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Duff's 2nd Riparium

27K views 62 replies 18 participants last post by  duff 
#1 ·
After Many months, I finally got this one up and running! Finally...

The tank is 24"x14"x14 and the front panel is starfire glass. Now that it finally has plants and water in it, I am totally in awe of the clarity. it makes my other tanks look like my 66 year old windows in my house. No matter how I try to clean them, their just too old to look sparkly. Here's the info:

Eheim Classic 2211 Filter
2 BoostLED PAR 30 Lamp Kits
Hydrophyte's Ion Brick Substrate
75w heater

Various plants
and in the process of moving my fish over from my 20T. (Chili's, Pygmy Corys and one LFBN Albino Pleco) I only moved 7 chili's and 4 Corys this weekend to let the tank settle in a bit more.

I also have wood soaking and it's very close to sinking, so hopefully next weekend I'll be able to add it to the tank as well, along with the rest of the fish.

I made one fatal error - I did not go with black silicon :frown: Live and learn. I covered the back and sides with black cling vinyl and have a bit left over so, I think I will cut 1/4 inch strips to cover the ugly seams from the front...

I'm still playing with the plant placement, so its a work in progress and not the final lay out. Once the wood it is, it will get changed up again. I also add a few stem plants from my other tank that will be used around the wood.

Here are the most current photos:






 
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#27 ·
A few new pictures - everything seems to be growing in nicely. I added wood - boiled it several times and soaked it for about 2 weeks. One piece has sunk and the other is getting closer everyday. So don't mind the wood and plants under the water - they will eventually get rearranged. I added 6 anubia nana that will eventually make their way on the wood. I also moved over 4 more cories from my larger tank this week and will move the rest (5) and one ABN pleco once the tank is more settled in.











 
#28 ·
Hey that's looking great! How is that Fittonia growing for you? Is it growing many new roots?

That red Iresine is a good one. Depending on the light that plant can get leggy, but you can prune the tips to get it to grow more bushy.

How are those little parlor palms doing? Are they growing new roots?

Nice pictures too!
 
#30 ·
@ Hydro~ the Fittonia is doing very well and growing good roots. I trimmed it from my other tank and put it in here about a week ago so it looks like it is not doing much but is very happy in my other tank. The little palm is slow to take off but there are roots growing so I think it will be ok but keeping an eye on it. It has one new shoot coming up. I do have the one palm you gave me (i need to look up the name) that has powdery mildew so I took it out and am treating it with H202/water mix and looks like it will bounce back. I treated it for 5 days and so far only one little patch has come back. So it's in a nursery by itself for now. The light seems to strong enough to keep the Iresine from getting too leggy so far but no so much that it bleaches the red out but I do pinch it from time to time (as you suggested). Thanks on the pictures, I am trying out different settings to see the difference and I think finally found the sweet spot.

@ Newday~ Thanks! right now there are 7 Boras Brigitae and 7 pygmy cories. I have 4 (maybe 5) more pygmy cories, one Albino BN Pleco and a few RCS. I am doing a slow transfer of the fish (about 5 at a time) over to this tank as I only set it up about a month ago and want to make sure the filter/bacteria keep up with the bio-load. I hope to transfer the rest over to the tank this weekend.
 
#35 ·
Hey Sox, thanks so much!! It's just as much fun to watch it grow and transform. The panda is doing well. I finally had to trim it and stuck the trimming in the water to see what they would do and after a bit of die off they are actually growing roots. Once I get several sets of roots (if I do) I will add it back to the main panda planter. I am adding ferts and doing it a bit heavy for the 1st month to get the Ion gravel well saturated (I think that's what I should be doing?) I have dry ferts and am dosing 4x a week both micro and macros on alternate days.

The one thing that is driving me crazy is the wood, one piece has yet to sink and it's only one end that wont so the tip is floating and of course it the one I don't want to float. I'm going to tie a rock to it this weekend if its still floating so I can finally finish it and transfer the rest of the fishies over.
 
