LJ 100L Riparium

[Lalo J.]

Hello again everyone, as you already observed in the title, I am starting a new tank, this time it is a riparium, and luckily I have the opportunity to collect some things in nearby streams, but not everything will come from there, maybe just the hardscape and just a percentage of the aquascape.
I'm not good with plants, and I'm starting this project to try to eliminate that part, it's time to learn. So my intention in this tank is to have low and medium requirement plants, I want to keep red plants, I love them but I have never kept them successfully.
The idea is that the plants inside the tank emerge and "merge" with the plants that will be on the water, you can search the riparian of the Crazydaz user in the network, that tank is my inspiration, I can't say that I will have something like it , but if my tank can look 50% like it then that would be great.
I am going to use led lighting, there are 30 and 50 watt reflectors, the measurements of my tank are 28"x16"x14", I consider that the 14" height is ideal for the plants to get out of the water, I am considering using a substrate with black soil, tezontle ground black and seal with sand. Or what do you recommend to use?
My biggest fear is the algae, for the riparium I plan to use osmosis water, and not to use drinking water as in the community tank, this change will avoid some algae, right? I am starting this tank, and I only have the glass as such, please feel free to suggest and advise on the plans I just described, and new suggestions are welcome.

 

[the loach]

Typically red plants require high lighting. Ludwigia repens red/rubin does well for me in low light, though it isn't as red as in higer lighting conditions. When you have some floating/fast growing plants in there and no excessive stocking algae shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Lalo J.]

Thanks, what do you think about using osmosis water instead of drinking water?
I have more doubts, how many lumens per liter do high requirement plants require? And what additives do I have to add to make them grow correctly? I guess if I configure the tank for high requirement plants, the low and medium requirement plants should be fine, right?

 

[Sprinkle]

Oooh! Sounds interesting! I better subscribe

 

[dougall]

Using pure OR water without remineralizing it first, isn't a good idea for any livestock; due to the buffering abilities and whatever.

the need to use something other than tap water will depend on your choice of Flora and Fauna

Additives, assuming for plants, will depend on the needs of the plants, and that depends on what yoy choose to keep, or what you have easily available for them... like do you want to supplement atmospheric CO2 for submerged plants.

 

[the loach]

You would mix the water for instance 50/50 if I remember correctly that would put your KH around 4.
With the assumption you use light with a decent spectrum, it's around 75 Lumen per gallon for low light, ±150 LPG for medium light and above ±225 for high light. There is the danger of slow growing plants getting algae with high lighting. Also high lighting and CO2 go hand in hand...

 

[Lalo J.]

Dougall, the loach, thanks for your advices. I'm looking for options for lighting, what do you think of the following led reflectors:


50w
3000 lumens
6500°k

 

[Lalo J.]

Oooh! Sounds interesting! I better subscribe

Welcome dude

 

[dougall]

Mot enough information for me to comment on the lights,

I suspect either will work, bo clue how it will look and that's normally my primary focus. I would make sure they can be dimmed, just in case. And that the angle of the lighting will work for your specific case... covering the emerged plants, for example.

 

[the loach]

I agree with Doug it is most important to how it will look. The key to this is the CRI value, which like color temperature, becomes more important to have things look good under water. Both lights (most LED's in fact) omit this specification. The typical CRI of LED's is around 80, which is not good at all (it's a 40 year step back) you want something around or higher as 90. The first light is probably too economic to have a good quality, since it has 3 different LED's I think the 2700 is the maximum output at which you no longer have the desired temperature (CRI will suffer even more) I think at the right color temperature it will only be around 2000.
The floodlight type at least has LED's which are 6500K, but this say nothing about the CRI. Note that the 300 extra Lumens it produces cost 20 Watt, which may indicate that it has a better spectrum... or that it is just less economical.

I think I already gave you a couple of examples of both LED's and fluorescents in your other thread that have the right specifications, which means you will certainly be happy with them.