# 20 Gallon Riparium



## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

i am setting up another new riparium. this one is going into a 20G High (24" wide X 12" deep X 16" tall). 










this is the the smallest size that i have successfully used for ripariums: it is difficult to hide the planting hardware in a smaller tank. the height of this tank is just enough to accommodate short/medium statured plants.

i am not a wild fan of blue backgrounds for aquariums, but wish to try one for this display. it might go well with the plants that i am using.










this paint should dry to a somewhat darker, more subdued color. here is the jar with color on lid.










these "paint pods" are pretty handy. they are supposed to sell like samples and they are just a few bucks each. you can get a very wide selection of colors without having to wait for mixing or buy in a larger quantity. there is about a cup of paint in there.

i don't have any single prevailing theme in mind for planting this one. in the emersed area i intend to just use a few hardy low/moderate light plants, such as the following:


_Cryptocoryne wendtii_
_C. lutea_
_Spathiphyllum_ sp. "peace lily"
_Bacopa monnier_i
_Hemigraphis_ sp.

in order to accommodate the humidity requirements of the crypts, the tank will be mostly covered with a glass canopy.

i am going to use just a couple-three crypts in the underwater portion.


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

awesome! it'll be cool to see how this one turns out. i've always wanted to try a riparium, but my hand at growing emersed plants isn't exactly the best ever...

*subscribed.*


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

I am definitely interested in watching the development of one of these beauties!


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## Voozle (Mar 22, 2009)

I'm also interested to see how this one turns out. Your larger tanks are beautiful, but I hadn't realized such small tanks could be used effectively as ripariums. I am in the process of emptying a 29 gallon, so maybe this in an option, after all. Looking forward to updates!


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

i'm shooting more pictures. i hope to have more up later tonight.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

this is as far as i got tonight.










here it is with sand, gravel, rocks and 5.7 inches of water. this is a smaller space, but it should work well for a simple design. i have a whole sequence of pictures leading up to this. i hope to post tomorrow.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

ok, here is the whole sequence, beginning with the empty tank.










i used the _golden ratio_ as a guide for determining depth of water. this consistently produces a pleasing result. to find the dividing line that would separate the underwater and above water portions i first measured between the bottom of the top plastic frame and the top of the bottom plastic frame, finding a distance of 14.4". by multiplying this number by .6, (rounded down from the golden ratio conjugate, .618033...) i determined that the above water area would be 8.64" tall. so, the water should fill the bottom 5.75" of the tank.










here is the tank with a quick and simple hardscape. i have found that it is easy to situate rounded river rocks in a nice arrangement. i also used the golden section for the hardscape, placing the largest rock approximately along this line.










the sand substrate is also an inexpensive, easy to work with material--white pool filter sand. it is important to use light-colored substrates in planted ripariums. the emersed plants can begin to throw a lot of shade as they grow and darken the underwater area. light colors reflect light and brighten the underwater area.










lastly, a layer of light-colored, rounded pebbles tops the sand. these little stones help to blend the larger rocks and sand layer and they also help to obscure fallen roots, leaves and other detritus that would otherwise be conspicuous on the white sand.










...next, live plants!


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## Gatekeeper (Feb 20, 2007)

Hemigraphis sp should be awesome. I planted these outdoors in a little water container this year and they popped the surface two weeks ago. For such a "vertical" stem, they are actually so full of character.

Looking forward to seeing what you do with it here.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

which _Hemigraphis_ do you have? i have some 'Red Equator' and also _repanda_. _Hemigraphis_ are easy plants, although they can grow leggy. it is helpful that they grow rather slowly, unlike many stem plants. _repanda_ gets pretty nice white blossoms.


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## Gatekeeper (Feb 20, 2007)

_Hemigraphis traian_


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

oh you had some of that in your emersed setup. i quote your picture here i hope ou don't mind.



gmccreedy said:


> A little update. Going to be redoing alot of these containers over the next few weeks so will post some more extensive pics later.
> 
> _*Ludwigia glandulosa*_ (has a beautiful magenta color, grows so much faster emersed then submersed)
> _*Hygrophila polysperma*_ (notice how it creeps along the bottom, shows its true form as to why its a noxious weed)
> _*Hemigraphis traian *_(I think)


that is a neat little plant. do you think that it is a pretty easy grower? i remember seeing somewhere that there was some doubt as to whether that one is an actual _Hemigraphis_, or something else.

the _Polygonum_ 'Kawagoneum' that Crispino sent to me is doing really really well as an emergent and i might consider adding it too. however, it's difficult to manage more than a couple of soft stem plants in a riparium because they tend to flop over. i generally try to have the setup dominated by sturdier rosette plants.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

i got plants in there tonight and took a number of pictures as i worked. here is a scratch shot.










this will shape up as i get more midground plants in there. i'll try to enter a post with descriptions tomorrow night.


