My 150g Riparium... (Picture heavy)

[Craigthor]

lol, that seems funny when you say that too much water on the plant will kill it. Ya, i honestly with your plant selection that you have and everything you should stay away from a frog because they do need misting in the tank 2 to 3 times a day to keep humidity up. I do like the idea about getting some of thost natural vines though and sticking air plants on them, because like 1 big air plant in the back that flowers would look cool. just my 2 cents. Nice job though.

Atleast on the leaves, random fogings every 3-4 days would be cool though, now I've got more stuff to research. The roots are another story. Every plant in here will flower at some point or another. I've got one Peace Lily that opened a flower yesterday and another that should open in a few days. Swapped a few plants around, took a couple out, and added a couple new varieties. Trimmed the Taro back as the leaves were damaged from shipping anyways, a new leaf has already started to form. As certain plants grow I want to propigate them out and spread them to other places in the tank.

Once plants are added to this setup it takes about 3 weeks for the plant to transition to the hydroculture growth and the metal halide lighting. I've found a few that don't do so well under teh MH and have removed them. Everything is just now starting to get into a good growth stage. I figure roughly 2 months before it is really filled in to where I want it.

Craig

 

[Craigthor]

Well I decided to post some video over taking pictures. Did some rearranging today, swapped a few plants around repotted a couple of them. I'm really starting to like this arrangement as it becomes more balanced everytime I make small adjustments.

Sorry the video isn't that great but you'll catch the drift of things.



Enjoy!

Craig

 

[Etunes]

I am telling you, since you only have those same species of fish which are very inactive it looks kinda empty. I keep expecting some sort of critter to bounce out of those plants.

 

[Craigthor]

I am telling you, since you only have those same species of fish which are very inactive it looks kinda empty. I keep expecting some sort of critter to bounce out of those plants.

Actually just time of day. As I was uploading the video a small group of them came out to hunt black worms from the substrate. They are most active in the morning and evening not so much the middle of the day. I do have plans for more activity once the breeder grows them out abit. I'm going to have a group of Badis Badis 'Blue Form' and 3 doz Blue Tiger Shrimp in this tank. It's kind of nice not having a super active tank with fish bouncing off every wall. If I ever want to have it active I would go with a pair of Wild Brazilian Discus and 20-30 Green Neons with a school of 15-20 Pygmy Cories.

Craig

 

[Craigthor]

Dinner time.



Happened to catch these guys out for an evening snack of black worms.

Enjoy!

Craig

 

[jimmy c]

that tank looks cool! and i really like those lights!! keep the pics comin!

 

[Craigthor]

Well the tank received some new inhabitants today. They are still stressed out as they ended up in another town 2.5 hours away so the USPS had to truck them here and they were WAY late to arrive. They should have been here at 10 AM instead I ended up going to the Main PO distribution center in town and going to the loading docks and picking these guys up when they called me.

Red Spot Nerites:

Scarlet Badis (Dario Dario) 3M 4F was 4/5 but a pair died in transit

Dwarf Bumblebee Catfish (Akysis Vespa) 13 of them - They are the most stressed out, full grown just over 1.5"

Not pictured are the Assassin Snails that came as well they have all since vanished into the depths of this tank.

Can't wait for everyone to settle in and relax again.

Craig

 

[Etunes]

love bumblee catfish. nice pick ups.

 

[Craigthor]

Just a little update:

Dwarf Bumble Bees have been removed - Atleast almost there are still 2 I need to catch, they were stressing out he Albi's

The Dario's didn't last over night before perishing, stress from shipping is the only known culprit

Added a school of Chocolate Gouramis

One of my Albimarginatas is holding at this time.

Enjoy,

Craig

 

[Aquarium1]

Appears to be growing wonderfully. Looks like the duckweed is really spreading haha.

 

[thuffman03]

Very nice setup. I have enjoyed this thread very much!

 

[Etunes]

Nice choice on a fiah, love chocolate gouromis. Lots of death in the tank.

 

[Craigthor]

Well I will update at hte end of the week, got 95% of everything I need to make my swap over to a full asian biotope. I've got lots of stuff that will be forsale or trade once I get a final list or you can pop over to the plantedtank.net and see my list. I still need to hunt up a few more Emmersed Crypts, Java Phillippine, and Java Moss.

Craig

 

[CA_BroncoFan]

I just saw this thread today and im very amazed. It truely is beautiful!! Great job!!

 

[Etunes]

cool cant wait.

 

[coke-g]

Stunning set up, love the attention to detail.... look forward to seeing more pics!!!!

 

[Craigthor]

Well I made the change. I'm running the top fully covered for hte next week or so till some of my submersed stems that I added start to make the transition to emmersed culture.

I've gotten a bunch of emmersed crypts from various members and most came unlabeled so I just put them in. I may have to rearrange down the road once they grow out.

Some that I know I have gotten.

C. Parva (planted a bunch of this below the water line as well some 6 dozen plants worth )
C. Cilata (this one is labeled as I had it before the switch)
C. Undulata
C. Usteriana
C. Wendetii X Hybrid
C. Walkeri
C. Green X Hybrid
C. Pontederiifolia
C. Wendetii 'Tropica'
C. Usteriana x Walkeri

Along with all the Cryptocorynes I have the following as well:

Java Fern 'Needle Leaf'
Java Fern 'Tropica'
Java Fern 'Phillippine'
Java Fern 'Trident'
Java Moss
Hyrophilia 'Bihar'
Poacea 'Purple Bamboo'
Limnophilia Aromatica
Cyrtosperma Johnstonii

Everything above it planted in the emmersed section of my Riparium. Now to wait for everything to grow out, I figure it will be a good 4 months to really start filling out the tank.

A few not so great pictures:

Enjoy.

Craig

 

[Craigthor]

 

[Aquarium1]

Looks amazing! How often do you have to top off?

 

[Craigthor]

Looks amazing! How often do you have to top off?

Now that I run the tank covered as the Crypts like the added humidty not at all.

Craig