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lukes first riparium!

dr zaius

Member
Joined
8 May 2010
Messages
87
I have been on the planted tank forum from the beggining of the year and decided it was time to join a more english based forum and as hydrophyte suggested this one!!

I have a 70 litre tank which has just been converted into a riparium, also a 7 gal shrimp tank but ill make another journal for that!

IMG00065-20100506-1947.jpg


Latest photo of rip sorry about poor quality only had phone camer, will re-take on camera.

Light - glo over tank luminare with 15 watt t5 bulb

filter- fluval 105 external filter

ferts-root medic tabs, dosage of lquid ferts

co2-none

flora- (above water line)diffenbachia,spathilium, type of pilea (in nano trellis)Houttuynia cordata(chameleon plant), lysimachia nummularia (creeping jenny), and a marginal pond plant im trying didnt have a name in shop.
(below water line) crypts, wenditti green,hydrocotyle verticillata ,nymphaea zenkeri(red tiger lotus) and Echinodorus 'Marble Queen'.

fauna- 5 kitty tetras, panda cories, male and female betta.

will post more pics later, thanks for any replies and critiques!
 
I will be keeping an eye on this one!

Much better than my attempt which took a bad turn while I was away. Did you source your Houttuynia cordata from an average garden centre? I must admit in my one visit to a garden centre to find Pilea cadierei I was unsuccessful :oops:

Nice to see another riparium.

Cheers
Paul
 
yeah from garden centre its doing great! I cant find pilea any where! its getting really annoying now!
 
Another trip to my local garden centre is in order as I only have one of my three planters with anything in it!
 
When you are at the garden center you might look among the houseplants for some Pilea plants. Pilea cardierei (aluminum plant) is one of the best for planting on those Nano Trellis Rafts.

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if you can find a garden centre that does pilea! all the ones close to me doesn't! if any one lives near london let me know if you see any thanks!
 
following on from my first post Im going to show you the stages I went through,

firstly a pic how my tank did look,

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After joining the Planted tank forum, I read and saw a alot of really great threads about ripariums, this made me want to convert my tank!

So I got my planters, trellisis from ripariumsupply.com, ordered my new light fixture, got my new external filter and substrate and was off!

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riparium supplies came through the post from america with no problems, will be ordering more soon!

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new filter, fluval 105. Had to buy more piping as fluval only give you enough lenght to reach the top of the tank, as mines half full had to extend down to near enough bottom of tank. Decided to get an external filter because I didnt want to take up too much room inside the tank. (have an internal fluval U3 filter if anyone wants to buy it?)

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tank half way through pull down

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like new!

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the Houttuynia cordata

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the hydrocotyle verticillata

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the lysimachia nummularia (creeping jenny) and what I think is a CALLITRICHE PALUSTRIS (Starwort), If anyone can ID that plant as anything else will be great!

I will take more full fron tank shots when I get my camera back! thanks for looking!
 
I like the close up of the Houttuynia cordata.

Not in the London area, but I will be looking for pilea. I live in the South west, but if I come across any pilea I will let you know and see what I can do about posting.

Cheers
Paul
 
That's all looking great Luke. Your riparium project is coming together quick! Those are some nice pond plants that you got going in there. I will be interested to see how the Callitriche does. That is a plant that I have wondered about.

Have you given much thought yet to fertilizer dosing?

Oh and it looks like you do have one Pilea in there already. The plant floating in front of the Dieffenbachia looks to me like Pilea 'Silver Tree'. That is a good one. It grows quickly so it is good for filling in. As it gets taller you can just chop the top right off and use those pieces to root new little plants.
 
thought it was a pilea!

I have root medic tabs in the planters, have easy carbo(liquid c02) think im going to start dosing that to the water and Nutrafin Plant Gro . Not at home at the moment so cant give the exact specs of the Nutrafin Plant Gro . Here is a link to it if you can see if its any good!

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.j ... Id=3433715

Little stuck on how to dose what ferts and when??

Help!!!
 
Interesting plants, will make a great tank for your Betta when the marginals grow in, do you have any females in there? Breeding would be on the cards for sure. T
 
thanks TBRO, I have one female in there at the moment thinking about getting two more but unsure of specific betta breeding!
 
Hi all,
For Betta breeding it is better to have several females, and no other fish. The male will build his bubble nest and will try to entice a ripe female into it, if you only have one female and she isn't receptive he is quite likely to harass her to death.

The problems usually start after spawning, the male is a very good parent, so good that he nearly always slaughters all the other fish in the tank, or dies in the attempt. If you have a very weedy tank the females may be able to hide, otherwise you need to remove them.

The fry when they hatch are minute and need to have access to very warm, humid air to breathe (so you need a very shallow tank with a cover) as they will drown if they can't access the air (it is to do with their anabantoid organ), a tank with a lot of "biofilm" helps with fry survival.

To condition the fish, mosquito larvae are best, and a layer of Ceratopteris (Water sprite) for the bubble nest. I also like some water lettuce (Pistia) as it has great roots and the rosettes form little pockets of warm wet air at the waters surface.

The other thing is to separate the male fry before they get too big, you'll know which ones are males even before the fins develop, they will be the ones that are fighting with one another. After that i is 1 male per tank and as the spawns can be several hundred fish it can get difficult to house them.

cheers Darrel
 
thanks for your advise darrel, maybe i wont go out of my way to breed them as I have no spare tank to house the fry/other fish. Luckly the male in the tank now is a vary placid and doesnt even look at any of my other fish!
 
just thought id shar this pic of my red tiger lotus really love the colourations on this plant

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Nice work Luke. Lotuses are certainly good low-tech choices for ripariums.
 
its growing really well, the other plant, which i am nearly trimming daily is the creeping jenny! im onnly trimming as i want a thick spread on the raft.
 
i'm so pissed off! was cleaning out my filter (fluval 105 external) and was clipping the hosing unit back into the filter and heard this slight snapping noise, taking no notice I started to pump the water back into the fiter. Looking down I saw water leaking everywhere!!!
 
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