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Lbacha's "Borneo Stream Biotope" terrarium (Lot of new pics 11/30)

108K views 402 replies 42 participants last post by  lbacha 
#1 · (Edited)


Well everyone, I have decided to take emersed setups to a different level, I want to display my emersed plants like we do our submersed plants so I have started looking into a terrarium. I wanted to throw my idea out there and see what you all thought first before I started buying equipment. I'm planning on using a exo terra terrarium (if anyone had a better suggestion please let me know) with a mistking watering system hooked up to a humidity controller. i will have to get a custom acrylic top for the tank as I want 85%+ humidity at all times. I'm planning no fauna for it just plants and everything will be something that is sold to be in an aquarium (crypts, anubias, bucephalandras, maybe some stems, java fern and aquatic mosses). I'm planning on a tiered pool approach with hydroton in the bottom so their is substantial water in it.

My concerns:
1. is the exo terra sealed enough to keep humidity as high as I want..
2. Will the split front glass doors be a distraction..
3. What is the best way to heat (I'm thinking heat the water)
4. How do I create circulation in the tank and is it needed with aquatic plants (I don't have any in my emersed set-ups now)
5. Will mosses be enough to keep mold and fungus down (I know moss is naturally resistant to them) if not how do I control that other than air circulation.
6. How do I keep the front glass clear enough to see into this when it is done It would defeat the purpose if I can't see in (will a fan blowing on it keep condensation off? or is this a lost cause)

If anyone has any suggestions on the above points or other things I should think of let me know.

Len
 
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#78 ·
Well after spending alot of money on foam, grout and other thinks to make fake rocks I may have found a better alternative there is a company www.vivariumworks.com that makes artificial rocks out of foam. the rock texture itself is actually the foam so it should be faily inert and it weighs nothing. I have been emailing the owner back and forth and we are thinking an open cell foam outside layer with a closed foam core for support would allow the rocks to absorb some moister withough getting too waterlogged and possibly causing anerobic zones. Does anyone have any thoughts on this concept for growing moss and of course bucephalandras. His rocks are very nice looking and since he can custom color them I can get exactly the look I'm going for.

He can do them in closed cell foam, no moisture retension or resin rigid and no absorabancy. I'm not sure these options would work for growing plants on the rocks, the open cell kinda like a real dense sponge seems the best to me and the closest to sandstone which in this stream environment would be permanently soaked through anyways.

Len
 
#80 ·
Wow he has really nice stuff.

In my experience there are quite a few plants that root really well in open-cell foam. I bet it will work well for the buces.
That is my thought as well and his stuff is amazing, open cell seems like it has better positives than using grout over foam with the only negative being that it may hold too much water and get anerobic or have other bad things growing in it. I think if we go with a 1" layer of the open cell over a core of closed cell this will be eliminated though. He is actually going to see if he can find some rocks that have a stream worn look like the pictures I gave him and he may cast me some custom molds. I'm really excited about the prospects of this. There is no way I could get this quality on my own and since the buces will be very slow growing the rocks need to be top notch if the terrarium is going to look good while they grow in.

Len
 
#82 ·
Wow, that's huge and the weight would be out of sight if they were all natural, so I guess they must be faux but you can't tell at all. I think it's really cool and very well done, who did the work for you?

I can't wait to see the rest, you gotta love folks that have big ideas and then follow through, it's going to be awesome but you might have to rent that 2 bedroom next door.

More, more, more!!!! :bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce:
 
#87 ·
Thanks ill probably plant a Buce or two on a rock once I get them to see how they well they grow on the foam but I'm not sure when I will do the full scape maybe between Christmas and new year. I'm really torn on tank sizes right now, I want a 36" x 24" footprint but they are ridiculously expensive, I really don't need the thick glass taller aquariums need bso I may need to go the custom built route to save on the cost.

Len
 
#83 ·
Yeah they are made of opencell foam so they will hold some moisture which will be huge for moss and plant growth They are currently hollow but I'm trying to decide if I want them to be filled with a rigid foam to add stability, all that rock is probably less than 20lbs. As for the bigger apartment, you arn't kidding, I may need to get a house soon if I keep it up, now I have to decide on a size tank for the rocks, I'm thinking a 65 or 75.

The place I got the rocks is www.vivariumworks.com

pic of the back of the large rocks the small ones are solid foam.