#36 ·
I've done a bit of rearranging with the wood and underwater plants. One piece is still not 100% water logged, you can see it on the far left, but it's very close! I think I am happy with it, finally. Once it's fully water logged I may play with it a bit more but for now it works.

I also started feeding Repashy this week and boy o'boy do my fish love it! I have left over terra cotta pottery pieces from my other hobby. They came from San Juan Island and are smooth, more like flat pebbles and work wonderfully. I made up about 12 of them and drop one in every other day and it's totally cleaned off with in 2 minutes! Anyway~ here's a few photo's of the new layout.



You can now see how distracting the clear silicone is - looks like blingged out with blue neon lights :)



 
#40 ·
Thanks Hydro, sox! I appreciate the feedback, I think I finally found a tank set up I can handle!

Wy - I do love the ion brick and did find that after about 2 weeks the ph leveled out nicely. It also looks great in your set up as well. I like how it add a certain "brightness" and "life" to the water area of these types of tanks. Now that I have it I find I am board to tears with black. Not to bash black it's just not as lively. Funny that you say that about having a riparium, I'd like my next tank to be more like the one you are setting up! I've found that I am totally fascinated with the aquatic/terrestrial mix set up. It's not even the critters that interest me at this point rather the combination of the water land areas in and of themselves.

I tired to set the wood up to hide the planter cups (other then the one towards the front, it's newly planted and I wanted to keep a close eye on it and will move it to the back in a week or two) and give a bit more depth to the underwater area.
 
#41 ·
Wy - I do love the ion brick and did find that after about 2 weeks the ph leveled out nicely. It also looks great in your set up as well. I like how it add a certain "brightness" and "life" to the water area of these types of tanks. Now that I have it I find I am board to tears with black. Not to bash black it's just not as lively. Funny that you say that about having a riparium, I'd like my next tank to be more like the one you are setting up! I've found that I am totally fascinated with the aquatic/terrestrial mix set up. It's not even the critters that interest me at this point rather the combination of the water land areas in and of themselves.
It does liven things up quite a bit, I was hesitant at first but now find I like it a lot. I bought enough to do a 55gal with, but haven't yet decided if it will be a riparium or a full blown planted. My problem with the full ripariums is getting the lights up high enough off the tank, as I'm prohibited from hanging electrical off the ceiling by the fire marshal. Not sure if the 55 will come together this spring yet or if it will wait till next fall. I'm also in process with 2 40b paludariums, a 30 vivarium, and a 30 that will be a cold water paludarium. Sigh, so many projects, so little time.

I think you've done a great job with the planters, and love that large DW center piece.
 
#42 ·
I have a similar issue and am working on a new light set up. I bought 2 lengths of copper tubing and bent the end to stick out. I found these to fit on the end of the tubing (fits like a glove) and they are adjustable to different angles: (oops, you can get these in the American plug version, this was just the 1st picture I found to show as an example)

http://www.airaccent.com/single-hea...ella-bracket-250v-2roundpin-plug-p-61431.html

the PAR30 bulbs I have work perfect in them. I found hardware brackets to hold the tubing against the stand behind the tank. If I put a small washer between the brackets and the stand there is enough clearance to move the pole up and down. I cut different lengths of left over 2x4's to place at the base of the pole to raise or lower it. If that all makes sense? Then you get the height where ever you need it high or low. With the length of the copper tube and the 2x4"s I can get almost 3 feet above the tank sitting on the stand. Now I just need to spray paint the tubing black and mount it behind the stand. I plan to zip tie the plug cord to the tubing and hope that with both of them being black you don't notice it's a bit dyi ghetto.

If that doesn't work then I'll get black pond tubing and cut it open to wrap around the tubing and the cord... Hopefully it all comes together nicely. If it does then I'll to the same for the next tank as the cost so far for the bulb sockets, tubing and minimal hardware have me at about $25 for 2 of them. add the Par30 bulbs and I'm at about $180 total for what I hope to be a good looking set up :)

I know what you mean about too many projects and not enough <space> or time! Be sure to post more on the set up of your other projects, I'm really curious about the cold water set up!
 