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

This tank is shaping up quicker than I thought that it would. Good job so far


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

thanks. i used almost full-sized plants, so it was easy to fill it in. 

i need to add a few more emersed things and also some underwater plants, then fish.


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

good job, i like it! you know what would be pretty cool in here? you should throw in some red root floaters! then you could see the blossoms and the nice roots really well.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

i usually do put a few floating plants in these because they make it all look more natural and help to hide the planting hardware. i thought that red root floater needed pretty high light. it might be too dim in here for that one. i will at least add some giant duckweed and _Salvinia_.

here are the plants that i have in there so far, beginning from left:


creeping jenny (_Lysimacchia nummularia_)
_Cryptocoryne wendtii_ 'Bronze'
peace lily (_Spathiphyllum_ sp.)
creeping jenny (a second pot)
chameleon plant (_Houttuynia cordata_ 'Chameleon')
mondo grass (_Ophiopogon japonicus_)











i have several more to add.


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

oh, nevermind then. sounds like a good idea. I have some frogbit if you want it, i actually need to get rid of mine.

what kinds of animals does one put in a riparium? obviously fish, but it seems like there would be something else you could add that would be really cool, like a sweet little frog or lizard or something. are there a lot of small swimming lizards? lol


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

ripariums are mostly just for fish and other fully aquatic animals--there really isn't any dry land area for animals to use. 

the only swimming lizard that i know about are marine iguanas, which probably grow to like 20 pounds, and swim in salt water. 

i have considered adding butterflies. one would probably need a big enclosure for those and also a screen top. you'd have to service it at night otherwise they would all fly out. most of the commercially available butterflies that i have seen are offered for weddings, and they usually just have monarchs and painted ladies. it would be preferable to use something smaller. it would be really neat to select larvae food plants for the planted area and get them to actually reproduce. the odd caterpillar that falls in the water could be fish food.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

i am going to work on this some more tonight, but i wish to post a larger picture from my latest result.










like i said before, it still needs more plants.

i have been shooting all of these with two different lighting sources. the picture above shows the tank against a black ground lit up with two simple CF clamp lamps. here it is with an aquarium fixture, a 24" T5 strip light, the light that i will use with this setup.


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## sunfire99 (Apr 8, 2009)

Looks really nice. I love the layout of the rounded rocks on the bottom. They look like eggs laying there in these photos.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

sunfire99 said:


> Looks really nice. I love the layout of the rounded rocks on the bottom. They look like eggs laying there in these photos.


those rounded rocks are easy to work with. it seems you can just stick them wherever and they look OK, although i did spend some time with this arrangement. in some of my other tanks i have found such stones to be really handy because you can just roll them over if they develop algae on one side.



demosthenes said:


> oh, nevermind then. sounds like a good idea. I have some frogbit if you want it, i actually need to get rid of mine.
> ol


what kind of other stuff do you have? have you seen any of my plants that you might like. i would like to do a trade if we could exchange boxes with a few different things. i could use some frogbit.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

i have started the article as a blog post that will include most of these pictures. it is still a draft, but i intend to get it into good shape. i will eventually clean it up some more and publish as a regular article too.

it is still right at the top of my blog.


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## oldpunk78 (Nov 1, 2008)

do you know if you get the same 'silent' cycle with a riparium as you would with a planted tank?