Len
 
#86 ·
They are actually hollow so I'm thinking of foaming bricks into them to add weight or I will silicone threaded acrylic rod onto the bottom and I will then screw the rocks down, the benefit of foam is I can cut a chunk out and the replace it or smear clay into the hole. While I'm concerned about the foam floating, Steve (the owner of vivariumworks) showed me a sample paludarium he built with rocks like mine and 10" of water and no issues with floating once siliconed down. I would like them to be easier to remove so I'm thinking the rods is the best, way.

Len
 
#92 ·
He did it all on saturday, just a matter of mixing the foam and pouring into the molds, the key is making all those nice molds. He even went out of the way to order the open cell foam before I even commited to the order, I havn't even paid yet, the service is great. It something he is doing while going through college, I did the same thing in college (made money off a hobby)

Len
 
#93 ·
Well I wanted to build my own 12g super long but it was going to cost me $10 than one company and $40 more than another and I had to ride 45 minutes to meet their tractor trailer in Baltimore, so not going to happen. But I think you could easily build your own Acrylic tank if you have a good plastics company near by but you are right in needing a custom tank and it almost need to be square or at least very deep.

The only draw back I see to the hollow stones are fauna getting behind them but I don't know what type of creatures your thinking about if any, but they could easily be attached to some base or background foam that could be hidden with substrate, paint, plants, etc.

Nice find on the company and I saved the link, you never know!!! I can't wait to see what you'll come up with but I love the fact that your all in!
 
#94 ·
I have this Scismatoglottis 'Frosty Kiss' which is a real nice riparium plant. That 'Frosty Kiss' is just the variety name and I lost track of the species, but I am pretty sure the species is from Malaysia and not Borneo.


Frosty kiss is a pusilla variety grown commercially in Malaysia, but interestingly is native to the Philippines. I have been looking for that one, do you know of a place that has it for sale?

Klaus
 
#96 ·
Ok it might seem like this is slow going but there is a lot of research going into this, so far here is what I have going

Tank: 75g (48x18x21) this was the hardest part deciding on a size

Stand: custom, I will build to match my aquarium over Christmas

Controllers: probably going with a ecozone controller which will control lights, temp, humidity and air circulation, it is programmable to have different a setting 365 days a year and it can dim lights for dusk/dawn effects pretty neat if you ask me.

Lights: dimmable t-8 or t-5 normal outputs, this is a jungle tank so light doesn't need to be high

Humidity: mistking I already have it and it is awesome

Air circulation: Intank fans but would like to be able to force humid air in from the outside this is my research topic right now, I have to figure outbhow to keep the glass clear as well, I'm thinking warm air blown on the outside onto the glasslike a defroster in a car.

Hardscape: foam rocks see pictures up above

Water and filtration: there will be a 40 breeder as a sump and the tank will be setup to have varying water levels to mimic wet and dry seasons. The back wall will be a waterfall that will have a varying flow rate to mimic rain flow

Well I've been adding plants to my collection to fill this at a fast rate see my emersed thread now I need to start collecting some good mosses to add to the tank

Let me know what you think

Len
 
#97 ·
The controller sounds super cool and I'm not going to google it and look, I got so close to buying a ReefKepper once, so I'm scared to look.

The Air circulation seem like a good way to heat the whole tank.

I think it is going to be highly disturbing and I may need therapy after I see this thing put together.
 
#98 ·
Yeah I wouldn't look, it is essentially a reef keeper for terrariums, I built the high tech planted tank I had wanted since high school earlier this year and this is now the terrarium I've always wanted. I will warn people that I plan on getting all the bells and whistles, lol. I always had to improvise on my reef tanks because of funds now that I have funds I'm doing things right, lol

Len
 
#102 ·
Ya know I am now pondering doing something like a loos Borneo biotope withthe planting in my 56G. I just placed an order and only just realized that Barbus rhombocellatus that I included is a Borneo fish and I will be getting a group of those. I have a single Steatocranus cichlid (from West Africa), but I might have to leave him in there because he's a really cool fish. I could add the barbs and maybe also some kind of appropriate species Betta and then also work on the plants. Apparently none of those rheophytic palms that I have in there are from Borneo, but most of them are from SE Asia. If I could get my hands some Piptospatha I could add one of those and also a Bucephalandra or two on the trellis rafts.
 
#103 ·
You keep hinting at that piptospatha Devin at the rate it's growing for me we may be able to work something out, I'm not sure how it multiplies yet so we'll have to wait and see there, the schitsoglottis's are looking good as is the palm..

