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SA Themed Riparium

skoram

Active Member
Messages
135
I can't call this a biotope (and it certainly doesn't compare to such authentic renditions as prototop's riparium) as there are a few plants that are not even from SA, let alone from the same biotope, although I did want to recreate some of the feel of an Amazonian jungle stream.

Some of the plants include:

Maranta leuconeura
Calathea lancifolia
Alocasia amazonicus
Fittonia
Spathiphyllum (Peace Lily)
Pteris cretica

It's currently home to 15 Marbled Hatchetfish and 6 Pygmy Corydoras. I originally intended to stock it with a pair of Apistogramma agasiizzi but a LFS recently got a shipment of wild Ivanacara adoketa from Sao Gabriel and I have become somewhat enamored by these gorgeous fish.

kzkF9Lw.jpg


38alLvt.jpg


5EhaJea.jpg
 

dw1305

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
2,755
Location
Wiltshire UK
Hi all,
I like this, the plants look really healthy.

The fern with the dissected frond, just in front of the Acorus, is a Nephrolepis sp., and probably N. exaltata.

cheers Darrel
 

skoram

Active Member
Messages
135
Thank you for the kind words, Darrel and Karin :D

Darrel - I did a lot of research before setting up this riparium, but I think the results are mostly due to just dumb luck. Many people, for example, have reported difficulties getting Maranta leuconeura to thrive in a riparium, but mine has just gone crazy. It even put up new flowers almost every day for a month straight. I am not completely certain why mine is doing so well. I am using expanded clay pebbles (like LECA) mixed with peat granules and a small amount of Basacote time released fertilizer. I also wonder if it is (partly) because the riparium area is raised about 7 cm above the water level - so the top 7cm of substrate is not submerged. Although I do have a water pump attached a spray bar which is constantly spraying water into the riparium boxes where it comes out through holes drilled in the bottom.
 

dw1305

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
2,755
Location
Wiltshire UK
Hi all,
I am not completely certain why mine is doing so well. I am using expanded clay pebbles (like LECA) mixed with peat granules and a small amount of Basacote time released fertilizer. I also wonder if it is (partly) because the riparium area is raised about 7 cm above the water level - so the top 7cm of substrate is not submerged. Although I do have a water pump attached a spray bar which is constantly spraying water into the riparium boxes where it comes out through holes drilled in the bottom.
Sounds a really good set up. <"Leca"> is definitely the best substrate for these.

I think the reason that it has been so successful is probably a combination of the nutrients, and the "wet and dry" trickle filter effect. The system you've set up is really <"aeroponics">. A lot of plants do well when they have the roots in highly oxygenated moving water, but quickly succumb to being stood in a "puddle", which is presumably an oxygen effect.

cheers Darrel
 

skoram

Active Member
Messages
135
Thank you BigTom :)

Darrel, I actually chose this "aeroponics" approach primarily with the fish in mind. I wanted water to flow through the riparium boxes so the plants could remove nitrates, similar to having plants in HOB filters. I chose to have water spray into the boxes through a bar also to increase oxygen levels for fish. It did occur to me, however, that this would benefit the plants as well. Plants and animals of course have a very symbiotic relationship.
 

dw1305

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
2,755
Location
Wiltshire UK
Hi all,
Darrel, I actually chose this "aeroponics" approach primarily with the fish in mind. I wanted water to flow through the riparium boxes so the plants could remove nitrates, similar to having plants in HOB filters. I chose to have water spray into the boxes through a bar also to increase oxygen levels for fish. It did occur to me, however, that this would benefit the plants as well. Plants and animals of course have a very symbiotic relationship.
That is pretty much it, planted "wet and dry" filters are the optimum combination for biological filtration, largely due to their high oxygen levels, which are maintained by their immense gas exchange surface area.

They can deal with high bioloads, but in situations with lower BOD, they will maintain very high quality water.

If you think about a cross section through the planter you will a large amount of damp oxygenated surfaces (roots, leca etc) where microbial growth can occur. You also have the advantage of the leaves having access to aerial CO2 levels (400ppm CO2).

The only limitation to plant growth is nutrient availability. From <"http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/alfagrog-for-reducing-nitrates.19636/page-2">. Killi fish breeders use the air pump powered <"deBruyn filters">,but there is nothing to stop you scaling these up.

