A Few Planted Ripariums

[DelawareJim]

Originally Posted by snow

hi you,re ripariums are really nice. i have some aquariums with many waterplant could i just not ad water after it evaporates? to make them like you,res?
i have some java fern but the leaves tend to dry out when thet stick out of the water. also cryps and others i of which i can,t remember the names of at the time.

Snow;

You will need to keep the humidity pretty high while your plants grow leaves used to drier emersed conditions. I use the glass hinged aquarium lids on all my emersed setups with about 1-2 inches of water in the tank.

Cheers.
Jim

[Tindomul]

OMG, wow, you have struck my on my pleasure vein! I love ripariums! I love Poecillids and I love Crypts!!!!
A few questions. Do you ever cover these?
What kind of lighting do you have for these?
How high is the temperature with lights on?
Here is a picture of my not so organized riparium, but I use it to grow orchids.

Basically I hang my Masdevallias and Pleurothalids over it because this has no artificial lights to heat it. So hanging all around the top are about 10 plants. I also included two artificial fog machines to increase the humidity in the surrounding the tank. This is how I keep my Masdies and Pleuro's happy. I also have a rough skinned newt in there.

[hydrophyte]

Originally Posted by DelawareJim

Nice tanks!

You should post them on Aquarium Plant Central. They have several forums on emersed culture, crypts, and biotopes.
Aquatic Plant Forum

How are you constructing your banks for the emersed growth?

Cheers.
Jim

I do post these on Aquarium Plant Central. I thought I might also find interest here because I am trying a few different orchids in these displays and because this borrows from some aspects of orchid culture. I also like orchids very much.

There isn't really a constructed bank in there. The plants are all held up with Riparium Supply hanging and floating planters.

Originally Posted by snow

hi you,re ripariums are really nice. i have some aquariums with many waterplant could i just not ad water after it evaporates? to make them like you,res?
i have some java fern but the leaves tend to dry out when thet stick out of the water. also cryps and others i of which i can,t remember the names of at the time.

For growing aquarium plants like Java ferns and crypts it is best to have the top of the aquarium covered so that humidity is retained inside. That is how I keep this setup, which is in a 55 gallon aquarium.



Some of the plants take a long time to adjust to emered culture, during which time they must be kept very moist. For some plants I put a bubbling airstone right underneath, which splashes water up onto its leaves. A few of the specimens in this tank are more than six months in emersed culture and just beginning to grow well.

[hydrophyte]

Originally Posted by Tindomul

OMG, wow, you have struck my on my pleasure vein! I love ripariums! I love Poecillids and I love Crypts!!!!
A few questions. Do you ever cover these?
What kind of lighting do you have for these?
How high is the temperature with lights on?
Here is a picture of my not so organized riparium, but I use it to grow orchids.

Basically I hang my Masdevallias and Pleurothalids over it because this has no artificial lights to heat it. So hanging all around the top are about 10 plants. I also included two artificial fog machines to increase the humidity in the surrounding the tank. This is how I keep my Masdies and Pleuro's happy. I also have a rough skinned newt in there.

Thanks very much. That is a nice setup you have. I also hang up my miniatures in the tank that I have in the living room when they are in bloom. That looks like the bench in a university lab(?).

I cover some of these setups, but leave others open. In general, I use a canopy with emersed aquarium plants (crypts, Anubias, Bolbitis) becasue these require very high humidity, but I leave use on open tp an pendant lighting with most other plants, especially pond type marginals.

I also use various kinds of lighting, mostly some variation of T5 strip lights. I try to use good reflectors.

[snow]

thanks Hydrophyte i.ll start by covering the tanks and add an airstone to see what will happen.
i just love you,re setup.

[Tindomul]

Originally Posted by hydrophyte

Thanks very much. That is a nice setup you have. I also hang up my miniatures in the tank that I have in the living room when they are in bloom. That looks like the bench in a university lab(?).

Thanks, yes you know all too well the setups.

Originally Posted by hydrophyte

I cover some of these setups, but leave others open. In general, I use a canopy with emersed aquarium plants (crypts, Anubias, Bolbitis) becasue these require very high humidity, but I leave use on open tp an pendant lighting with most other plants, especially pond type marginals.

I also use various kinds of lighting, mostly some variation of T5 strip lights. I try to use good reflectors.

Thanks, I suppose I am most worried about the heat emmitted by the lights as I like to grow these miniature Masdies. But I guess it can work for other types of Orchids. Thanks.

[hydrophyte]

The 120-gallon riparium was was recently featured as Tank of the Month on Aquaticplantcentral.com. Here is the link...

APC Tank of the Month

And here's another picture from that tank, from just a few weeks ago.

[hydrophyte]

I have an update for the 65-gallon South America tank. I removed the river stones in favor of manzanita, and put together a more coherent planting.



This will look good in a week or so when the underwater plants have grown in.

This image is a montage. Pictures of this tank always show a lot of glare in the foliage, so I stitched together two shots with the abovewater and underwater parts at two different shutter speeds.

Look closely--you'll see the fish. This tank is actually a pretty good fish display, especially at feeding time.

[hydrophyte]

Here's a quick shot of the 20-gallon from tonight.



This display has been very low maintenance.

[hydrophyte]

I've been seeing lots of neat plant events in my 65-gallon riparium tank. Last week the blooms on the ladies' tress orchid (Spiranthes cernua var. odorata) began to open. Here is a shot of the whole flowerhead:



The spike had been developing for more than two months. Here is another picture a little closer:



I have tried out a few different orchids in riparium planters. So far this one has had the best performance. The Phragmipedium that I planted in this tank last spring did not grow at all and I eventually removed it to plant again in a regular pot with bark orchid mix. I have a few different Bletilla too. These plants are now starting to go dormant.

Here's a recent picture of the whole tank:



Actually I pulled the Spiranthes out for this picture. I have been growing it in the front right corner, but it does not have very much foliage and the planter is rather obtrusive.