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

oldpunk78 said:


> do you know if you get the same 'silent' cycle with a riparium as you would with a planted tank?


i don't know that it would work in quite the same way, but i think that you might expect to observe similar responses as in a regular planted tank. 

even though i am using fresh sand and gravel in here i do anticipate being able to add fish to this tank right away with no trouble. most of the plants in here were already established in other culturing tanks, so really the gravel in their planter cups should already be "cycled", with robust colonies of nitrifying bacteria. furthermore, the plants have established root systems and will continue to grow and grab nutrients from the water column in this new setup. some of the plants have almost all of their roots inside of the hanging planters, but aquarium water can difffuse into these through their drainage holes. the plants that are growing on rafts have their roots suspended directly in the water.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

i finished the planting tonight be adding a couple more plants in hanging planters and on trellis rafts. i also planted a few things in the underwater area.










this is a very simple little scape. i am going to leave the underwater area sparsely-planted, but i probably will move things around down there. i think that the emergent plants are looking pretty good.

if you look you can still see planting hardware here and there, but that will get covered up as the plants grow in some more.


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Another wonderful set-up :thumbsup:
You make it look easy


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## malaybiswas (Nov 2, 2008)

ah! now it looks complete. the first set of photos with the bare bottom seemed incomplete although the layout is awesome. adding the crypts between the rocks, just does the job!!

very nice work.


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Oh, I forgot to ask if that was mondo grass in the back right.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

thanks very much. this one was really was easy to set up. i spent substantially more time fiddling with the camera than with the tank. 

i might move around those underwater plants (_C. wendtii_ '?', _Hygrophila_ sp.) some, but i will leave the underwater area sparsely planted.

that is mondo grass in the rear right. here is the full list of emergent plants:


creeping jenny (_Lysimacchia nummularia_)
_Cryptocoryne wendtii_ 'Bronze'
peace lily (_Spathiphyllum_ sp.)
chameleon plant (_Houttuynia cordata_ 'Chameleon')
mondo grass (_Ophiopogon japonicus_)
_Hemigraphis_ 'Red Equator'
_Polygonum_ 'Kawagoneum'
the _Hemigraphis_ and the _Polygonum_ were the last two things that i added.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

i am going to take this apart, then put it up again in the room where i will keep it. here is one last shot, through the top of the tank.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

as i was taking this apart i got a couple of shots of the _Polygoneum_ 'Kawagoneum' that i had in there. it is a graceful, delicate plant.










note that it has developed a flowerstock, visible on the uppermost stem. the flowers have not quite opened yet, but i expect them to just take a day or too more. if i can remember i'll post a macro-shot or two of the open flowers.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

here is a close-up of the developing bloom.










each leaf has a single reddish chevron marking on its upper surface. you can see it there on the leaf to the left.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

hydrophyte said:


> here is a close-up of the developing bloom. . .each leaf has a single reddish chevron marking on its upper surface. you can see it there on the leaf to the left.


After seeing this picture, you have convinced me to transfer one of my 20 gallons into a riparium when I get some extra money! Love it.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

thanks. if i can remember i hope to get some finer macro shots when the little blooms open up.

this link directs to somebody else's picture of flowers on _P._ 'Kawagoneum'.

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/plant-physiology-emersed-culture/62873-bloom-report-polygonum-kawagoneum.html#post476339


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

i got a couple shots tonight of the tank _in situ_.










notice the 1 1/2" gap in the front of the glass canopy. this encourages warm air to rise along the front pane of glass, thereby discouraging water condensation. i removed the single crypt that i had in here, so all of the plants will be able to handle the lower relative humidity.










i need to work on the underwater area to get a more coherent arrangement, but i think that the emergent plants look OK. if you look closely you can see a couple of fish. i will explain those with my next post.


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## garuf (May 30, 2007)

Hello, Can you explain the principle of the "planting hardware"? I think the tank is fantastic, I fancy trying one myself for the Vampire crabs I have ordered. Is it a floating raft or a separate tank with in the tank?


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

garuf said:


> Hello, Can you explain the principle of the "planting hardware"? I think the tank is fantastic, I fancy trying one myself for the Vampire crabs I have ordered. Is it a floating raft or a separate tank with in the tank?


thanks very much! i like your tanks too. the hardware includes floating and hanging plant supports. i think that this kind of display would not work so well for vampire crabs: there isn't really any land surface for them to use in there. 

ripariums are primarily for fish and other fully aquatic animals, and the emergent growth of plants. however, there is quite a lot of room in there for fish--nearly 40% of tank volume. unlike paludariums, which are similar, there is no built-up terrestrial area, so there is consequently much more underwater space.


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## Gatekeeper (Feb 20, 2007)

If you integrated floating logs or something similar, I could see this working for some type of critters other then fully aquatic.

