# Riparium Supply



## hydrophyte

Hello Everyone,

After many months of development, Riparium Supply is ready to open its doors. Our Website offers information on planting ripariums, a new concept, style and method for growing freshwater aquarium plants.

www.RipariumSupply.com

I am busy getting more content to load, so you will find that most of the links are not yet active, but the online store is operational. We currently offer several riparium planters along with a few related accessories. We are building our product line, so watch out for more offerings later on. 

You can also visit my Weblog, for more detailed information about planted ripariums.

HydrophytesBlog.com 

I will update the blog with many new pictures and experiences, as well as responses to questions & comments. Also look for more more updates on this thread as we continue to set up our Web content.

Regards,

Hydrophyte


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## A Hill

I wouldn't call ripariums a new concept by any means. They just usually are not easy to make look good in most cases so people go either all land (Viv) or all water (aquarium)

Your hangers look like soap and toothbrush holder things they sell at home depot I never would have thought to use them to put plants in.

Hopefully your website becomes a nice way to get people merging the land and the water.

Good luck,
-Andrew


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## leviathan0

I'm not sure why you're calling it riparium, the part land, part water tank is generally termed a paludarium.

And yeah, those hangers definitely are bathroom accessories, I know some people who use them as makeshift breeding traps.


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## hydrophyte

I have re-operationalized the term _riparium_, which nobody was really using anyway. If you look you will find just a few scattered references, mostly in other languages.

This is not the same thing as a paludarium. Paludariums include terrestrial and aquatic elements. In a riparium the terrestrial portion is only implied: the above-water portion of the composition is rendered with live plants. 

Please read some more from the Website & blog. I will have more images and text loaded soon.

Regards,

Hydrophyte


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## Gatekeeper

The "About", "Articles" and "Support" links don't work.


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## hydrophyte

> I am busy getting more content to load, so you will find that most of the links are not yet active, but the online store is


I just got my patent application filed yesterday at 3:30pm--an hour before my deadline. I am reconfiguring and loading more Web stuff at this moment, so check back for updates.

You can cosult the blog for more detailed information:

http://hydrophytesblog.com/

You can also find some descriptions on the (also needs updates) Web journal that I made describing a not-for-profit oriented project that we did a while back:

Rio Purificacion Biotope Riparium


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## legomaniac89

gmccreedy said:


> The "About", "Articles" and "Support" links don't work.


Not for me either. Cool concept though


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## hydrophyte

"Support" should be up now. I will have "About" ready in 1/2 hour.

Hydrophyte


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## A Hill

hydrophyte said:


> I have re-operationalized the term _riparium_, which nobody was really using anyway. If you look you will find just a few scattered references, mostly in other languages.
> 
> This is not the same thing as a paludarium. Paludariums include terrestrial and aquatic elements. In a riparium the terrestrial portion is only implied: the above-water portion of the composition is rendered with live plants.
> 
> Please read some more from the Website & blog. I will have more images and text loaded soon.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Hydrophyte


I wouldn't say you re-operationalized the word, since there always was a strict definition in the hobby community of what it was/is but you are bringing ti back to life hopefully. 

Good luck with getting them popular again, when done right they really are great looking. I figured I would give you some "challenge" to your ideas in a more friendly environment so when you get one of those random idiots emailing you telling you all you're doing is false and a sham you would already have had some of that experience :hihi

So if you're filing for patents that mean those are not just bought from Lowes, they sure remind me of that type of stuff but a bit cleaner per say.

-Andrew


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## hydrophyte

Right. I was taken off guard getting what seemed like a lot of grief all at once. To be candid, I am nervous, the economy is terrible and I have bet the proverbial farm on this.

Can you source any of your references for the term _riparium_? The definitions that I encountered--and there weren't many--amounted to "a paludarium with a waterfall feature". I don't think that this describes anything especially unique--being more like a variation of a paludarium design--and, as these kinds of designs are usually put together, are not very good representations of _riparian_ habitats as they are generally recognized, the margins of rivers, lakes and streams. Rather, they are depictions of trickles on wet rock walls or spring seeps, and can obviously present very pleasing appearances and serve as good habitats for some kinds of plants and livestock.

So, given that the current uses of the word _riparium_ are not very representative of riparian habitats and given that hardly anyone was using the term, most instead favoring _paludarium_ and sometimes _vivarium_ to describe similar kinds of displays, I propose that the term _riparium_ represent "an aquarium display that emulates the aquatic and terrestrial aspects of a riparian habitat, including the plant and animal species that occur therein". To describe the types of displays that I have set up I would expand this with "the use of hanging and floating plant supports": since the display seeks to represent the very edge of the shoreline, it may not be necessary to represent the terrestrial part with a built structure, which could also take up a lot of room in the display enclosure.

