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Where The Jungle "Destroys" Red Rock Creek..

Edvet said:
When are you adding water?
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After it is completely grown in.. Other words when the carpeting plants have fully matted and secured the substrate with roots.. 🙂 The main plant responsible for that will be Lileaopsis brasiliensis.. And maybe helanthium tenellum, both reproduce with runners in simmular fasion.. But yet wasn't realy very succesfull in transitioning this plant emersed.

Thus it all depends, i can't tell.. The plants will tell me when its ready to flood.

Flood level will be about this.. Not higher.. 🙂
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But i might do a test fill soon.. Its a burning thought.. I think i need too.. Than i can also test run the HOB and see the streaming gully work in real time.

Than i'll show.. But i'm a bit :nailbiting: with premature flooding.. Should i take that risk?
 
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Actualy still didn't recieve any suggestion on where to categorize this from a vivarium perspective?.. What is it?

Since its a slized diorama / cross section of a small creek bed with landscape.. Is it a Creekarium?? 😎:lol:
 
I guess it's a paludarium...? Either way it's shaping up to be epic.
Are you going to put any aquatic critters in it ?
 
I guess it's a paludarium...?
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I can sattle for that.. 🙂

Tho a Palus is a bog, Riparian refers to river bank.. A ditch crossing a meadow would be a Fossa in latin or a Fovea. But a Fossarium yet doesn't excist afaik and Fovearium sounds like a speech impediment. 🙄

Either way it's shaping up to be epic.
Are you going to put any aquatic critters in it ?
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Thank you Tim.. That comming from you tells me i'm on the right track.

I wanted it to be as close as South American biotope as possible.. Tho never been there so actualy i don't know what that is. And it is pretty tough to stay trully biotope acurate. Shrimps are definitively going in, S A shrimps are difficutl, i have lots of cherries there i'm already off biotope wise. Tho shrimp is a shrimp and cherry in an unheated invironment color much darker, tend to develop wild color deep brown instead of firy red. Ramshorn and pond snail are also going in. And likely a few Earth worms too for the free worm castings ofcourse.

Yet i do not know its true volume and the surface to bottom play will be darn shallow at 15 cm max depth.. Doing a rough estimate i'm maybe at 20 to 25 litres max free swimming space incuding the planted super shallow parts. Not counting the volume soaked into the substrate. In esence that would resamble a scaped 25x25x40cm aqaurium netto volume. Taking all that into account i'm not sure what fish sp. i can make happy in there. Maybe a fish sp. that doesn't require a lot free space and is more substrate level oriented. Pygmy cory maybe, oto's.

I have to monitor it first for a while.. Since it recieves day light from a south faced window.. I yet have no idea what the temperatures will do. At first without knowing what i'm up to i'm reluctant to take unneccessary risks and cook anything alive in there. 🙂 So i dunno yet.
 
Edvet said:
Euryrhynchus amazoniensis, tiny, hiding and night active
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They sound nice.. 🙂 And available in the trade.. Tho night active aint that much fun..
Edvet said:
Macrobrachium brasiliensis, large, bolsterous and easy breeding. You could try these.
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As long as they are not escape artists they might do very good.. After all its an open top with very easy access to the emersed sections. A walk in the park..

I was considering Cambarellus sp. But thats a no go.. They will escape. 🙂

Btw walk in the park, was out of Cigars so took a stroll to the shop and also found this growing on a rock at a rather damp spot.
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Ant this growing on a base of a tree. 🙂
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Got to find me some more. Strolling the parks with ponds and little streams.

I'm also boggling about a heliamphora remembering <Mr. Teapots Green Pekoe Pond> But they are darn expensive.. Suspect an epic fail if i do..
 
Fiske said:
You could mix a few different colourstrains of Neocaridina, I have done that and have loads of wild coloured, brown, chocolatey and black(ish) shrimp.
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Since i'm on a budget that was a bit the plan.. :thumbup:
 
Another nice thing to explore in this setup are South American Carnivores in general..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Carnivorous_plants_of_South_America

Have a few on my whishlist already. Definitively Epiphytic Utricularia.

https://www.araflora.com/p673/bladderwort_utricularia_alpina

https://www.araflora.com/p685/bladderwort_utricularia_blanchettii_chapada_diamantina

Trying to source Drosera sessilifolia, for now can only find seeds. 🙂

And an affordable Heliamphora.
https://www.araflora.com/p3983/sun_pitcherplant_heliamphora_heterodoxa_starter
 
Some updates on iits slow developments.. Also in ideas comming along the way.. 🙂

Pics taken at High Noon.. Sun highest in the sky and it shows how the light plays in it.
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The left side will be mainly the terrestrial jungle side transitioning to the creek into a wet shallow part that gets the most sun during the day.