One suggestion is to get that filter tucked into the back left corner of that tank. You could easily hide it there.

Looks great though. Once again. I wish I had more room to setup a tank, i would have one in a heartbeat.


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## houstonhobby (Dec 12, 2008)

This is a great looking tank. I read thru the thread but I may have missed some details. I have some questions if you don't mind. (1) How are you filtering the water part? (2) Could you explain your fertilization routine, both above and below water? (3) What is the light?

Also, in my attempts at paludariums I always had trouble with condensate obscuring the viewing above the water line. Does this occur?

I'm really hoping to set one of these up. I just need to find some room to sit it.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

houstonhobby said:


> This is a great looking tank. I read thru the thread but I may have missed some details. I have some questions if you don't mind.


thanks very much. this is a very simple setup.


> (1) How are you filtering the water part?


the filter is a Fluval 1 Plus Internal Power Filter. is is just short enough to fit the approximately 5 3/4" of water depth. i prefer to use canister filters for ripariums, but for this small tank this filter will be OK.


> (2) Could you explain your fertilization routine, both above and below water?


i intend for the fertilization also to be as simple as possible. i plan to fertilize the emergent plants 1X/week with water + macronutrients solution dropped onto the planter gravel surface with a pipette. i use mixed dry ferts that i acquired from aquariumfertilizer.com/. i do not use exact measurements, instead just applying a few drops to each planter, being somewhat more cautious with KH2PO4. this has always worked well. the liquid fertilizer diffuses through the planter gravel, and some probably also makes its way out to the aquarium water for use by the immersed plants. for tanks with brighter light i usually try to dose 2X/week.

i dose Fe (Seachem Iron, or Plantex CSM+B) directly to the water at recommended dosages. both the emergent and immersed plants utilize this nutrient.

i might not need to dose anything else for the underwater plants. i will see how they do. one could easily add a few tablet fertilizers for them, which could be a good idea in this case because they are growing in an inert (pool filter sand) substrate.


> (3) What is the light?


the light is a 24" Current HO T5 strip light with two 24-watt lamps. i think that one of the lamps is the original blue tube that came with the fixture, and the other is a Giesseman daylight lamp. i like this combination of higher Kelvin bluish light and daylight lamps. 


> Also, in my attempts at paludariums I always had trouble with condensate obscuring the viewing above the water line. Does this occur?


this can occur. i do not anticipate seeing condensation with this tank because of the ample gap in the canopy along the front edge. in ripariums with plants requiring higher humidity (crypts, _Anubias_, ferns), such as my 55, achieved with a tight-fitting top, condensation can be more problematic. whether or not it forms depends in part on the relationship between the air temperature in the room as it relates to the air temperature inside of the tank.


> I'm really hoping to set one of these up. I just need to find some room to sit it.


let me know if any other questions come to mind.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

gmccreedy said:


> If you integrated floating logs or something similar, I could see this working for some type of critters other then fully aquatic.
> 
> One suggestion is to get that filter tucked into the back left corner of that tank. You could easily hide it there.
> 
> Looks great though. Once again. I wish I had more room to setup a tank, i would have one in a heartbeat.


it would be difficult to fit much of anything else in there and i think that floating logs would detract from the above-water planting. for me the plants are really plenty intriguing enough. it might be possible to do this in a much larger enclosure, but you would have to use much sturdier plants. i don't know if you can see it but i have some very fine stem plants in there. anything bigger than 1/2 gram would just knock them right down and into the water.

i could hide the filter easily enough behind that creeping jenny. i just positioned it there to show filter selection/installation. it doesn't bother me too much in this spot and it is easier to service right there in front.


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## sunfire99 (Apr 8, 2009)

Like I need to want something else, but this looks so nice. I vote to hide the filter also, if you're keeping track of votes. :icon_bigg Of course yours is the vote that counts. Either way, it's just beautiful.


