AA (Aquatic Addict) Member
A few weeks ago, I took down all my plants from my tank, and kept them in my (sort of) holding tank while I mulled around what sort of scape will replace it
The only idea I was sure I wanted was to have hair grass in the front portion of the tank. But no inspiration came to me. So rather than sit around and do nothing, which was impossible because I had the attack of the itchy finger syndrome, I started with planting hair grass in the front half of the tank.
Three weeks went by, and still clueless about the next step. The only good thing is that the hair grass is growing nicely, although not yet carpeting. It looked good just like that as I planted them quite densely and closely together.
Then today I went to LFS and saw this 6.5kg driftwood :
IMG_1178.jpg
It was one of those " I must have it" moment. Not really sure what I could do with it, but that didn't stop me!! It had lots of little cracks and slits, and four pockets that could hold soil!! So I paid for it and went home excitedly.
I placed it in the tank and played around with different positions and orientation of the driftwood before settling for the one in the picture. It would have a few centimeters above the water line, but that is fine with me.
For the next hour, it was all about bringing the various plants from my holding tank and trying out the best place for them in the new one. Luckily, almost all of my plants are tied to rocks or wood, making it a very modular arrangement, and easy to move around. I also scavenged some plants and mosses from other tanks, and stuffed them into the cracks, slits and pockets.
It was a very haphazard process, but a nature style aquarium was taking shape. At the end of it all, this is what I got:
fiss tank.jpg
I wish I had more red plants in the tank though.
I'm sure there will be some things that will not seem right to me, so minor changes are inevitable over the next week or so. After that, the waiting game starts, and hopefully things turn out well. Especially the mini pellia moss, as it is my first time using them.
Any suggestions for improvements is welcome and definitely appreciated
Looks like a nicely filled in tank setup from the start.
That wood structure does have a "mountain" style look to it... just an idea, maybe can consider lowering the water level so that the top part of the wood is out of the water, it could be a nice area to attach emersed plants. Can try a riparium type layout and see if you like it.
AA (Aquatic Addict) Member
HiOriginally Posted by Urban Aquaria
I Googled to see images of what exactly is a riparium, and they are really nice!! It will be a whole new challenge for me and if it is one thing I cannot resist, its challenges. My LED lights are suspended over the tank and can be raised higher for riparium setup, so it is an idea I will seriously consider.
However, I haven't got a clue about emersed plants, and how they will grow, and if they commonly (and cheaply!!) available at LFS
I find the whole idea intriguing, and even as I write this, ideas and thoughts are running through my head. Among them:
- I can raise the wood 10cm to 15cm to make the out of water part more prominent
- there is a 15cm wide and 3cm deep pocket right at the top left that I can put soil and plant something. Right now its stuffed with seaweed moss
- there is another smaller pocket on the right side where I have stuffed Monte Carlo
- and the cluster of reineckii on the left and also be raised and allowed to grow above the water
- and many, many more....!!
There goes my sleep for tonite!!!!
Actually most of the plants you already currently have in the tank (ie. anubias, java ferns, crypts, hairgrass, reinecki, moss etc) can be grown in emersed conditions... their natural environment in the wild is usually either partially or mostly above water.
Usually you can easily tell if a plant can be grown emersed when you buy it from a LFS, if the plant was sold on pots or containers and not submersed in water (which is the case for the majority of LFS plants), then it can be grown emersed. Those plants are all grown emersed in plots of soil and floating trays at the plant farms anyways.
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One sleepless night and an hour of moving plants around later....my first riparium attempt
The whole tank:
rip1.jpg
The emersed portion:
rip2.jpg
I kinda like the emersed portion. My aim was to create a waterfall effect with water coming from the outflow of the filter. Haven't quite got it right. It would keep the driftwood moist. Where the water flows down the driftwood at the moment, I slapped on lots of fissiden moss ....hopefully it will stick and grow as the temperature outside the tank is probably 30C....too high for fissiden. The water from the outflow may keep it at 25C. Keeping my fingers crossed on that one.