On another exciting note I got the first box of rocks yesterday and they are amazing, I may have got more than I need, lol. Just wait till you see the pics, one of them is huge and would fill up a whole 40b by itself. The texture on them is perfect as well, nice and rough and even though it is open cell foam (like a sponge) the surface is fairly hard so it should plant and hold up well. Now to make some room in my emersed tank and plant some buces on one..

Len
 
#104 ·
I look forward to seeing pictures of those rocks. If you think of it it would be great to see close-up detail of the finish.

Hey I'm glad that those plants are looking good. I saw your other PM I think I forgot to answer. I apologize those schisms dried up a little in the mail but it sounds like they are coming around. I had those going in a high-humidity growout, so I can imagine that the leaves suffered a bit. Those plants grow with real extensive rhizomes however so they can recover from leaf loss easy. I got more dwarfish palms here but like you said they are dangerous because they get to be addictive. I can't get enough of them.

I just got my box with the Barbus rhombocellatus and they look fantastic. I think I will go ahead and try to turn that setup into something more like a loose Borneo biotope. I just need to figure out something for the catfish and cichlid that I have in there now.
 
#105 ·
I didn't take any macro shots before I left (I got home at 11pm last night and ha to fly out at 7am this morning) I will this weekend though, the surface on the big stones is nice and rough so I think it will be great for moss and plants, the small stones are smoother but I think they were molds of granite river stones so that is to be expected, as for the plants they all rebounded and no leaf loss there is actually some new leaves sprouting, its good to know that not all plants in the schismatoglottideae family are slow grows gives me hope for the piptospatha. The loas Borneo riparian sounds like a cool idea.

Len
 
#106 ·
Here are some pics of the rocks I got yesterday, the rest came today but I'm on the road so I won't see them till Friday :icon_sad:, the pictures are a little washed out it was late last night when I got home so I just used the point and click they are actually alot darker in person and I will try to get better pics when I get home this weekend.

A whole pile on my 40 breeder (I still have 2 large rocks coming, I may need to go bigger than a 75)



Individual rocks the texture is rwally nice and rough on these they will be great for planting moss and buces,
Rock 1



Rock 2



Rock 3



Really big rock (This one is hollow and it may not be used in the tank I was planning on putting housplants around the tank and this may be part of the display it would take up half the tank otherwise lol)




Small rocks, (these are smoother than I would like but I think they were smooth river stones so I'll live with it) they will be great accent peices for in between the terrarium, I can't wait till some one comes over and I can throw one at them and scare the crap out of them :icon_evil:icon_evil:icon_evil



And here is a teaser shot just for you Devin, my piptospatha sp. that will be at home on one of these nice custom rocks.



Enjoy Len
 
#107 ·
They look pretty realistic and a lot bigger than what I had in mind. You are going to have to wait a very long time to have the buce to fill the surfaces. Are you going to reshape any of the larger rocks for your scape?

The pebbles appear to be a lot darker than the boulders. The shapes,color, and texture looks a little bit off from the boulders though.

They look good overall but I think I would still prefer the real stuff over the foams.

I picked up a few nice ones for my 90g over the weekend but they're pretty heavy. I might have to reinforce my stand so the acrylic at the bottom wont sag. They weight 30-50lbs easily.

The flower bud on the green velvet opened up tonight as expected. Ill post them up in a bit.
 
#108 ·
The color is actually the same on the large and small rocks the pics just came out bad, I will take better shots this weekend, the surface is definitly different though, the little ones are smooth but I'm planning on using them underwater so it may not matter, i'm planning on cutting some of the rocks to make them fit the corners and sides better. Alot of the reason I went with the more realist rocks was because I knew it would take a while to grow in. I really like the idea of real rocks too but I want to be able to move the terrarium intact if I have to move out of the apartment and real rocks wouldn't do. I was at our cabin this weekend and I grabbed a few nice aged sandstones from the rock pile we have and even small ones just weighed alot so a full tank of them would be impossible to move without having issues. I also think small spots of buces will look good at first and as they grow in they will look better. I can't wait to start working on some hardscapes this weekend with the rocks and the background.

Len
 
#109 ·
So the large rocks are made of an open-cell foam?? I'd be interested to see macro shots of that. Is is the same foam all the way through or do they have a coating on top of the open-cell foam?

I have the new iteration for my 56 more thought out. At this point I think I will have the Barbus rhombocellatus that I just in combination with a pair of Betta pugnax. I also want to replace the Crypt. wendtii vars. that I currently have in there with Borneo-representative underwater plants. Have you compiled or have you seen anywhere a list with Borneo crypts that are around in the hobby?
 
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