[hydrophyte]

Myth #3 - Riparium plants require CO2 injection for vigorous growth.

The emersed aquatic plants in a riparium will be able to uptake more than enough carbon dioxide from the air, where it is normally many times more available than in water. There is no need to inject extra CO2 for riparium plants. I have seen a couple of riparium setups that used CO2 injection for underwater foreground plants. However, I have never tried this and I would be disinclined to do it. For the setups where I have used underwater plants I have included low tech selections (swords, crypts, Anubias, Java fern) that grew very well without any extra carbon dioxide. By installing a CO2 system one would be losing out in part on the beneficial low input and cost-saving features of planted riparium.

Another tack that one could apply for the underwater area would be to use no plants there at all and instead develop a compelling underwater layout with a well-rendered hardscape, high-quality natural gravel and active fish display.

A related idea is the use of high-nutrient substrates for the underwater plants in a riparium, such as mineralized topsoil mixes with top dressings of other gravel substrates. I think that this would also be overkill in most cases. Topsoil plant substrates might be best used where underwater plant nutrient demands are very high, as with the use of bright lighting and CO2 injection. If planted into a riparium the underwater plants will usually be less demanding. The emersed riparium plants can throw a lot of shade on the underwater area and in a fully-planted riparium there will only be spaceand light for underwater plants up in the front 1/2 or 1/3 of tank depth. It is usually a better idea to select low tech underwater plants and feed them with some water column dosing or tablet or capsules fertilizers, rather than setting up a more complicated layered substrate.

Check out RootMedic.com for excellent aquarium plant fert products at great prices.

 

[duff]

KISS - Keep It Simple Silly... I have to admit that this is the part I like the best about Ripariums - all my other tanks need so much love compared to my little riparium

As usual, I have a somewhat off-this-topic questions, For plants on rafts and in planters:

1) do the roots need to be trimmed? How often? Beneficial/Harmful?
2) In doing so, is the effect like bonsai - resulting in smaller growth/ controlled growth?
3) Is replanting of the planters suggested after a period of time, say in a year or more? (add root tabs - trim roots etc?)

Thank you Hydrophyte, as always for the great information!

Duff

 

[hydrophyte]

KISS - Keep It Simple Silly... I have to admit that this is the part I like the best about Ripariums - all my other tanks need so much love compared to my little riparium

Yep riparium setups are ideally nice and simple.

As usual, I have a somewhat off-this-topic questions, For plants on rafts and in planters:

1) do the roots need to be trimmed? How often? Beneficial/Harmful?

Sometimes the roots will grow from the bottoms of the planters and get pretty long, but it is fine to trim them.

2) In doing so, is the effect like bonsai - resulting in smaller growth/ controlled growth?

Shorter roots might slow the plant down a bit, but not too much.

3) Is replanting of the planters suggested after a period of time, say in a year or more? (add root tabs - trim roots etc?)

That depends. Most kinds of riparium plants can stay in the planters for a quite a long time...a whole year or more. If you have a clumping or rhizomatous plant you might however want to knock it out of the planter to divide so that you can have more. I often do this with crypts because they can grow into really dense clumps with lots of shoots in the planter. Some plants will get to be very root-bound in the planters, but most do not seem bothered by this at all. There is however one kind of plant that grows such dense roots that it can start to bend the sindes of the planter. The Cyperus that I use a lot grows a lot of hairy roots and it might be a good idea to repot it before it gets really big. Otherwise it is just hard to get it our of the planter.

Thank you Hydrophyte, as always for the great information!

Duff

You bet!

 

[dundadundun]

hydrophyte... question...

curious...
is it your personal proprietary line of planters and trellis rafts that defines a riparium as such? if you don't mind me asking...

if not; what other methods could one use to go about constructing a riparium? any thoughts?

for example; if one were to say put a couple hooks on some good neodymium magnets and put a thin layer of adhesive or rubber on a couple other neodymium magnets or steel slugs... could one hook a black filter block or maybe some epi-web to the back wall of an aquarium and use that as an inert substrate or media (soil) for the emergent (riparian zone) plants and still consider what they've achieved a riparium? maybe attach some closed cell foam cut into their own preferred shape and used similar to your trellis rafts as foreground planters?

or is this something that's eventually going to be a proprietary and/or patented term such as orchidarium?

 

[hydrophyte]

There's no priority claim for the word "riparium" or the general concept of growing plants above the waterline in a fish tank by me or anybody else that I know of, but the particular configuration of planters and/or trellis rafts in the Riparium Supply product line and their use in an aquarium system has patent pending protection.

With the definition that we have been using here what you are describing sounds to me like a riparium. It sounds to me like it could work well for certain kinds of plants and would probably provide excellent biological filtration. Some kinds of plants that I have used can grow very well with their roots right in the water so an open-cell foam could be a good substrate for them.

Here are some of the ones that I think would be good for growing like that...

• Pilea
• Anubias (for high humidity)
• Java fern (for high humidity)
• peace lily
• pothos vine
• Syngonium
• HC
• various emersed aquarium stem plants

I understand that in Europe hobbyists have been doing this kind of planting in combination with their hamburg mattenfilter systems for years already.

Some of the best riparium plants are more demanding of rich root fertilization and they are better planted in a clay-based gravel, so something more like a planter cup or a paludarium with soil substrate is better for those.

 

[Gatekeeper]

I have the impression that a Riparium is its own style of aquarium aquascaping. From the things I have seen, the idea (or ideology) is to form an emergent state of plant growth that appears to form without a land mass (almost floating if you will). This forms an underbellly of shaded water mass that provides an artistic impression.

Now, looking at Tom's first pic of the driftwood and plants emergent on top, could this be a riparium style?? I say yes. It still provides for the open underbelly of water column, provides an emergent state of growth and plant mass, while limiting the actually land mass composition to below the water line (no, I don't consider wood as land mass).

I think you need to look outside the box and see that there is a true distinction between a Viv and a Rip in an aquarium. One is an attempt to match an actual ecosystem, one is an artistic style - similar to an iwagumi and its attempt to match a landscape or impression of something in real life other than an underwater reality.

Nothing we really do in a wet box is true to nature. The minute we filter the water, or add some type of outside chemical, lets face it, we have altered reality. Impression, I believe, is what counts.

Rips are just another impression that has evolved and I truly believe they are all distinctive albeit, I can see that there can be cross overs and hybrids with a Viv.

Just my two cents.

 

[mistergreen]

op's request.