Planted Ripariums

[aquaticmaniac]

Gorgeous ripariums and very inspiring. I might have to give it another go...

 

[hydrophyte]

Thanks very much!.

Here is that same picture of the 80-litre with emersed stem plants, but with numbers and accompanying list of observations for each plant...

1. Ranunculus inundatus. This one just sat in its planter for a long time--months--but now it's growing well. However, it doesn't have the best growth habit for riparium planters; it runs.
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2. Staurogyne sp.. This is a neat little plant. This one actually has a pretty sturdy stem and it stands straight up. Right now it is covered with flower buds and I am excited to see its flowers. Maybe I will be able to determine the species.
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3. Pilea sp.. This plant is in the nettle family, Urticaceae, and it has the general look of the wild nettles we have around here, but it doesn't sting. This is one of my new favorite plants. It has a perfect habit for planting on a raft. It grows great with its roots right in the water. It will probably do best planted in this was with regular water column dosing, especially for N and Fe.
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4. Alternanthera reineckii var. rosaefolia. This is an easy plant to grow like this, but it gets leggy. It might do best with regular pruning of growing tips to encourage a more bushy habit.
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5. Ludwigia sp.. This plant was very slow to establish in the the lanter, but now it's growing well. I saw a response when I added mineralized topsoil to the planter cup.
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6. Limnophila aromatica. This one has had performance similar to the Ludwigia. It started slow, but is just now starting to grow better.
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7. Hyptis sp.. This plant has been circulating in the hobby as Hemigraphis traian, but it's not a Hemigraphis. It grows well on a raft with its roots right in the water, as I have it here, but it grows sort of tall and leggy. I am going to see if I can encourage more bushy growth by pruning the growing tips.
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8. Bacopa caroliniana. I was disappointed in the initial performance of this one--it almost fizzled completely--but it also turned around when I added MTS to the planter cup. This might be the magic solution for some of these plants. This plant develops as attractive floating mats along the edges of ponds and streams and I am going to do my best to nurture these little stems along.

 

[hydrophyte]

My Staurogyne sp. (probably ";low grow") plant has flowers on it. The first opened a few days ago.



Here is a closer view of the flower spike and little blooms.



I have this one going in my 20-gallon with a bunch of other stems. You can the Staurogyne in the picture above. It's plant #2.

 

[Mark Evans]

fantastic Devin.

 

[hydrophyte]

Thanks Mark. Really this plant was easy to grow.

 

[hydrophyte]

I have an update from my little 80-litre setup.



This is a different variation that I have not tried before. The tank is filled almost to the top and the above-water plants are all houseplant/tropical selections. Here is a view from the top.



There are some fun fish in there too. I am going to try to take some time to get some shots of them too.

 

[hydrophyte]

I haven't been able to spend much time with it, but tonight I got back to fixing up the 90cm riparium setup that I have going over in a public space. I did re-plant it a couple of months and I have just been waiting for some of the stuff to grow to size before trying to better resolve the look of the layout. Here is a quick shot from tonight.



The underwater area is a mess. The rocks are all just piled in a heap and the manzanita branches are laying on their sides in a second heap. The plants are looking good though. I did have a theme in mind while replanting. Here are the major elements...

1. a carpet of aquatic stems trained to grow across trellis rafts.
2. Acorus gramineus (sweetflag) in several planters as erect, grassy background plants
3. semi-woody flowering bushes (e.g., Ruellia brittoniana, Ludwigia sp. Hibiscus) trained to grow into midground.

It will take a while for this to grow in right and look pretty good again. Here is an older shot (dated 20 June 2009) of this tank showing that it had a somewhat different theme then, but some of the same kinds of plants.

 

[hydrophyte]

Here is another update from the 90cm Mexico biotope from last night



This is not much changed from the 1-18 update, but I had rearranged the hardscape and plants some.

It will look good when the Bacopa carpet has some time to fill in and cover the planters.

 

[Steve Smith]

That looks beautiful 🙂 I was thinking the fish don't really have a lot of cover, but of course, they have plants above them!

 

[Goodygumdrops]

I really,really like this stuff,I've been lurking on various forums for months,looking at paludariums and ripariums thinking I couldn't do this.
Your tanks are amazing,I was still thinking I couldn't do it,but that 80 litre you just posted puts ideas in my head!!
Fabulous tanks.

 

[hydrophyte]

That looks beautiful 🙂 I was thinking the fish don't really have a lot of cover, but of course, they have plants above them!

Thanks so much SteveUK. Yes I think that the fish do appreciate the cover created by the emersed plants. The floating mat of foliage along the rear pane of glass is a good approximation of the overhanging marginal plants that you see along the edges of streams and rivers.

 

[hydrophyte]

Here's a recent shot of a pretty complete layout for my 60cm layout.



I got this shot quick before getting in there to move some things around. I am going to switch out the stones and change some of the plants too.