15-gallon Riparium

Inka4040 said:
That new raft design is pretty neat! Man... This tank is really giving me ideas. Saw a super squat rounded corner square glass rimless at the LFS that would just be perfect for this open top type setup. If only I had a place to put it. Did you have to stick to more terrestrial plants given the lower humidity in this setup compared to your others?
Click to expand...

Yes short and broad tanks are perfect for this kind of setup. Tanks with that shape can offer a great view down to the water's surface and with plants growing up and out of the top you get a real nice effect similar to a garden pond.

The plants in this tank are all semi-aquatic marginal aquatic plants, but they can handle lower air humidities just fine. The only plants that I have used in ripariums that need very high humidities (and closed canopies) are crypts, anubias and Java fern. All the other ones that I have tried do just fine in open-top tanks.

I got back to replanting this thing tonight. I think that I have a pretty good result. It still looks a bit disheveled, but it should perk up as stuff grows in.

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There are several new plants in there. The Cyperus umbrella sedge over there on the left is C. albostriatus/I] and it is shorter (~8") than the other one (C. alternifolius) that it replaced.
 
I got a hardscape in there. It's not too special but it adds some dimension anyway. I consider adding some underwater plants. Can anybody think of any smallish bright green crypts that I could use?

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Thanks Craig. You are right parva would have the same look as some of those abovewater plants.
 
Here is another quick update. I switched up the hardscape again, this time electing to use some interesting rocks of different colors that I had sitting around.

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There really are fish in there. These phantom tetras are mainly black anyway and they hide in the shadows under the planters.
 
This is a crop from that last picture to better show the foliage textures. I really like the plants in this layout.

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And here is detail for the stones. I did a lot of poking around to find these nice rocks.

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I have torn down this tank. I was never especially satisfied with the hedge-like planted layout that I had in here--although it did include several pretty cool plants--and I needed a tank for the Riparium Supply and Tank Planters vendor table at the ACA 2010 Convention last weekend. Here is a quick shot of the setup that I had there.

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I was mainly sitting there at the table all three days of the convention, but I did get up a few times to go shoot some pictures. I got a few nice shots of the show fish. I'll be back with a few of those whenever I get a chance to format them and load 'em up.
 
I finally got into the folder with other pictures from the show. I mean to start another thread with all the shots that I got of show fish, but here are a few quick while I finish those up.

I did some limited post-processing of these images files, including crops to improve composition and exposure adjustment.

This was my new favorite fish that I learned about, Gymnogeophagus labiatus. I purchased two trios of this species. I need to go back and check the images but I think that this individual right here also placed in the show.

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Below, a surly Amphilophus citrinellus.

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This Texas cichlid (Hericthys carpinti) also looked real nice.

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