The hanging planters probably are the same plastic cup accessory that you saw at Lowes, or something similar that is made by the same manufacturer. I had used those piece as my prototypes, but I found that they functioned very well for this application, so I entered into an agreement with the other company. I decided against trying to build molds for my designs that were to be manufactured with plastics injection molding. 

Obviously, one could DIY the hanging planter easily enough, but after rounding up the associated items would probably find that it would have saved time and cost just a little bit more to purchase the Riparium Supply product. It would be inadvisable to resell those cups or anything very similar as a planted aquarium accessory, because that would be patent infringement.

Perhaps the discussion of semantics should be continued in another forum. I just wanted to post the link and see what people thought of the Website. I have loaded a couple more pages. I hope to build the blog much more too.

Regards,

Hydrophyte


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## RWaters

I wish you luck with the new endeavor, but I have to tell you when I saw the word riparium the first thing I thought of was dead fish (Rest In Peace-arium). Glad to see I was wrong. Seems like a cool idea.


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## hydrophyte

Thanks. I will need it.

That is an interesting observation. My first idea for a company/brand name was similar, but one person remarked that it looked too much like "reptile", and that that in turn made the swordtail logo graphic seem like a lizard.

I hope that _riparium_ will function well. It enjoys the precedent of the word _riparian._ Both are from the Latin _ripa_, which means "edge" or "margin", and by extension, the bank or shoreline of a river or lake.

Hydrophyte


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## CL

Those tanks that you set up look great. The use of hanging baskets is neat and it seems to work well for you


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## hydrophyte

thanks very much. i have gotten these looking pretty nice. i need to set up more display tanks: i only have two displays right now, and many more propagation aquariums.

they have a lot of nice features. they are much easier to set up and maintain than most paludarium designs. i would argue that their care and maintenance is usually also less demanding than for most traditional planted aquariums, especially high-light tanks. significantly, they present much fewer algae control problems. the most exciting aspect is that they provide a viable method for growing many kinds of plants that haven't really been kept in paludariums or planted aquariums before.

if you want to know more details, then go check out the blog and post a comment or question. better yet, be the first kid on your block with a riparium and place an order in the online store.

hydrophyte


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## waterfaller1

The Hymenocallis is fabulous! Where can I learn about them, and their requirements? Where would one find plants like that? 
What is it you are keeping as a substrate in the hanging cups? I am trying a sunset crypt as a marginal plant, hanging on the edge of my container pond in it's original basket.


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## leviathan0

Looks like the same pebbles that are used in hydroculture, which would make sense in this situation.


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## hydrophyte

I am still trying to figure out the species for that _Hymenocallis_. That one is perfect for this application because it only grows to around 14". The _Hymenocallis_ that is really common in the garden trade, _H. liriosme_, is too tall for most aquarium displays. 

I am working on a list of the best plants for ripariums. I hope to have something bare-bones in the blog pretty soon. Watch out for an article later on.

Those clay pebbles line the bottom of the planter cup. The rest of the planter is preferably filled with a fired clay gravel. We are getting one such product ready for market and I hope that we can offer it in a month or so. In the meantime, I have been suggesting that one use Flourite, Eco Complete or other comparable product. They function well too.

Hydrophyte


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## houstonhobby

Can't wait for the articles.


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## hydrophyte

I have a good start on a blog post that will describe some of the best plants. Here it is:

http://hydrophytesblog.com/?p=182

This is going to be a long post. I will keep adding to it, so check back for updates.










I will eventually clean this up and format it as an article too.

Hydrophyte


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## Gatekeeper

These are very interesting. I am not understanding what is what, but either way, its still cool.

You could probably get real creative with this by putting a lid on it and capturing the humidity too. But I guess the beauty of it is the bouquet of plant growth out of the tank over time.


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## hydrophyte

using a tank with a glass canopy is a good way to manage the emergent growth of _Cryptocoryne_, _Anubias_ and _Microsorum_. i am working on a display with just crypts.


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## god91234

i have been trying to use plant baskets fora while but they are always to big and look awful! be expecting an order looking forward to trying these out!


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## hydrophyte

god91234 said:


> i have been trying to use plant baskets fora while but they are always to big and look awful! be expecting an order looking forward to trying these out!


Just let me know if you have any questions. I bought a banner add and also got a sponsor forum too, so watch out for updates.

I have a limited number of small divisions and cuttings of several useful riparium plants. While they last, I can send some of these to new customers for free (with reimbursement for shipping + handling) with order of Riaprium Supply planters.

Regards,

Hydrophyte


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