# Riparium in 15-gallon Tank: Small Grassy Plants



## hydrophyte (Dec 16, 2009)

I have a pretty good concept for a new setup. This planted riparium layout will go into a 15-gallon tank filled to about 2/3 of total depth. I have a start on it already and these first pictures are from a week or so ago, but I'll catch up with a couple-few posts. This will be like a journal thread, but I have some good pictures to illustrate the aquascaping methods that I am using, so I suppose it fits well enough in this sub-forum.

Here's the tank, a "flood damage special" standard 15-gallon with top plastic rim removed. I am sure that I voided the warranty by popping that top rim off.

I decided to just re-silicone the tank seams. It was easy enough. After spending a couple of hours scraping away everything but the little bit of sealant holding the panes together on edge, I masked off both sides of each corner, leaving 3/16" for the new seams.

I used a plastic yogurt lid to make a triangular sealant scraper. It scraped the silicone bead down to a nice even seam.

After letting it cure overnight, I used a new razor blade to cut through the sealant right along the edge of the masking tape, then pulled the tape off. It turned out pretty good.

Here is one of the plants that I am using, _Acorus gramineus_ "dwarf". It is planted in a magnetic riparium planter.

I am shooting for an overall grassy appearance for the planting. I have some other good plant selections for this idea and I'll be back with more pictures of those.


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## Pali (Dec 22, 2009)

:thumb:


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## ashilli48 (May 14, 2006)

opcorn:


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## hydrophyte (Dec 16, 2009)

I don't know if I will end up with cichlids in here or not. I have a couple of apistos (not sure of species?) that I could introduce, but this is just 10 gallons or so of water, so it would be pretty tight.


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## hydrophyte (Dec 16, 2009)

Here's the whole planting as I have it now.

This is subject to change--I will probably move the plants around some. It definitely has that "just planted" look, but it should start to shape up as the plants grow in. The plants will also cover that foam and plastic as they get bigger.


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## hydrophyte (Dec 16, 2009)

Here is another view of the planting.

Those planter cups are conspicuous from this angle, but that is in part because of the light reflecting up from the bare glass tank bottom. The planters will become more obscured as the plants grow in and throw more shade.

The plant layout really needs more vertical dimension. The _Pogonatherum_ grass is supposed to grow to ~12" and look more and more like mini-bamboo as it gets larger. I'll come back next with a picture of the tank with a layer of gravel.


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## hydrophyte (Dec 16, 2009)

I got some gravel into this tank and snapped a quick picture too. I might shuffle the plants again. The layout could use some taller plants.

I'll work on the hardscape next.


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## hydrophyte (Dec 16, 2009)

I have a start on the hardscape. I decided to go with the lace rock.

I hope to be back with pictures soon.


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## hydrophyte (Dec 16, 2009)

Here is just one hardscape idea.

This looks a bit corny, and more like something you would see in saltwater. I can try other ideas easily enough. You can see that I need to add some taller plants. I just got a larger stem plant in there and I will look for other additional stuff too.


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## hydrophyte (Dec 16, 2009)

Here is a bit of a rescape with a stone rearrangement and a couple of new taller plants.


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## tmds3 (Jan 14, 2010)

Not sure what look you are going for, but to me looks awesome, nice clean and simple. :thumb: :thumb:


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## hydrophyte (Dec 16, 2009)

Thanks!

Here's another view, from a different angle.

I might add fish soon.


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## hydrophyte (Dec 16, 2009)

Here is one additional shot.

I got the fish in there last night. I hope to come back soon with a picture of them.


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## tmds3 (Jan 14, 2010)

What type of fish did you go with? Think I may try the same with a 10gl I have, haven't decided what to do with it yet, Was thinking of doing an all in one but you may have changed my mind


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## hydrophyte (Dec 16, 2009)

For now I am just including a group of four phantom tetras and an apisto. I might also put my little group of four _Corydora pygmaeus_ in there.

It might be kind of tight, but a 10-gallon would work alright for a few plants. If you can swing it a 15 would be a better choice for a riparium setup.


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## hydrophyte (Dec 16, 2009)

Here is a quick shot from tonight.


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## fishies1 (Jan 12, 2010)

wow..very beautiful. Good job.


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## hydrophyte (Dec 16, 2009)

THank you fishies1!

Here is a quick shot from last night. I added some underwater plants.


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## hydrophyte (Dec 16, 2009)

Well I received a note from one of the admins indicating that all of my image links were removed from this thread. I had a temporary problem with my image hosting, and the dead links were causing a lot of page-load trouble for viewers.

Anyway, I'll try to load up some of them again.

Here is a picture from a few days ago. I hung up a sheet as a temporary backdrop--in pictures the foliage does not look so good against the tan wall in this room.


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## hydrophyte (Dec 16, 2009)

Here is another new plant that might be a good fit for this setup, an _Adiantum_ sp. maidenhair fern.










I think that there might be new little gametophytes (arrow) growing from spores that fell from the original leaves.

At the moment I have it going in a separate culture tank, but I might move it over to this riparium if it grows up a bit larger. I have had it going in several planters for a couple of months now. These plants suffered a lot when I repotted them and they lost all of their original leaves, but it looks as thought they are growing again pretty well.


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## hydrophyte (Dec 16, 2009)

I have torn down this tank. I was never especially satisfied with the hedge-like planted layout that I had in here--although it did include several pretty cool plants--and I needed a tank for the vendor table that I ran at the ACA 2010 Convention last weekend. Here is a quick shot of the setup that I had there.










I was mainly sitting there at the table all three days of the convention, but I did get up a few times to go shoot some pictures. I got a few nice shots of the show fish. I need to format those and load them up. I also got a few minutes of several of the speaker presentations and I learned more about several intriguing groups of fish. And then of course inspired me to make a couple of fish purchases. I mean to get some shots of my new fish too.


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## hydrophyte (Dec 16, 2009)

Here is a quick blog post that I put together about the convention.

*2010 American Cichlid Association Convention, Oconomowoc, Wisconsin*

This is no hard-hitting journalism, but I did get a few pictures in there and a quick description of what I saw. Here is the 300-gallon Lake Tanganyika setup.


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