Hoppy's 65 Gal Riparium

[Hoppy]

I'm now committed! Today I signed a credit card receipt for $305 for a new 57 gallon Oceanic Illuminata rimless tank, to be set up as a riparium. That is a beautiful tank, and a bargain for a rimless tank. The glass is nicely beveled and polished at the top, and the seams have only about a tenth of an inch of silicon overlap. It is a 36" x 18" x 21" high tank, with a black bottom rim.

I am essentially done making the stand for this: see http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/di...ium-stand.html


The light fixture will be the LED fixture shown in: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/di...d-fixture.html



But, first I need to tear down my 45 gallon tank, stand and plumbing to make room. And, order a few more planter cups from Hydrophyte.

[Old Salt]

Looking good , Hoppy. Waiting for pictures of the tank.

[monkeyruler90]

things are going to grow like crazy under that fixture!

[fastfreddie]

Glad I found this thread early! You are a DIY fanatic Hoppy! You may need counseling.

The fixture and stand look good enough for a retail shelf. I know how much time you have invested in both. Especially that light... wow!

Looking forward to watching you hone your riparium skills!

[CL]

Yes! You are gonna get the awesome tank!!

[billb]

Wow - nice work on the stand. It will complement your new rimless tank beautifully (much better than gray formica...)

Look forward to seeing this develop

Bill

[fastfreddie]

Originally Posted by fastfreddie

Glad I found this thread early! You are a DIY fanatic Hoppy! You may need counseling.

Edit that. You are 4 posts away from 5,000 posts. It's way too late for counseling. The effects are irreversible.

[paulrw]

lookin good hoppy! i scanned through the light thread ,couple questions how many watts does the entire fixture use and did you end up with the 50-100 micromols per sq m per sec of PAR at the substrate level you were looking for?

[Hoppy]

The LED fixture runs at 400 mA or 200 mA and uses about 40 watts of power at the higher current. It gives about 45 micromols of PAR at the high current, with the fixture hanging about 6 inches above the tank, at near the substrate, about what I hoped for. It has been running at 200 mA for the past few weeks, with no CO2, as I try to switch the plants to non-CO2, so I can use them for the underwater plants for this riparium. The plants, mostly crypts, with some needle leaf Java Fern, and some sunset hygro are doing very well growing with no CO2. I will probably use the fixture at the higher current setting for the riparium.

[Minsc]

You got it, very nice!
This tank is destined for greatness

[Hoppy]

I don't really have the tank in hand yet, it had to be ordered. I could have arranged to get it tomorrow, but I won't be ready then, so I will probably pick it up late next week. One bit of sad news: I contacted 2 of the 3 LFS who sell Oceanic tanks for a price on the tank. One said $279.99, and the other said "about $300", so I bought it from the first place. Then, 2 hours later the second place called back to say they could cut the price by 10%, which would have saved me $10. Of course $10 isn't like real money today, so I'm not upset. With that $10 I could have paid for the gas to go pick up the tank! (PT Cruiser's don't get great mileage!)

[paulrw]

awsome hoppy! you have got me interested about rips i have a 29g i'm thinking of making into one you and hydrophyte have got it down. i can't wait to see were you go with this!

[Primetime Rob]

Well done. The stand and fixture look amazing. I look forward to seeing more.

[Hoppy]

Originally Posted by paulrw

awsome hoppy! you have got me interested about rips i have a 29g i'm thinking of making into one you and hydrophyte have got it down. i can't wait to see were you go with this!

I did a "prototype" riparium with a 15H tank, just to be sure I really enjoyed it as much as I thought I would. I find I do. Why not set up that 29gallon tank for that reason too? It isn't grossly expensive to do so, and you will learn a lot about ripariums that way, plus find out if this is something you want to get more serious about. At worst even a poorly done riparium looks very good, with the beauty of the terrestrial plants above the water. And, there is a seemingly endless variety of plants you can use.

[paulrw]

hoppy i saw your 15g thats what made me think hmmm! I really got into the planted aquariums because of the plants so the natural progression is the riparium I'm happy that theres people like you and hydro to push the boundary's to keep the rest of us inspired kudos!