4303575129_252e21dfb2_b.jpg


cheers Darrel
 

prototop

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
68
Location
Denmark
Gratz skoram, looks great! The aeroponic setup is definitely the way to go, since you can pretty much grow any plant in this manner.

Could you explain the light setup? It looks a bit like my own, high output LED's on heatsinks.
 

skoram

Active Member
Messages
135
Darrel - that was a really fascinating read. Thank you for the link. I also believe very strongly in the importance of good oxygenation for aerobic bacteria and for fish - it's the primary reason I switched most of my canister filters to large sponge filters. It seems quite counter-intuitive to think that a $20 sponge filter could do a better job than a $200 Eheim canister, but this has generally been the case for my tanks.

Interestingly, I originally intended to build a DIY wet/dry sump filter for this riparium. I went so far as to design the plans and make a shopping list of all the parts that I would need. However, I could not come up with an effective overflow mechanism without drilling a hole in the bottom of the tank, given the very low water level. That is what led me to this internal wet/dry filter design. It seems similar to the deBruyn filters, except that there is no sump. The water flows directly into the plant boxes from a pump inside the tank. Initially the spraying water was quite loud, but I partially solved this problem by lowering the spray bar and having the water shoot horizontally across the plant boxes.

Prototop - thank you for the kind words :) Since I needed the lights to hang fairly high, I built a pendant style fixture using steel pipes connected directly to the tank stand. I originally planned to use PAR38 LED bulbs, but, due to various problems I encountered while taking this approach, I opted to go with Bridgelux Vero 18 high intensity COB LEDs. They are each mounted on an a Nuventix Synjet fan/heatsink combo with LEDIL Barbara reflectors. Here are some other photos of the lights:

kPGs2zR.jpg


TsHZ4MN.jpg


without the reflectors:
AoSmbXi.jpg
 

dw1305

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
2,755
Location
Wiltshire UK
Hi all,
I also believe very strongly in the importance of good oxygenation for aerobic bacteria and for fish - it's the primary reason I switched most of my canister filters to large sponge filters. It seems quite counter-intuitive to think that a $20 sponge filter could do a better job than a $200 Eheim canister, but this has generally been the case for my tanks.
Oxygen really is the key to biological filtration, but unfortunately you can't measure it easily (the same applies to all dissolved gases). When I came back to fish-keeping it was immediately apparent that, although some things had changed enormously, people still hadn't really got their heads around biological filtration and the importance of oxygen. I was assuming that every-one would be using trickle filters, and that planted systems would also be pretty much universal.

Because I'd been working on the re-mediation of polluted water I knew that Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) was the key metric, and I was absolutely aghast when I found out that people were using their canister filters as syphons to clean debris, and filling them up with floss etc for mechanical filtration. People were even arguing that having both aerobic oxidation of ammonia (NH3/NH4+) & nitrite (NO2-) and the anaerobic out-gassing of NO3- in the canister filter media was a good idea, and even something to be aimed for. It was exactly the opposite of what they needed to do.

The fundamental problem with a canister filter is that you don't have any gas exchange within the sealed canister. This means that the water must remain fairly fully oxygenated within the filter, because if the flow speed through the canister slows, it is likely that some areas of the filter media will become de-oxygenated. As long as you understand this, canister filters can be very effective.
....... It seems similar to the deBruyn filters, except that there is no sump. The water flows directly into the plant boxes from a pump inside the tank. Initially the spraying water was quite loud, but I partially solved this problem by lowering the spray bar and having the water shoot horizontally across the plant boxes.....
Yours is probably a better option. The important bit is just that the water has access to atmospheric oxygen as it trickles back to the tank. Planted wet and dry trickle filters, as <"plant/microbe biological filtration systems"> have about an order of magnitude more ability to deal with bioloads when compared to microbe alone systems, this is largely because the plant leaves have access to atmospheric gas levels (20% O2 and 400ppm CO2).

