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200-liter Riparium Setup for Synodontis Catfish

Moss could be a great choice for your setup and it does grow well on the trellis rafts. I quote here a member on another board who use a Nano Trellis Raft for Christmas moss.

Hoppy said:
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This is five weeks of growth--it covered pretty quick.

Emersed aquatic mosses do grow best in high humidity, but planted in this way the foliage remains very close to the water, where the air is more most. So, it might work in your setup, especially if you are using a heater and the water is somewhat more warm than the air in the room.
 
I was getting pictures of this tank again today. I have a bunch of files to process, but here's a quick one while I start organizing them. I like this angle.

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I like the look of the tank from this angle. The Limnophila and Bacopa/I] have grown in so densely that they have covered up the rafts and planter cups really well.
 
That last photo is great, the more I see of this tank the more I want to try one haha
Great work, what type of sponge can be used that floats and yet provides water to the roots?
 
Hey thanks again. I like that view too. The trellis raft material is a buoyant closed-cell foam. It doesn't soak up any water, but it doesn't need to because many of the plant stems rest right near the water's surface.

I got a close-up with the newest leaf on the Cyrtosperma johnstonii.

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The leaf apex has this amazing gold + pink coloration that I had net seen on the older leaves.
 
I tore down this layout. I tried to get as many pictures as I could before taking it apart. The plants were pretty much at their peak. Here is the first of those pictures that I took.

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Thanks Steve! This picture right here is dated 9 December 2009.

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I might have left it all set up for longer by trimming the stem plants, but I wanted to use a lot of the plants for propagation, and I wanted to try some other new plants that I have here.
 
I am still processing these last pictures of this layout. Here is another one.

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I'm using this setup as a temporary riparium plant propagation tank. I had chopped up most of the plants that I had in that layout and used them to get more new stuff started in planters. Now there are plants hung on all four panes of glass and it is kind of a mess. It's not much of an aquarium display at the moment, but looks kind of cool from above.

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Notice that white Spathiphyllum bloom over to the right side there.
 
I have to say that as far as emmersed setups go, Hydrophyte is king. He really seems to know his stuff, and seems to be able to grow almost everything he wants emmersed.

Hopefully some of his products will be reaching the UK soon, especially the trelis raft, which is so revolutionary that should get a award for inventiveness.
 
Thanks you guys. I haven't been back to this journal in a little while. I am still using the tank for plant growout. The fish all look happy enough.

The Cyrtosperma johnstonii plant is still doing well. There are several new little suckers growing around the base.

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I plan to get some new plants started with those. This plant is one that can grow to a very large size (~2 meters). However, it looks as though it should be easy enough to manage it in a riparium by just starting these new little divisions as the main stalk gets to be too large.

Another new leaf has opened up on this plant. It is now about 70cm tall above the water and I have had to raise the lights again. Here is another shot of the previous new leaf from a couple of months ago.

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The newest leaf is going to be larger and it looks as though it will have even more of the gold and pink coloration.
 
I took the Cyrtosperma johnstonii outside for a shot in the sunlight. This new leaf has more of the gold and pink.

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This is a great plant, and pretty easy to grow in a riparium provided that you can give it some vertical space.

Can you find this species there in the UK?
 
I suppose that I haven't been back to this thread since I replanted the tank. I have most of the same fish in here, but I switched out all of the plants. Now there is a background planting dominated by Acorus gramineus along with a number of midground accent plants in the abovewater area.

Everything is looking pretty good right now. The Oplismenus grass and Pilea had gotten to be overgrown and leggy, so I trimmed and replanted them before getting this picture. There is virtually no algae in the tank now.

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Here is a quick view of the underwater area.

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With this view of the water's surface you can see the riparium raft planters, but those will become covered up as the plants grow in again.
 
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