www.RipariumSupply.com

[hydrophyte]

The Riparium Supply product line has a couple of important new developments. Visit our online store catalog page to find out more:

www.RipariumSupply.com/store.html

Mushroom-head Fasteners: The Trellis Rafts and Hanging Planters are now equipped with mushroom-head fasteners, which replace the hook & loop fasteners that were previously included in the product packs.



These durable plastic fasteners maintain a much stronger bond than hook & loop and, significantly, each individual piece can mate with any other piece, a feature that greatly facilitates the positioning of Trellis Rafts in the riparium composition.

Plastic Planter Labels: There are hundreds of species and varities of emergent aquatic plants that can grow in a planted riparium. Unless kept with plant specimens, identification data can be easily lost. This potential hazard is especially important to keep in mind when growing the emersed forms of aquarium plants, which are often quite different from the immersed forms. We found a plastic planter label that fits perfectly in the Hanging Planter cups.



The label is slid into the space between the inside rear surface of the planter cup and the planter screen. The very top of the label is printed with black ink so that it is visually obscured against the dark aquarium background. The blank rear surface of the label has plenty of room for plant variety information, which can be written down with pencil or fine-point permanent marker.

[hydrophyte]

Riparium Supply is running a fall aquascaping sale now through October 15/ November 30. Every item in the online store is marked down 15%.

Riparium Supply Fall Sale



There are still quite a few extra divisions to spare from our riparium plants that grew outside this summer. Most of these are "pond-type" marginals, such as white rain lily (below), that will bloom with attractive flowers in moderate to bright aquarium light. We can send some of these along with orders for additional modest S&H charge.

[hydrophyte]

I just put together a quick Article page and loaded it to the site:

Planted Ripariums: An Overview

It is a short one, based on a one-page brochure, but there are a few important important concepts in there.

Hey while you are here check out the thread that I just started about the International Aroid Society. That really is a great organization and they have a cool site.

[hydrophyte]

I have a couple more new things on the site--I just loaded pdf format instruction manuals for the Small Hanging Planter and the Nano Trellis Raft. Here are the links:

Small Hanging Planter Tri-fold
Nano Trellis Raft Tri-fold

These pdfs link from the online store page. I will load pdfs for the other two product packs sometime soon.

[malaybiswas]

Nice array to products hydrophyte. Ever since I saw this I wanted to try one, but right now my tanks are in mid maturity and don't have room for more, so I'll have to wait before I change one to riparium.

I have been toying with idea of "Nature Riparium" like Nature aquarium. That would be pretty cool given that, with more plants growing outside water, the issues of CO2 injection and algae are greatly reduced.

The only issue I am trying to overcome in my mind is how to soften the water line and make the submerged and emerged parts more cohesive in the "nature picture".

One idea is to lower the water level and have most plants grow emerged with a few foreground type plants grow underwater. The water can probably be used to highlight open space and mimick a lake or water edge. In nature aquariums people have used sand or bare tank bottoms to do the same. This might be a new way.

Also the famous sand waterfall nature aquascape can also be brilliantly replicated in riparium since you can have the filter outlet (with little modification) directly serving the purpose of waterfall and the water level below makes a natural pool. Personally I like this idea the most and probably would start with this one when I am ready.

Do you have information on any floating plants with fine leaves and paler leaf color? Thinking of a nature scape where these (if any) can work as floating clouds and can soften the water line for farout type scapes.

Anyways, these are just some ideas. Since you already have all the gear, maybe you can try doing one if you like them

[hydrophyte]

malay, I agree it would be interesting to explore the idea of a nature aquarium type riparium. Here are a few ideas that come to mind, informed by some concepts used in nature aquarium garden design and by observations on growing plants in riparium:

• negative space.
• finer-textured foliage, especially "grass-like" plants.
• subdued colors.
• repetition of textures, colors and shapes in underwater and emersed areas
• convincing use of substrates

I think that the following recent picture of my 65-gallon riparium setup provides a useful contrast for demonstrating several of these ideas. This tank doesn't conform to the nature aquarium concept, and is instead a good example of a "jungle" type layout:



This tank has (had) plenty of visual interest, but differed from most nature aquarium layouts in its lack of negative space. Most of the space with the aquarium frame both above and below the water is occupied by foliage. Notice also the several plants with large leaves, including a couple of hefty Echinodorus swords and a Colocasia taro. A central principle in nature aquarium design is the development of layouts that seem to occupy large spaces. Plants with big leaves create the opposite effect.

[hydrophyte]

Special deal available now through December 15th: Riparium Starter Package, with free shipping!

Store-Special.html



Cheers,

[hydrophyte]

Hey we still have the Riparium Starter Package.

Store-Special.html

This includes planter cups and a few trellis rafts--and free shipping!--that you can use to start some plants while planning a larger riparium display.

[CL]

Cool deal. Those are a lot less expensive than I thought I remembered when you first debuted your site (back in the day) One thing that I never realized until now is that you get say two- 3 packs of [product] I never realized that it was two packs, I only thought is was two of [product] instead of 6 total of [product]. I worded that sentence very badly (lol), but do you understand?

[hydrophyte]

Yeah it's a pretty good deal. This small combination package isn't really enough to plant up a whole tank, but it would be handy for getting a few plants going in a 10-gallon or other small container while planning a bigger riparium setup.

[MrJG]

Originally Posted by hydrophyte

Hey we still have the Riparium Starter Package.

Store-Special.html


This includes planter cups and a few trellis rafts--and free shipping!--that you can use to start some plants while planning a larger riparium display.

Just to chime in on this one. If you are someone who is interested in trying out a riparium setup (which I highly recommend!) the "Starter special" would indeed be good to start growing out plants for a larger display.
But if one combines the "starter special" with one of Devin's swap&shop sales of plants already in planter cups they would have plenty of material to get a nice start on a 20H or 29G tank. On top of that theres the Emersed fern and eppi-trellis raft offer as well which I'm totally considering for myself!

Case in point my 29g which currently only has 5 planter cups and 3 trellis rafts:


If you are on the fence... DO IT! We haven't even scratched the surface of what types of plants will work in this kind of setup. Plenty of time to get set up and tanks settled in before the really neat stuff starts showing up at your local plant suppliers in the spring!

[hydrophyte]

Thanks MrJG! Those really are good deals that you link again there.

There are so many new options that can be explored in riparium plant culture and aquascaping. I have had a lot of fun observing the varied responses of plants to emersed growth. The other night I got a few pictures of a Cryptocoryne in a Hanging Planter that grew into a huge monster plant in my 55-gallon setup.

[hydrophyte]

The fall sale is still effective. I think that the Riparium Supply site still mentions 15 November as the sale end date, but it has been extended to 30 November, so place your order soon.

www.RipariumSupply.com/store.html






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