Golden petite nana fills up a vertical slit in the middle of the driftwood; and right below that I filled a pocket with monte carlo. Anubias and long narrow leaf jave fills up the gap on the left side of the tank. And I took out a money plant that was growing in a bowl of water in my living room, stuck the roots into the water and clumped it at the top of the driftwood. I untangled one long vine of money plant that was about 1 meter long, and it is coiled round the pole suspending the LED lights right up to the LED casing. It may be too hot there for it to grow, in all likelihood.
The clump of reineckii has been moved to the right side; it has been raised by dumping lava rocks below it. The rocks have been tied with fissiden, but the arrangement looks a bit artificial to me. But its quite difficult to see so i think I can get away with it. I threw in a bit of java amongst the reineckii just to break up the colour.
The submersed portion:
rip3.jpg
Initially I treated the submersed portion as I would a scaped tank. But it didn't work. I had to remind myself that this is not a scaped tank, but a riparium. So I just went with the hair grass, blyxa and lotus. It still looks cluttered, so I will try to clean it up. Most likely the blyxa will be removed, leaving only the hair grass and the lotus to add color to the submersed portion.
The driftwood at the submerged portion has lots of cracks and slits and small pockets. As I still had lots of fissidens left, I just added and squeezed them where I could. But along the way I got the mini pellia and fissiden mixed up!!! I am not too sure how this will work out!!
The CO2 diffuser is at the back of the tank maybe about 4-5cm below the water line. Will this allow the plants below the water to receive enough of it?
Major lesson learnt here : the focus of the riparium has to be either the portion above or the portion below the water line. Choose one. It was hard for me to try keeping the submerged portion simple
It was fun doing this...didn't cost me a single cent. As it stands now, I like the emersed bit. But I am still undecided if riparium layout is for me at this point. If it is...well and good. If it is not, another rescape will take care of it.
Comments and suggestions are welcome, so write in.
Have more moss on the emersed portion of the wood? Flame moss looks pretty interesting emersed, they form small spikey less than an inch tall.
AA (Aquatic Addict) Member
Hi
It cannot really be seen yet, but all moist parts of the wood above the water has been plastered with fissidens.
I like how fissiden grows when submersed...I hope it is equally nice above the water
AA (Aquatic Addict) Member
Its official!!! I'm in love with ripariums!!! Well and truly poisoned by UA!!! Lol
Just some minor changes. Here is the front tank shot:
rip full.jpg
The changes were all below the water. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I found the portion below the water too cluttered, so I removed most of the blyxa. But that led to the base of the driftwood being exposed, and it wasn't quite as natural a look as the rest of the set up. So I took some rocks, tied all the remaining fissiden moss I had on them and placed them around the base of the wood. When the fissiden grows, i hope that it will hide the rocks, and look like part of the driftwood, since almost all other portions of the driftwood is totally covered with fissiden moss too.
There a three Gold Cloud Mountain, three Neon Tetra and a betta inside. Surprisingly the Neon Tetras is not so visible in there. I may remove them and just leave the rest.
Because water from the filter outflow was directed at the top of the driftwood to allow water to trickle down, the water in the tank was very still. I put a small pump and hid it on the left side of the tank with the outflow pointing upwards. The outflow is kinda strong but it does create waves and surface agitation. I am not too sure why the betta loves to hide almost directly in front of the outflow. I hope its fins do not tear.
rip below.jpg
Above the water line, there are hardly any changes. Maybe just moved some of the plants and moss onto the area that is kept moist by the outflow from the filter
rip top.jpg
So there it is. Now I wonder if the rest of my tanks are safe from a rescape to ripariums!!
If you really like riparium you should check out this guy Hydrophyte from Aquascaping world,he has done awesome riparium set up.
http://www.aquascapingworld.com/memb...drophyte.3500/
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