hello All!
Well, long story short, I was looking into how to downsize my current low-light planted 50g discus tank to something that didn't require hauling RO water, with minimal maintenance, that could maintain my java fern/anubias covered driftwood bits, and then I saw this site called paludariumsupply.com. And I got a surge of exitement, & now things are getting complicated again- in my head at least. My local water is hard & chewy (8.0+ ph, GH & KH 200ppm, 25ppm nitrite out of the tap. I know I should look into Rift Lake Cichlids with water like that, but I really like aquatic plants.
My current tank's dims are 36" wide, 27.5" tall & 15.5" deep. I understand this might not offer enough depth to create the diminution that really helps compositions, but it's what I've got to work with. For the air water ratio, I was thinking about 16" of air/glass over about 11" of water (36" wide and 15" deep). I'd like to pick someone's brain as to the advisability of this idea (I'm on a budget). I currently have discus in a softwater set-up, and am looking to move to something that can tolerate my ph 8.0+ hard tap water (done hauling RO water jugs). Suggestions of livestock for that volume are very welcome. I was wondering if there's a terrarium plant package biome/grouping that's recommended for my tank dimensions -or at least a recommendation as to what book(s)/sites would be the best references for my intended application.
I like live plants, and have kept aquatic ones for years, as well as carnivores. My current aquatic plants are java fern, java moss, anubias nana- all growing on driftwood, and bronze cryptocorynes. I have several amazon swords I will be evicting because they're too tall. One I've had for 10+ yrs. I would like to keep some small fish in the water portion, and the idea is the emersed plants would do a significant proportion of the filtering, though I'd like to hook up a (probably internal) filter, perhaps with a spray bar positions to "water" some of the plants? I would like to feature a combination of emersed, submersed, & epiphytic plants in this paludarium. I was thinking those poor "aquatic plants" that aren't aquatic at PetSmart might be a good place to start for cheap foliage, and the local garden store's marginal plant section.
For hardware, I currently have about 2 watts per gallon 6700K fluorescent lighting. I'm guessing that's probably woefully inadequate, but would love to hear otherwise. I have a 70% glass cover I can use to keep humidity up/evaporation down, if need be.
I'm not really sure a transition to half-air is going to result in less maintenance for me, but that's the goal (plus I always liked how my tank looked when it was mostly drained for a water change, so this is natural progression/excuse to evolve!
Anyone have any thoughts, caveats, suggestions? Is the transition feasible without a huge outlay for hardware? I'm not dead-set on hard water (just less RO-- I have my own 90 gpd RO unit), or keeping my java/anubias, wood. Sorry for so much rambling and the disjointed info.
Thank you!!
Well, long story short, I was looking into how to downsize my current low-light planted 50g discus tank to something that didn't require hauling RO water, with minimal maintenance, that could maintain my java fern/anubias covered driftwood bits, and then I saw this site called paludariumsupply.com. And I got a surge of exitement, & now things are getting complicated again- in my head at least. My local water is hard & chewy (8.0+ ph, GH & KH 200ppm, 25ppm nitrite out of the tap. I know I should look into Rift Lake Cichlids with water like that, but I really like aquatic plants.
My current tank's dims are 36" wide, 27.5" tall & 15.5" deep. I understand this might not offer enough depth to create the diminution that really helps compositions, but it's what I've got to work with. For the air water ratio, I was thinking about 16" of air/glass over about 11" of water (36" wide and 15" deep). I'd like to pick someone's brain as to the advisability of this idea (I'm on a budget). I currently have discus in a softwater set-up, and am looking to move to something that can tolerate my ph 8.0+ hard tap water (done hauling RO water jugs). Suggestions of livestock for that volume are very welcome. I was wondering if there's a terrarium plant package biome/grouping that's recommended for my tank dimensions -or at least a recommendation as to what book(s)/sites would be the best references for my intended application.
I like live plants, and have kept aquatic ones for years, as well as carnivores. My current aquatic plants are java fern, java moss, anubias nana- all growing on driftwood, and bronze cryptocorynes. I have several amazon swords I will be evicting because they're too tall. One I've had for 10+ yrs. I would like to keep some small fish in the water portion, and the idea is the emersed plants would do a significant proportion of the filtering, though I'd like to hook up a (probably internal) filter, perhaps with a spray bar positions to "water" some of the plants? I would like to feature a combination of emersed, submersed, & epiphytic plants in this paludarium. I was thinking those poor "aquatic plants" that aren't aquatic at PetSmart might be a good place to start for cheap foliage, and the local garden store's marginal plant section.
For hardware, I currently have about 2 watts per gallon 6700K fluorescent lighting. I'm guessing that's probably woefully inadequate, but would love to hear otherwise. I have a 70% glass cover I can use to keep humidity up/evaporation down, if need be.
I'm not really sure a transition to half-air is going to result in less maintenance for me, but that's the goal (plus I always liked how my tank looked when it was mostly drained for a water change, so this is natural progression/excuse to evolve!
Anyone have any thoughts, caveats, suggestions? Is the transition feasible without a huge outlay for hardware? I'm not dead-set on hard water (just less RO-- I have my own 90 gpd RO unit), or keeping my java/anubias, wood. Sorry for so much rambling and the disjointed info.
Thank you!!