The Echinodorus Regine Hildebrandt already in place.. Its a darn hardy Echi realy comfortable in living room conditions. As far as i could find it it is alledgedly a hybrid crossbreed between E. Ozelot and E. uruguayensis "Red". So i guess one of these should be equaly easy to grow emersed it likely is inherited. The question remains from which one?.. (Lets find out in the future.)
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I decided that the E. palaefolius var. latifolius is to boisterous for this scape. It doesn't fit in the scale. Thus i gave it a new place with the bigger Cyperus haspans in a large glass vase functioning as background decoration. The vase will get a new base later on.. My brother is making it on his wood turning machine. This Echi is equaly comfortable in living room climate.. It seems to be happy in there.. 🙂
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And the jungle part.. Still waiting on some ordered plants..
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Played a bit with pieces of driftwood to create a jungle transition. In the bollow pic you clearly see the suns shadow line thats also +/- the water line this will barely tough the driftwood. Thus its a constant shaded jungle part getting indirect daylight and not to wet.

Ordered a few small epiphytic pygmy Orchid Barbosella sp. reportedly good growers in livingroom climate to grow on the wood. Accompanied by an epiphytic Bromelia 'Neoregelia lilliputiana' the smallest bromelia in the trade. Also ordered 2 of the easiest to grow terrestrial Utricularia sp. to live in the nooks and crannies of the DW. Above the water line in a bed of sphagnum and leaflitter.

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For the rest i ordered a Ficus sp. Panama, a small climbing ficus with elongated leaves trailing over the front left hand corner. And the Cissus amazonica that should be a vigorous climber to be planted at the top in the orchid bark forest soil i added. I still need to fix me something to the wall for it to climb. The dark substrate part will be filled up with tropical boggers. HC feathering the rocks semi submersed trailing over. Lilaeopsis meadow on the slope slowly transitioning to staurogyne repens. With a Alternanthera sessilis in the back next to the cyperus. 🙂 There also will be some trailing Hydrocotyle leucocephala.

For the right hand rocky side in the bog area there will be Micranthemum umbrosum as trailing plant into the creek. Juncuns repens as taller grass in the back. A lilaeopsis meadow sloopng out of the water again transitioning to staurogyne repens.

Maybe add some more plants to it in the future.. Dunno yet.. It might very well that this is it.. It might get to bussy other wise.. To much different plant sp. will only make it too ghaotic.

Anyway waiting in anticipation in the plants they will slowly drop in the comming days.. And yet don't kow if and how long some need to be transitioned to drystart. 🙂
 
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Great journal. Posting a bit of gibberish so I get the update alerts 😀

By the way, I have a feeling that kuhli loaches may do rather well in a setup like that if the temperature is right. They may venture even up the hills..... Shrimp may happen to walk out by accident. I've seen mine walk above water as long as there's hard surface beneath and some moisture 🙄

In my hillstream tank I put some manzanita wood I had sitting at home for years.It was originally collected in a forest.It has been growing some unknown species of moss emersed and even mushrooms 😱
 
sciencefiction said:
Great journal. Posting a bit of gibberish so I get the update alerts 😀

By the way, I have a feeling that kuhli loaches may do rather well in a setup like that if the temperature is right. They may venture even up the hills..... Shrimp may happen to walk out by accident. I've seen mine walk above water as long as there's hard surface beneath and some moisture 🙄

In my hillstream tank I put some manzanita wood I had sitting at home for years.It was originally collected in a forest.It has been growing some unknown species of moss emersed and even mushrooms 😱
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It's South Amrican Theme from planted perspective. If the temps stay in relative good range i might try Oto's and Pygmy Cory. But the first season there will be no lifestock anyway.. Not till i know what i'm up against. 🙂

I also think i need some light for the winter periode or need to drain it.. Too wet and not enough light usualy isn't a good thing for plant with wet feet. Thus i build a light too in time and see if i need it during the winter..
 
zozo said:
I also think i need some light for the winter periode or need to drain it.
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It probably depends on the plants. Mine have gone through 3 winters, no sunshine yet outside this year, plants started flowering and the majority of the plants are outside the artificial light spectrum as those are pointed downward but I guess some is bouncing around the room. They are near the window though.

zozo said:
But the first season there will be no lifestock anyway.. Not till i know what i'm up against.
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With a deep substrate like that you better let it mature I guess. It will be interesting anyway and I am sure it will turn out really nice.
 
That was what i was trying to prevent, deep and dense substrate.. That is why i used filter lava, all chuncks of lave a different sizes to create a lot of room for water pockets, enough room for micro organsime to thrive. it's 90 litre total volume and only added 20 litre fine mouled lava to cap it, the rest is one big labyrinth af bigger lava chunks.

I'm not realy worried about biologicail maturity.. Actualy to be honest, i don't know what i'm worried about.. 🙄 Just want to learn by experience if there are things to worry about.. I never did anything like this before. And as long as i do have no clue what to expect i'm not taking chances on lifestock. 🙂

Little things that worry me, mainly is natural light, in form of direct sunlight and temperature behind glass.. This can get realy extreem for submersed lifeforms such as fish.
 
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