New nano vivarium

[parotet]

Day 15



Good and healthy growing. See Limnophila aromatica on the left back corner, Rotala rotundifolia and Ludwigia on the right. Moss mix on Hygrolon is beginning to show signs of being alive! Cannot be seen but Hydrocotye tripartita Japan on the foreground is blooming. The Anubias has new and healthy leaves. I added some new wild moss and some Riccia bits.

Jordi

 

[Dominic]

Looks sweet pal! The moss will take ages to start growing, it did on mine, and still hasnt grown much, but it should grow much faster in yours once it gets going because of the higher humidity! Good luck with it!

 

[parotet]

2,5 months later...



I got rid of Limnophila aromatica that grew very fast and I have to trim Rotala and Ludwigia every 15 days. Hydrocotyle tripartita was also invading the setup so I decided to make some room for Java moss in the foreground (right corner).
The moss walls are really fascinating (not in the picture, crappy picture...). In some places it is mixed with Riccia. I hope to have it all covered for Christmas.

Jordi

 

[Edvet]

Any inhabitants or planned ones?

 

[parotet]

No, it is very small for inhabitants, just plants...
(Let's say I'm training just in case I 'need' something larger 🙂)

Jordi

 

[Italicus]

This looks astonishing.

Have you thought about insects maybe?

Some tropical mantis perhaps?

 

[parotet]

What you see is not even a 12 liters tank (30x18x20cm)... Definitely no room for critters, even for insects

Jordi

 

[Italicus]

Many mantis breeders keep single mantis in similar size enclosures.

Give it a look, maybe there is a specie you can keep in that size, after all many mantis are raised in pints glasses

http://www.ukmantisforums.co.uk/forum.php

 

[parotet]

Updates of the other setups in which Java moss has been mainly used (but also Riccia and a stem of Rotala.





Jordi

 

[X3NiTH]

These look great!

🙂

 

[Martin in Holland]

Good example how beautiful nature at its smallest is.

 

[Zak Rafik]

Nice progress. I loved the photography method. Thanks for the updates.🙂

 

[parotet]

New update. I've added some (Rosmarinus-Rosemary) branches to the nano vivarium... 4 months until now and happy with the progress although really slow despite a photoperiod of 12 hours under the 13w PL lamp (notice how the moss has grown significantly all over the Hygrolon Wall compared to previous pictures, but still without covering it all! I guess it will take 4 months more...)


General overview with one of the other emersed setups (this one only moss)


Close-up. The large piece of wood on the right doesn't look good now but it will be soon covered by the moss and Selaginella. I've also added on the left foreground a micro wabi-kusa I did a month ago with Rotala macrandra, Rotala rotundifolia and Pogostemon stellatus (it probably won't fit very well in the future there but I have no room for more emersed setups and it has been integrated here. Some R. macrandra flowers can be spotted close to one of the branches on the left)

Jordi

 

[UllavL]

Look really nice Jordi!
I've also used dusk's mossmix and hygrolon. Think that if I would do it again, I'd do my own mix of aquatic/tropical mosses. Find there to be a bit to much spagnum and ferns in the mix. Ferns that grow really big and the spagnum doesn't creep but rather grows longer and longer which doesn't always look very nice.

 

[parotet]

Look really nice Jordi!
I've also used dusk's mossmix and hygrolon. Think that if I would do it again, I'd do my own mix of aquatic/tropical mosses. Find there to be a bit to much spagnum and ferns in the mix. Ferns that grow really big and the spagnum doesn't creep but rather grows longer and longer which doesn't always look very nice.

Thanks Ulla, this is just a little toy compared to your super paludarium (I need some practice before the final jump 😉). The batch of moss mix I had from Dusk (through an online Spanish shop) was poor in ferns and rich in moss, great for my small setup. Hygrolon is superb, I guess much better in combination with Epiweb. I would actually love to create a larger and shallow moss setup only with branches and these materials, just like the last Viktor Lantos' aquascape but emersed.

Jordi

 

[UllavL]

Epiweb can be tricky to get wet enough if you don't have some kind of dripwall system or rain system. I have it in my tank, but I'm not really pleased with it.

I however used an hygrolon branch in my miniviv where my froglets grow up before I move them to the large tank. In the water filled bottom layer I've hid a small pump
which provides the branch with water. It's really easy to maintain and I think will look great in time. Here it is about 5 weeks old.

http://imageshack.com/a/img537/729/OxryfU.jpg
http://imageshack.com/a/img540/3659/xs39WR.jpg

 

[parotet]

Looks great! Which is the power of the pump you have hidden? And what's the pumping frequency? I got some spare pieces of glass which are asking to be converted in another nano viv!

Jordi

 

[UllavL]

Just go for it! 🙂
I have no idea about the power and frequency, just a pump I have had laying around. Costs about 10-15 £ I guess. But it's a mini circulation pump which I've attached a hose to. I've also made small holes in the hose so the water may be distributed evenly. If you are going to use one, just make sure that you are able to access it to clean it if it clogs. I have no access to mine, but I have put plenty of filter materials around it and avoided substrate that easily clogs.

 

[parotet]

With frequency I meant the time the pump is on during the day... Maybe I've used the wrong word. Is it switched to a timer?

Jordi

 

[UllavL]

Probably not, English is just not my native language so I missunderstood 🙂 It's on 5 x 30 min during the day and 6 houres during the night. Switched to a timer.