Duff's 2nd Riparium

[vincenz]

Everything looks perky and happy, looks great. Why do you regret clear silicone though? Because of your black background?

[duff]

Yup! since it so visible from the front Both the sides and the back are covered in Black vinyl. I have tried to hide it in most photos but it sticks out like a sore thumb when I look at the tank.

Thanks for the kind words!

[hydrophyte]

I agree black silicone can look really slick, but one advantage of clear silicone is that black will show any little ding that you get in it. I accidentally scraped the black silicone in a Marineland tank and the ragged edge is really consipicuous.

[sockfish]

Originally Posted by indigo

this is looking amazing love the combination of plants you have.

sorry if this is a silly question but what is in the planter thingees? looks like round orangy balls of some sort. are they all thats in there?

Indigo--the orange balls are a sort of small version of a hydroponic clay ball. Hydrophyte sells them as part of his riparium planters.

Duff--this is getting to be just a treat to check in and see your latest pics. The panda seems to be doing quite well. Are you adding ferts to the water at all?

sox

[duff]

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.

[duff]

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

[hydrophyte]

Wow that is looking great!

[sockfish]

That's. Just. Jawdropping.

sox

[Wy Renegade]

Very nice. One day I'll have to try a true riparium style tank. That Ion brick does set off the plants very nicely.

[duff]

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.

[Wy Renegade]

Originally Posted by duff

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.

[duff]

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-head...g-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!

[Wy Renegade]

Originally Posted by duff

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-head...g-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.

[hydrophyte]

Originally Posted by Wy Renegade

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.

A 55G is an excellent size for a high-humidity riparium with crypts, Anubias and ferns. You can keep an excellent collection of plants in a setup like that along with fish and it's pretty easy to set up and manage. Here is the one that I had set up a couple of years ago...



Since so many people are interested in keeping collections of emersed crypts and similar plants it's odd to me that I've hardly seen anybody do this kind of setup(???).

[Wy Renegade]

Originally Posted by hydrophyte

A 55G is an excellent size for a high-humidity riparium with crypts, Anubias and ferns. You can keep an excellent collection of plants in a setup like that along with fish and it's pretty easy to set up and manage. Here is the one that I had set up a couple of years ago...



Since so many people are interested in keeping collections of emersed crypts and similar plants it's odd to me that I've hardly seen anybody do this kind of setup(???).

Thanks Hydro. I may have to consider something like that. If I do, I'll start a thread to get some additional advice.