incorporate longer...

I've made a new wall sconce style setup for decorative phytoplankton and a few other options. It usually takes more troubleshooting, but the parts for this design all came together pretty easy. Here it is with a Dunaliella salina culture in brine medium... And here it is with the natural...

They don't get a lot of love in the hobby, but there's something to be said for coldwater fish that require no water heater. Even more so when the power supply may be unreliable. From an ecological standpoint, the Black Sea itself is quite a fascinating body of water...

Green Lake, New York - Building a Freshwater Microbialite Reef This is a biotope journal thread continuation of an another discussion I started right over here.. Approximating and Maintaining Water Chemistry of a Meromictic Lake It took me a while to figure out a tank configuration and...

Finally some more progress... I spent hours looking at rocks on the Internet and over by the lake. Frustrating! But then it finally occurred to me to try a local landscaping supplier where I found this really nicely contoured sandstone outcrop slab... I think this is prefect. Here's one of...

Such a great setup. Astounding moss growth on the wall area!

Nice setup. Well done! It goes really nice with room décor also. What is setting? It looks like a posh resort or hotel.

While I have the pictures handy here is an update for the Winogradsky's hung up on the wall in the gallery space. The cylinder setup is really nicely featured with bright red Pink Sulfur Bacteria. There is also an area with Cyanobacteria up near the top. The framed piece is more subdued with...

Very nice. Is there a species list?

Absolute stunner! Wow!

Thanks for stopping by! Yes you are right! There is some pretty interesting recent investigation into the microbiomes of reef aquariums, their changes over time and responses to variables. I'm really pleased with how the biocrust showing similar rich texture and color as it matures like...

Mars Day 653 Really happy with this thing. The stone and gravel surfaces have developed such a rich patina texture + color with slow development of the Cyanobacteria biocrust. A couple of different Mosses have also found their way inside via spores.

Here's an update for the edaphotron. Day 32 This seems to be coming along very nicely. It went through a rather ugly moldy phase with mold spores and mycelia all over the clear front panel, but that all melted away again. Compare with the day #1 photo (last image below) and you can see the...

Starting to see signs of life... I've had the samples from the lake in this same small 6G tank with the latest updated salt mix. Aside from a few 5ml capfuls of BG-11 medium I haven't given it much attention. But there is activity with organisms starting to grow on the substrates... I need...

I built another new design. This is a sconce/nightlight with a plastic flask in a cedar base and a hypersaline brine medium growing Dunaliella salina. Along with the wall-mount hardware I also secured a gooseneck LED into the back of the base providing both the illumination for photosynthesis...

Cool to see that Java Fern so big and robust like that. Really reaching its potential.

Wow this took forever, but I finally got this thing all assembled, filled up and hung on the wall... ****************************************************** Moonwort Studio Coulee Region, 1983 Day 1 Edaphotron: watertight enclosure, electronic gas sensor, microcontroller, bonsai gravel...

Grouse hunting on the state forest. These are a few cell phone pics from an overnight camping & hunting trip a couple of weekends ago. This is a large (27,500 hectares) forest administration area and there are lots of corners to explore with wildlife everywhere. I'm not a very serious hunter...

This other project is intended to grow tufa, though it will represent a different kind of ecosystem. It needs a lot more work. I have to get the calcium reactor running and resolve the water circulation too...

I'm going to be very happy if I can get rock to grow. I already have several variations on setup ideas in mind.

Duplicate post. Please ignore. See above.

Blend #2: CaSO4 - 1300 mg/L KHCO3 - 8 mg/L MgCO3 - 250 mg/L CaCO3 - 95 mg/L Reef Crystals - 60 mg/L This puts bicarbonate about 40 mg/L over the target value, but I think that's OK. I portioned the CaSO4 separately this time and added it first to the mixing pail, where it dissolved readily...

I need to work on the salt blend some more, but I also want to get some of these live samples out of the refrigerator and into a tank. After a couple more days I saw no more change with water clarity, so last night I turned off the water pump to let the particles settle. Today I siphoned the...

Very nice!

Revisiting the silica question and bookmarking this...just seven or ten dollars...

Amazing!

Happy fish in there! Where did you get that Spathiphyllum pot?

Thanks very much! I'll let this run for a few days with the water pump and an air stone, then hook up CO2 if there is no change. If this composition is pretty close, then ions so close to or at saturation should advance the goal of biologically-mediated precipitation in the aquarium model...

This is going to require some more problem-solving. There is a serious solubility issue with much of the salt mix remaining and/or reprecipitating as fine sediment. I ran a DC pump in the solution all night with no change. Here is the mix composition. KHCO3 - 4.8 mg/L MgSO4 - 730 mg/L CaSO4 -...

OK I'll order some MgCO3 as well. While I wait for that to get here and while I clean up my spreadsheet I'm going to mix a small 4-liter batch of water tonight with a ballpark approximation. The samples came in the mail and I should get them out of the refrigerator and into water. Here are some...

I worked on the spreadsheet some more and I paste a jpeg below. Column C (in red) is filled mostly with the values that @Heelllooo suggested above, except that I omitted KNO3 and instead roughly doubled KHCO3 for the K content. MgCO3 is also omitted and I'm not worrying about silicates for now...

Yes I have a calculator like that on the first sheet of this file, although I had not linked the cells yet. Did you configure your own calculator and do you have it somewhere? I know the answer is plain and obvious, but I'm having such a time organizing these rows and columns in a coherent way...

I'm working on a spreadsheet for these dosage values. I'd like to get it to where I just have to use these four salts I have on hand—CaSO4, MgSO4, CaCo3, KHCO3—with other fertilizer added less precisely for N, P and traces. Column C are the numbers in mg/L that @Heelllooo had calculated, with a...

The new UNS 45S tank got here delivered tonight and I started putting together the 80/20 aluminum stand. I was hoping this pretty short (28") stand with a nano tank on top would be sturdy enough with those internal connectors, but it's obviously not. I'd rather not put additional connectors all...

Looks like you got a nice value! Crypts (the easy ones, anyway) will usually grow very well from any little piece of rhizome

I got it hung up in its spot on the wall... Before filling it up though I'm going to assemble and position the electronics with a piece of t-track to the right. This is pretty basic with the same microcontroller housing and LCD display as this other setup, but without the rotary encoder. This...

Wonderful setup! Everything looks very happy in there!

Lovely little plants. All of them.

This is probably due to the main coordinator's nationality and current geopolitical events in the Black Sea region severely complicating social media presence and networking. It's a shame. Agreed. True wild ecosystems have aesthetics all their own that transcend human bias. On Facebook—maybe...

Just finished most of the assembly for another thing to hang on the wall. Pretty basic construction, but I had some tooling marks to sand out and other fussy little jobs and I was up all night with it. This is intended to model and visualize oxidation of organic carbon, decomposition and the...