#43 ·
I have a similar issue and am working on a new light set up. I bought 2 lengths of copper tubing and bent the end to stick out. I found these to fit on the end of the tubing (fits like a glove) and they are adjustable to different angles: (oops, you can get these in the American plug version, this was just the 1st picture I found to show as an example)

http://www.airaccent.com/single-hea...ella-bracket-250v-2roundpin-plug-p-61431.html

the PAR30 bulbs I have work perfect in them. I found hardware brackets to hold the tubing against the stand behind the tank. If I put a small washer between the brackets and the stand there is enough clearance to move the pole up and down. I cut different lengths of left over 2x4's to place at the base of the pole to raise or lower it. If that all makes sense? Then you get the height where ever you need it high or low. With the length of the copper tube and the 2x4"s I can get almost 3 feet above the tank sitting on the stand. Now I just need to spray paint the tubing black and mount it behind the stand. I plan to zip tie the plug cord to the tubing and hope that with both of them being black you don't notice it's a bit dyi ghetto.

If that doesn't work then I'll get black pond tubing and cut it open to wrap around the tubing and the cord... Hopefully it all comes together nicely. If it does then I'll to the same for the next tank as the cost so far for the bulb sockets, tubing and minimal hardware have me at about $25 for 2 of them. add the Par30 bulbs and I'm at about $180 total for what I hope to be a good looking set up :)

I know what you mean about too many projects and not enough <space> or time! Be sure to post more on the set up of your other projects, I'm really curious about the cold water set up!
Very nice - thanks for the DIY link - I like cheap. I'll be sure and post more on the other set-ups as they come together. Right now all those are in the new empty tank stage.
 
#47 ·
Wow, update is way over due. I did not realize it had been so long since I last posted on this tank.

Here is a quick shot of the tank, I need to do some serious trimming/replacement! The roots are packed into the Riparium cups and grow over the top and out the bottom till they touch the substrate. Looks like I have a weekend project coming up.

All the fish, Shrimp and snails are very happy and my LF Albino Bristlenose Pleco finally started growing his bristles. I've had him for over 2 years and they finally started to show up about 4 months ago. He's still my favorite!



The tank is still very low maintenance, Clean the filter out every 3-4 months and add ferts 2 times a week or so. Change the water about once a month at best.
 
#50 ·
Thanks Devin! I did not realize that. I love that plant, it has become my favorite over the last few months. I've been looking for a taller rock to attach it to and place it in the back corner of the tank so it's still above the water line. But now that I know it can be a house plant I may go that route. I only have another 6 inches on the lights (to raise them up) so I fear it will have to be moved in the next few months. Do you still carry them if I wanted to get a smaller one to replace it?

Wy - I will do a thread on the other tanks this weekend. All this talk of terrariums has me inspired! I have tried for ever to get a good shot of him. The wood in the tank has a hollow spot in it and every time I pull out the camera and take one shot, he's gone in a heart beat. I'll keep trying :) He's quite handsome with his flowing fins and bully attitude. He mows through all the shrimp at dinner time like a fancy yellow little bulldozer
 
#51 ·
Thanks Devin! I did not realize that. I love that plant, it has become my favorite over the last few months. I've been looking for a taller rock to attach it to and place it in the back corner of the tank so it's still above the water line. But now that I know it can be a house plant I may go that route. I only have another 6 inches on the lights (to raise them up) so I fear it will have to be moved in the next few months. Do you still carry them if I wanted to get a smaller one to replace it?
all the shrimp at dinner time like a fancy yellow little bulldozer
Yeah you can just pot it in regular potting soil and treat like any other houseplant. Don't let it dry out, but don't overwater it either. Try to give it the brightest light that you can can. It will be real happy if you put it outside in a spot with afternoon shade during the summertime. P. tectorius eventually grows to the size of a small tree, but that will take several years. Pandanus are really cool and unusual tropical plants, but they are pretty easy to grow as houseplants. I have a little collection here of six different species. Pandanus don't have very much commercial availability, so I had to hunt around on ebay and various online forums to get them.

Here are the stilt roots of the P. tectorius in the koi pond at our local botanical garden.

 
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