I'm thinking of converting my 65g to a riparium, but I'm concerned about jumpers.
I have a thick 'lid' of duckweed and am adding to it to make it even thicker. I know that'll help, but I don't think it can stop everything.
This is an idea I had, this picture. I'm going for a backwater look, the kind of place where the bank overhangs and the bottom is covered in years worth of junk and small fish dart in and out of the shadows.
I was thinking I could build something that sort of puts an overhang on the sides, something I can plant so the roots hang down. It would be covered in vines and moss and ferns and that sort of stuff, and it would have holes in it to let me slide the light through. I need to figure out how high it would have to be to keep fish from ending up on top of it...
How high do you think a tetra or pencilfish can go, straight up? Six inches? More? I'd just feel so bad if I found a poor little thing who'd jumped over the barriers or gotten caught on them and dried up.
I also gotta figure out what to put in front. Maybe I could get some glass cut...
The filters are gonna be full of stuff too, plants and so on.
I've not kept those fish to have experience with them jumping, but I've read that most jump because they are: startled (lights suddenly going on from complete darkness, house cats trying to fish, kids tapping on the class, etc), see food (flying insects for example), or have unacceptable water conditions (uncycled, high nitrates, low oxygen from co2, etc). Try to remove these possibilities (having a little night light for 'lights out time', work hard to keep bugs out of the house and keep up with tank maintenance/acclimate fish properly.
All that said I have a riparium on my 20g long which covers 1/3 from planters, foliage, and floating rafts (with plants on them). I don't keep duckweed since it clogs HOBs very easy, but I have some salvia minima and frog it trapped between the rafts so if can't get near the filter.
I can't offer any guarantee that you can eke fish from jumping up and getting stuck on planters but if you don't plan to have any plants below you can completely cover the surface in floaters and planters.
Keeping the water line 4-6" below the rim should be enough to keep
Fish from getting on the floor.. How tall is this tank?
It's about 2' tall, I don't remember the exact measurements. I don't think my HOB filters would like the water being low... They get noisy when it's only about 3" down from evaporation.
I have anubias in there, some java ferns, and a couple bunches of (optional) hornwort.
I need to work out a way to keep the filters from pushing the duckweed around. The downward water flow takes duckweed down into the water and it's ended up in a big wad in the corner. I'm thinking maybe some sort of planter in front of the outward flow, or something to direct the water straight down and keep the duckweed out of the flow.
I have seen a Moonlight Gourami jump out of a 5 gallon bucket that only had about a gallon of water in it, so some fish, highly stressed can become quite athletic.
Little Tetras etc, will probably be safe under a blanket of duckweed.
To keep it in place (all over the tank) change to an in-tank filter, power head with sponge, or a canister that has a long tube to return the water to the tank. Keep the water movement below the surface.
Most HOB filters return the water to the surface and cause too much surface movement. As you have found, the duckweed gets pushed to the far corners.
If you still want to use the HOB, but also want the water to be lower in the tank you can put a small fountain pump in the tank with a tube to take the water into the HOB. Do not plug in the HOB; the fountain pump is the power.
To make the water from the HOB enter the tank more gently make it land on some rocks or driftwood. It will then follow the rock into the tank. You will have to work with sizes, shapes and angles to figure out what works best.
I just found a solution to the filter problem. I hung a carbon-less filter floss cartridge right in the flow, and now there's basically no current across the surface. It just nudges duckweed away from a less than 1/2" wide area around itself. I plan to put plants in the filter floss and let them grow- maybe some pothos or ferns.
Do you think a tetra would jump up and try to get a full-size roach? There's a big black roach living somewhere behind/under the tank, and he comes out at night.
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