[Warren B]

Reposting this from another forum, figured you guys might like it as well. Not a traditional aquarium by any means, but its still got plants and fish. :icon_bigg




With a sudden influx of funds, I've decided to give my crappy Riparium/Paludarium (not sure what to call it) a make over.

First, a before shot: (Yikes, I know)

First, I drained all the water I could and transferred the fishes to other tanks or this big ol' bucket:

Ordered some ecoweb / epiweb and got to work on both sides with some GE silicone I.

Made some DIY vines, nylon rope covered with silicone and peat moss. Unfortunately silicone I only comes in clear and white, so some of the rope remains uncovered. Hopefully mosses and epiphytic plants will eventually cover up the rough patches.

Attached them to chunks of cork bark and ecoweb, then siliconed that onto the background.

Also fixed my ghetto-rigged drip wall. Rather than a piece of vinyl tubing snaking up the background, I've replaced it with some PVC.

Also braided some longer pieces of rope together and strung it out across the tank. I'm using the toothpicks to keep the vines from touching the little bit of water left in there until they are fully cured.

After waiting a few days for the silicone to cure, I added some water and began filtering it with the pump and a water bottle filled with filter floss with a hole cut in the end. Re-added some of the fish I took out. Also bought a dozen peppered cories for $1 a piece at the local petsmart.

Ordered a whole bunch of epiphytic plants and Neoregelia for the walls, should be here this coming week. Besides that, I ordered some vivarium moss from NEHERP, which is good stuff.

Also boiled some leaf litter I collected outside. Mostly maple, with some oak and beech mixed in. I'm trying to go for a blackwater-type environment, I'm sure my South American stocking plan would enjoy it.





For the water section, I'm planning on a stocking of:

12x Peppered Cory
12x Rummynose Tetra
6x Buenos Aires Tetra
6x German Blue Ram


As for the top 2/3 of the tank, I'm planning on probably adding a few anoles and red eye tree frogs, and possibly an Avicularia sp. or two.

 

[Warren B]

Still a bit cloudy. I'll drop a purigen packet in the bottle, once I can find the darned thing somewhere in my aquarium supply storage boxes....

View is from the side of the tank.

 

[jhays79]

Last few photos look pretty wicked man! Looking forward to more updates...

 

[Warren B]

Planted the moss today.

I didn't like how obvious the water pump was, so I went ahead and cut and rearranged the intake so I could stick the pump in a back corner of the tank.


Now I'm just waiting on this plant order, plus I ordered a couple dozen wild-type Neocaridina. Both packages should be here this Wednesday.

 

[Warren B]

Got plants today, lots of Neoregelia and ferns.

FTS

Right side

Left side

I apologize for the horrendous pictures, I'll have to get the DSLR out this weekend.


I ordered a Current Satellite Plus that should be here by Friday (WOO AMAZON PRIME), though its designed for aquarium plants I'm hoping it'll provide enough intensity for the broms.

 

[Warren B]

Unfortunately, the weather was way too nice this past weekend to be cooped up indoors taking pictures. I'll have some hi-res deliciousness this week for you guys, hopefully.

Got some new inhabitants today. Petsmart was having a "buy 4, get 2 free" sale on any combination of fish, and I was able to pick up 5 bolivian rams (all they had) and another SA bumblebee catfish.

Also picked a green anole for 50% off, so I figured why not. Unfortunately he was the only one they had. I'll have to pick up a female companion or two for him once they get more in stock.

 

[someoldguy]

The vine idea is great !!!! This will be super when it fills in ! What are you using
to pump water into the waterwall drip system ? Is it the outflow of a big canister , a couple of small submersible pumps , or something altogether different ?

 

[Warren B]

The vine idea is great !!!! This will be super when it fills in ! What are you using
to pump water into the waterwall drip system ? Is it the outflow of a big canister , a couple of small submersible pumps , or something altogether different ?

Right now I'm just using a single Eheim 2000 pump (528 gal/hr) in the tank. The plants are doing a fine job of absorbing the nitrates, as well as all the bacteria on the ecoweb dripwall media itself. I'm hoping to replace the pump with a canister filter in the near future to help more with the particle waste as well as providing more room for biomedia. For now the pump+dripwall is working just fine.

 

[lamiskool]

Neat lizard! Can it live on just the wall like that/will it drown if it falls into the water? Just curios and I have no experience with them so thought id ask.

 

[Warren B]

Neat lizard! Can it live on just the wall like that/will it drown if it falls into the water? Just curios and I have no experience with them so thought id ask.

Anoles are largely arboreal, so he should be fine.