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## garuf (May 30, 2007)

It's occured to me you could use tropica bank wood concept to add to this if you needed a dry area, suckers could be added to a hunk of wood, it then could be attached to the glass and TA DA! Dry land.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

sunfire99 said:


> Like I need to want something else, but this looks so nice. I vote to hide the filter also, if you're keeping track of votes. :icon_bigg Of course yours is the vote that counts. Either way, it's just beautiful.


thanks again man. this one is really pretty simple. i hope to have updates form some of my other setups sometime soon.



garuf said:


> It's occured to me you could use tropica bank wood concept to add to this if you needed a dry area, suckers could be added to a hunk of wood, it then could be attached to the glass and TA DA! Dry land.


hmmm, that's an interesting idea. for now i have plenty to do just developing the plantings themselves.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

i remembered another picture that i wanted to post here.

last night i got a shot of a chameleon plant (_Houttuynia cordata_ 'Chameleon') bloom. 










not so showy as the foliage, but a nice little flower.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Reminds me of a cone flower. Very pretty with the leaf texture.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

it is a nice little plant. i hope that it will perform: i only just got i a couple of weeks ago. i cut several divisions from the potted plant that i bought. the big question is whether or not it can grow year round in an enclosure, or if it requires a winter dormancy. it is winter hardy here in WI. 

i hope to acquire the non-variegated form too.

here is a picture of the whole plant with flower.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

I am in *love*!


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

i observed something about that chameleon plant today. it is established and has grow quite a bit since i planted it in there. however, the new leaves lack the bright white, pink and red of the leaves that it came with. the new leaves are still variegated, but just with green + light green--still looks pretty cool, but more subdued. you can see this in that last picture.

i have a few other new observations from that 65. several of the other new plants are doing very well. i shuold post some updates for that tank.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

i got a quick shot of this one tonight.










i had cleaned it up and moved a few things around. i should try to get another picture after a few days when the plants have had a chance to re-settle.

this display is overall not so dramatic, but it is nice as some bright green foliage in the room. the fish are entertaining too and it has been very low maintenance.


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Wow, everything is looking fantastic!


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## mgdmirage (Mar 30, 2009)

Holy smokes... that looks fantastic!


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

thanks. well like i say this one isn't all that special. i figured out a few things with this setup and i do like to watch the fish.

i see that i double-posted that last entry. is there a mod out there who would be so kind as to delete one of them?


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## malaybiswas (Nov 2, 2008)

It's looking cool and one blue gourami is like a dash of accent color. Really pretty!


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

Very nice, I like it a lot. That Powder Blue really pops under all the plants.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

hydrophyte said:


> thanks. well like i say this one isn't all that special. i figured out a few things with this setup and i do like to watch the fish.
> 
> i see that i double-posted that last entry. is there a mod out there who would be so kind as to delete one of them?


Deleted.  The pictures are fantastic. Is that Mondo Grass on the left? I really like the look of it. I am so excited about my riparium project in the making. I can't wait until I can buy some supplies from you and get started. I almost have enough money saved up. :hihi:


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

thanks for deleting that post. that is mondo grass--probably the hardiest plant that i have grown in these setups and good for making a grassy background. 

i want to try more different types of mondo grass (_Ophiopogon_ sp.). i have a black-leaved one, which looks really cool, but it doesn't seem to like to grow in wet soil. there are also white-variegated varieties and yellow ones too i think.


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 5, 2006)

That is awesome. I wonder if this could be done on a smaller scale..say a 10" cube?


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Hoppy] has one going in a 15 X-high and has it journaled over in the Vivarium/Terrarium forum. i wouldn't suggest anything smaller than that. it becomes difficult to hide the planting hardware in a very small tank and most of the best plants are too big and coarse for a small space. 

might be better to do something more like a traditional paludarium setup--perhaps with some artfully arranged driftwood and stones--in a 10" cube.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

I love the contrast of the crypts on the bottom with the mondo grass. The colors are outstanding. Let me know how the other mondo grass grows. It would be interesting to do only a few species in a tank like this.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

I had pulled all of the plants out of this tank a while ago and set it up for propagating a few stems. It was accidental, but the plants actually grew in pretty nice. Here is a shot from tonight, a view from above...










The underwater area looks dingy by comparison, so I didn't bother with a full-tank shot. I might try to tidy it up for a few more pictures. I have a few more observations on these plants, which I wrote up in another thread in General Planted Tank Discussion...

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/general-planted-tank-discussion/94884-stem-plants-ripariums.html


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## trev (Mar 2, 2008)

STUNNING!


makes me want to start riparium.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

This one was easy to set up. All that I did for those emersed stems was to just stick them in there and let them grow. It will take some more effort to clean up the underwater area so that I can come back with a FTS.