You have constructed a <"vertical flow constructed wetland">. I think people should have access to this ones as well <"Emerging organic contaminant removal in full-scale hybrid constructed wetland..">

cheers Darrel
 

MickeM

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
441
Location
STOCKHOLM , SWEDEN
Thank you all for sharing...!!
This thread gets better every day!!!!
(Since I can not stop analyzing topics about waterquality, tank soil functions , plants + everything else...!!!)
:):):);););)
 

dw1305

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
2,755
Location
Wiltshire UK
Hi all,
Awesome info ....specially in the moment where we have a huge discussion about filters in our home forum...thanks for sharing!!
I wrote an article, quite a long time ago now, that still summarises it reasonably well. It has had a few homes, but currently resides at: <"Plecoplanet: Aeration and dissolved oxygen.....">.

I wrote it after getting to know a couple of Bristol based L number breeders, one of whom (the late Bob Marklew - "macvsog23" in <"this thread on PlanetCatfish">) was a great man and incredibly knowledgeable about fish and fish keeping. He was an engineer by profession, and had applied a very methodical approach over a large number of years.

He'd found that with the larger rheophilic plecs even really experienced keepers tended to have occasional "unexplained" deaths where an apparently healthy fish suddenly was found dead with no external signs or symptoms. He asked me what I thought, and after a bit of delving it became apparent to me that this was almost certainly to do with reduced levels of dissolved oxygen, and I pulled together all the bits we'd accumulated into the article.

cheers Darrel
 

skoram

Active Member
Messages
135
Thank you all for the kind comments. I added a pair of Ivanacara adoketa last week and they seem to be doing really well. I think I got lucky and received a bonded pair as they generally stick close to one another and I've observed no aggression thus far. I will upload new photos with the adoketa soon.

Darrel - I finally got around to reading the article you wrote on oxygenation. What a fascinating and insightful read. I am amazed that it was written by a botanist and not by an icthyology professor. After reading the article it occured to me that very low TDS must be a very important factor in the keeping of many Apistogramma species since they come from very warm areas with little to no water movement and aquatic plant life. Please correct me if this is a mistaken assumption. I also wonder if there are any "simple" methods or devices for providing high oxygenation to tanks with very little water flow. My riparium system may be one approach but not everyone is inclined to keep live plants let alone setup elevated riparium boxes in their tanks.
 

dw1305

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
2,755
Location
Wiltshire UK
Hi all,
After reading the article it occured to me that very low TDS must be a very important factor in the keeping of many Apistogramma species since they come from very warm areas with little to no water movement and aquatic plant life.
Yes, I think it is important. Scientists use BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand) as a measure of pollution, and these very low conductivity waters have low BOD values.

The woody debris (leaves and wood) accumulates because, even though it is carbon rich, it is very nitrogen poor (the same as in <"ombrotrophic mires">). Unless you add nitrogen (and bases) the structural carbohydrates (lignin etc) won't be oxidized. Additionally the combination of acidity, low nutrients and anti-microbial (tannic, humic and phenolic) compounds in the water drastically reduces the size and assemblage of microbial communities. Even though you may have little water movement (and therefore a small gas exchange surface), the oxygen in the water isn't depleted by microbial action, and CO2 levels won't build up. In shallow water diffusion may maintain oxygen levels, even in the absence of water movement.

Despite that my suspicion would be that Apistogramma spp. are relatively tolerant of low dissolved oxygen levels, they are small fish and come from water that is warm and must become oxygen depleted at time. The fish that are most at risk are large rheophilic fish from cold water, they may show distress even in fully oxygenated warmer water.

TDS, oh no it isn't.
You have to be a little bit careful in assuming that the TDS value you measure is actually TDS, it isn't, it is a measure of conductivity. In soft, tannin stained water the Total Dissolved Solids would actually be a lot higher than the conductivity (just a measure of ions) is.

You can also have high conductivity in very highly oxygenated, low nutrient, fresh water (somewhere like the upper layers of Lake Tanganyika), or in a sea water, on a coral reef etc. In the marine case (where the conductivity will be 53,000 microS) the high level of dissolved salts does reduce the the potential level of dissolved oxygen. In alkaline, or salty water, <"ORP"> (or REDOX) values are more useful measures.

I also wonder if there are any "simple" methods or devices for providing high oxygenation to tanks with very little water flow. My riparium system may be one approach but not everyone is inclined to keep live plants let alone setup elevated riparium boxes in their tanks.
A shallow, wide tank is one way, and you can have vertical flow, via an air pump, if you have <"an "air lift" on them">, these are very efficient.

cheers Darrel
 

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