Some of my Planted Ripariums

[hydrophyte]

Martha, I can send you the plants already established in the planters so that all that you would have to do is have your aid suction-cup them into the tank.

I can plan to select low-light plants, but it could be handy to have more details on that light. Do you know how many watts it is? Is it fluorescent? I imagine that you also have an air pump with an airstone to move the water around a little bit(?).

 

[dgmcs]

They are incandescent aquarium bulbs...you know the rectangular ones and there is no pump or airstone but the is a Whisper 515 from Walmart that the girl had bought.. It was a sort of a kit... her kids weren't into that...... weird....Martha
Thank you for the plants and help...

 

[hydrophyte]

Martha, I think I covered most everything in my latest PM.

One detail that came to mind is that that filter might not work so well because the tank will only be partially-filled.

 

[Notophthalmus]

That's a good idea. Cherry shrimp get along OK with guppies too.

How did you plant those emergents? Did you root them right in the bottom of the tank? I have thought that it would be fun to do that with Pontederia, Alisma and similar stuff.

My substrate is just play sand and gravel, so it's nutritionally empty. I have only two plants rooted directly in the substrate, neither an emergent - a Cabomba caroliniana and a Potamogeton diversifolius. I really need to add some sturdier submersed plants, because my siren mauls these.

All of the emergent plants are potted in a mixture of oak leaves, play sand, and a commercial aquarium plant substrate (I forget which one). There is a potted Sagittaria brevirostra on the bottom of the tank; the rest of the emergents are on a platform I built of 1/2" PVC pipe and eggcrate lighting diffuser, with expanding insulation foam used to disguise the edges. The whole thing was painted black with Krylon Fusion spraypaint.

This tank was kind of a rush job; I'd like to disassemble it and start over. If I do I will probably replace the bottom substrate with a more organic mixture and plant some of the taller emergents directly in it. I just have to figure out how to keep the tall plants upright.

 

[b.greene]

:clap:I think I feel a new tank coming on....

 

[hydrophyte]

:clap:I think I feel a new tank coming on....

Hey well let me know if you need any information or ideas. I have set up a few of these so I sort of know what I am doing.

My substrate is just play sand and gravel, so it's nutritionally empty. I have only two plants rooted directly in the substrate, neither an emergent - a Cabomba caroliniana and a Potamogeton diversifolius. I really need to add some sturdier submersed plants, because my siren mauls these.

All of the emergent plants are potted in a mixture of oak leaves, play sand, and a commercial aquarium plant substrate (I forget which one). There is a potted Sagittaria brevirostra on the bottom of the tank; the rest of the emergents are on a platform I built of 1/2" PVC pipe and eggcrate lighting diffuser, with expanding insulation foam used to disguise the edges. The whole thing was painted black with Krylon Fusion spraypaint.

I usually use just inert sand or gravel in the bottom of the tank just because it's easier to deal with. For those riparium tanks it is important to have light-colored substrates in the bottom of the tank because the emergent plants throw a lot of shade, so I do well with pool filter sand and another more coarse construction sand that I also get in bags. I suppose the underwater plants get most of their nutrients from water column dosing and I also add root tabs to the sand. I do like to add richer materials to the riparium planter cups. I have been doing real well with mineralized topsoil.

Here is a really cool emergent aquatic, and a North America native, that I got a while ago, Orontium aquaticum...

This one has been doing OK, although I found that it needs a rich substrate and pretty bright light. For a while I had it in the shade of a big Echinodorus and it died back some, but now it's doing better.

 

[hydrophyte]

And here's a better view of that plant. The leaves have a beautiful velvety sheen. I hope that I can get it to flower someday.

 

[Notophthalmus]

Golden club! That's a very nice plant. It gets pretty large; how big a tank do you have it in?

You've got me thinking about a redesign of my riparium (thanks for the name, by the way; I'd just been calling mine a landless paludarium). I may continue to use pots for my plants and replace the sand bottom with one of fine silt and leaves for a more biotopically appropriate look. The major issue will be how much the siren stirs things up; he doesn't try to dig in the sand but might try with a softer substrate, especially if I get amphipods and lumbriculids established.

 

[hydrophyte]

That tank is a 65-gallon. I hope that I can control the size of the golden club. It grows slowly and I have it in a small planter.

I was pleased that it does not seem to have a strong winter dormancy cycle. It stayed green all winter.

 

[hydrophyte]

I shot these pictures a couple of months ago and they aren't the greatest, but I wanted to post them while I remember where I have the files. These are plants that I grew this summer outside in a plastic basin. I have also used them in ripariums.

Ludwigia sp., "primrose willow"--I am unsure of the species for this one. It bloomed prolifically at the end of the summer. I have grown this plant in ripariums, although it seems to do best in natural sunlight.

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Lippia nodiflora, "frogfruit"--This is a creeping plant with little button-shaped flowers. In Mexico and in Florida I have seen it growing as dense mats near and in the water.

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Tulbagia violacea, "society garlic"--This plant grows as densly-clumping bulbs. I haven't tried to grow it in displays. It grows rather slowly.

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