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## MrJG (Feb 21, 2007)

hydrophyte: You're absolutely killing me with all of your awesome setups. I promised my wife that I'd set her up a dwarf gourami tank when I finalized my last layout... its looking like I might have to find a 20 and attempt one of these myself. 

Comment on the Polygonum 'kawagoneum': I've been keeping this in one of my outside emersed setups all summer and it throws those flower stalks constantly but never flowers IME. The seedlings just fall off to spread around. I'm still picking growing seedlings out of one of my inside tanks from those stalks. :-/


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Hey well if you might to do a setup and if you might want to try out some unusual plants I have quite a bit of extra stuff on hand right now. I grew a lot of material outside this summer and I am struggling to find room for all of it.


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## trev (Mar 2, 2008)

ive been thinking really hard on starting ether a Terrarium, or a Riparium..

too bad i smashed that 40g tall that was sitting in the shed... oh but so much fun it was..


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## MrJG (Feb 21, 2007)

Hydrophyte: PM incoming.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

roger that


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

Now I have a weird question, could you silicone rocks to a corner of an aquarium to make a curved rock wall, then fill the area _behind_ the rocks with plants? It was an Idea floating around in my head that I just needed to let out. Your rips are AWESOME hydrophyte! Thanks for sharing!


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

JakeJ thanks very much for looking at my tank pictures.

You could do something like that, but then you would have a paludarium, not a riparium. I think I saw a setup something like that once that involved a realistic rock made from foam, with an open space behind that held flower plants with emergent aquatic plants.


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

Thanks! I was wondering what the diffrence was between a paludarium and a riparium, I am such a noob!


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Is it possible to get a couple side shots? I am setting up one of these soon (as you know ) and am trying to find the best placement for the tank. Thanks!


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## Church (Sep 14, 2004)

By definition, a riparium is a riverbank setup while a paludarium is a marsh setup. I'm not saying that people who call their setup a "paludarium" are actually recreating a marsh, but I'm telling you that the etymology of the words are very specific, so my definitions above are accurate.

Linguistics is kind of my "thing."


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## Green Leaf Aquariums (Feb 26, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> I had pulled all of the plants out of this tank a while ago and set it up for propagating a few stems. It was accidental, but the plants actually grew in pretty nice. Here is a shot from tonight, a view from above...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I really like this photo. Very refreshing to the planted tank hobbyist in my opinion


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

sewingalot said:


> Is it possible to get a couple side shots? I am setting up one of these soon (as you know ) and am trying to find the best placement for the tank. Thanks!


This is from before I put this assemblage of plants in there, but here are a couple of _in situ_ shots...


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

That actually shows the planters, but they are not noticeable. That was what I was looking for. Thanks.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Yeah once stuff grows in you can't really see the hardware unless you look for it.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Church said:


> By definition, a riparium is a riverbank setup while a paludarium is a marsh setup. I'm not saying that people who call their setup a "paludarium" are actually recreating a marsh, but I'm telling you that the etymology of the words are very specific, so my definitions above are accurate.
> 
> Linguistics is kind of my "thing."


On your definition, aren't you referring to a _riparian_, not riparium? I didn't ever see that riparium was necessarily a riverbank setup. From what I understand, a riparium focuses on emergent growth and maximizes space underwater by not having anchors such as a mound of rocks coming out of the water. Hopefully, Devin will weigh in on this.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

The terms _paludarium_ and _riparium_ derive, respectively, from the Latin _palud_, for "swamp", and _ripa_, for "bank" or "shore". There are a couple of different ways that you could look at the usage. For example, you could consider each to be living displays emulating those two general kinds of habitats. The distinction that I often draw is based on how they are assembled: paludariums use built-up hardscapes to render the design and support the above-water plant growth, while ripariums use hanging and floating plant support devices to hold the plants. In ripariums the above-water area of the planted arrangement is developed primarily with foliage.


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## Church (Sep 14, 2004)

sewingalot said:


> On your definition, aren't you referring to a _riparian_, not riparium? I didn't ever see that riparium was necessarily a riverbank setup. From what I understand, a riparium focuses on emergent growth and maximizes space underwater by not having anchors such as a mound of rocks coming out of the water. Hopefully, Devin will weigh in on this.


No, _riparian_, while sounding similar, is an adjective, and just means "that which is of the riverbank." I'll use it in a sentence: "The cypress is a riparian tree that represents Florida to me."

A _riparium_ is a noun, which means "place or object which contains a riverbank." That's my own definition, but it's based on the etymology behind it. -arium is a suffix derived from the Latin "arius" and means "place of, or connected to."


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Thanks for the clarification, Hydrophyte. I am really bad at the semantics of the 'arium' words. I like that it actually has a scientific meaning behind it. Perhaps that is why I am so taken with the idea in the first place? I grew up in a town on the Ohio River and spent many years next to streams. Your tanks remind me of the banks of the 'crik' I grew up playing in. 

Be prepared for a bunch more annoying questions. When I am about to venture into a new project, I want to understand a basic level about everything. When Church brought up the definition, my brain starts puttering into a small spark of interest. I was totally confused on what I had in my idea of the word itself. Man - I need a scientific dictionary. :hihi:

Now I am more excited about this project. I am naming my tank "Charlie Crik," based on my grandparent's home.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Church said:


> No, _riparian_, while sounding similar, is an adjective, and just means "that which is of the riverbank." I'll use it in a sentence: "The cypress is a riparian tree that represents Florida to me."
> 
> A _riparium_ is a noun, which means "place or object which contains a riverbank." That's my own definition, but it's based on the etymology behind it. -arium is a suffix derived from the Latin "arius" and means "place of, or connected to."


Ninja'd by Church! 

Dude - you are too smart. I love words, and think it is important to form basically cohesive statements. You take it to a whole new level. Now I know why I like you. 

Back on topic, I see what you are saying. Riparium needs no further explanation, riparian is a descriptive. Correct? 

Sorry to hijack your journal hydro - I am just so intrigued by this.


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## Church (Sep 14, 2004)

Correct.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

I switched up this tank again. It is almost full of water and the new plants are growing up out of the top.










I also hung up a new light fixture, a 24" Hydrofarm Jumpstart strip.

The underwater plants are mostly crypts. I need to get some other bright green stuff in there. I also included some vertical pieces of manzanita.


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

It looks great! How are you likeing the light? Is it easy to hang?


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Jake, That light is perfect. It was real easy to hang. Did you see my blog post about hanging up a Jumpstart over my 55? Here's the link.

http://hydrophytesblog.com/?p=542

I also wrote a quick blurb about the _Dieffenbachia_--a genus that I haven't tried before--over in the Plants forum.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/plants/99045-riparium-plant-dieffenbachia.html

The _Dieffenbachia_ is the large plant in the middle of the layout with the white-centered leaves.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Hey all I just received an email from *guitarfish*. He posted an update to his blog about the the Riparium Supply product review that he had done a couple of months ago. Here is the link to the update...

http://www.guitarfish.org/2010/01/05/riparium-update

He put this planting into a 20 Tall. As you can see in my pictures above this size & shape isn't really the best for a riparium setup--too short front-to-back--but _guitarfish_ has some pretty nice plants going in there. That _Cyperus_ umbrella sedge is an especially good riparium plant. The underwater area of his layout looks nice too.


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## Hyzer (Mar 9, 2010)

Awesome tank. Is it still up and running?


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Thanks so much Hyzer. No I have not had this tank going for some time. I put my 30-gallon Metaframe into the corner where I had it.


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## malaybiswas (Nov 2, 2008)

Did you have any pest issues with all the exposed vegetation? I am planning 1 but that's one thing bugging me

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Yep, there are certain insect pests that can get into ripariums, but they are all manageable. Most of them can be controlled or eliminated by just dunking the plants in water, which is generally an easy procedure.

There are a few plants that almost never have any trouble with pests. I have never seen any kind of bug attack peace lilies or emersed swords. _Pilea_ is also resistant to most insect pests, as are most of the emersed aquatic stem plants.


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## Gatekeeper (Feb 20, 2007)




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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

This setup was torn down a long time ago. There are other more current riparium projects with lots of pictures.


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## Calift (Apr 23, 2011)

Torn down? 

Aw I first saw this thread and thought - I'm going to create a replica .... it looked so BEAUTIFUL!!   

Okk ... now I gotta go find another tank to copy!


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

For another example of a (better) riparium setup in a small tank I would suggest looking at my Mr. Aqua 11.4G journal...

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/tank-journals-photo-album/123506-mr-aqua-11-4-riparium-7.html


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