Owen's Riparium

[OwenB86]

Hi Everyone, I've recently started keeping fish but only currently have a goldfish tank and want something a bit more interesting. I'm going to try and create a low maintenance riparium biotope using as much DIY as possible

Tank: 36"x19"x18" 53 US Gal

Filtration: Although I've read this isn't strictly necessary, I will be adding a small filter to keep the water clean.

Heating: 2x 200W Heaters

Lighting: Wall light I found in a cupboard CFLS bulbs.

Substrate: John Innes no.3 compost covered with play sand.

Plants:Anubias, Microsorium, Sagittaria, Crypts, Peace Lily.

Stocking: Need some help here.
4+x Croaking Gourami or Pearl Gourami
6+x Copper Rasboras
6+x Dwarf Rasboras
6+x Kuhli Loach

So basically before I start I want to make sure everything is ok in the plan. Some suggestions for some hardy submersed plants would be great, as well as house plants that could be used. Also as I said above I need help with the stocking. I really want some Croaking Gourami and my lfs has some in stock, but I won't have any way to sex them so I would have to buy a mixed group and I'm worried about them fighting. I'd also really like to get some Celestial Pearl Danios but I've read that their temperature requirements are incompatible with the Gourami, is this true? One last question, would any of the fish I've chosen attack or eat shrimp?

Thanks a lot, and I will update this as I go on.

Owen

 

[lloyd]

Sound good. only suggestion is not to go for celestial pearldanios due to there preferences for cooler water and the quarmis preference for hot water

 

[KkAaNnEe]

It looks good mate, will be interested to watch this progress, couple things;

Compost and play sand is a bad mix, unless you plan to never touch the substrate, in that case it would be fine

The gouramis would depend on which species? If its sparkling gouramis they should be fine..

Anubias and microsorum species are really hardy and would look good in this setup and maybe some sagittaria here and there

Trying to return your computer help mate

 

[OwenB86]

Sound good. only suggestion is not to go for celestial pearldanios due to there preferences for cooler water and the quarmis preference for hot water

Ok thanks, I'll probably have copper rasboras instead.

It looks good mate, will be interested to watch this progress, couple things;

Compost and play sand is a bad mix, unless you plan to never touch the substrate, in that case it would be fine

The gouramis would depend on which species? If its sparkling gouramis they should be fine..

Anubias and microsorum species are really hardy and would look good in this setup and maybe some sagittaria here and there

Trying to return your computer help mate

Haha cheers

I doubt I'll move anything around once its planted so the substrate should be ok. I don't actually know what sub species the gourami are, they were just labelled 'Croaking' in the shop. They looked a bit big to be sparklers though imo. I will have a look at those plants now

 

[KkAaNnEe]

Yeah fair enough, just a quick search on google shows three species of croakers so check that out.

Also see caz's journal for ideas, its not riparium but anyway http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/355141-se-asian-biotope/

Might wanna change the title slightly, getting confusing in this section

 

[OwenB86]

I hate to admit this but I can't work out how to change the title and I said I was good with computers
I've just had a read through that journal, I really like the cherry shrimp and the scape looks great too. I doubt mine will be anywhere near as good, but oh well

I've done some more research on the Gourami and I'm 90% sure they are T.Vittatia as they are too large to be sparklers and the other sub species is very rare. I got this information from wikipedia:

Males can be fairly territorial and aggressive with each other during breeding periods, but won't cause harm given a large enough aquarium, and usually males comfortably coexist. They require a tank no smaller than 40 litres (10 US gallons), preferably larger, and each pair of males will need about 20 inches of space to feel comfortable with one another.

So, depending on tank size, would 2 per every 20" be a good number?

 

[OwenB86]

Update!

Found myself some lighting

Not exactly high tech but it will have to do for now

And picked up the first of my semi-submerged plants

I've finally decided the dimensions of the tank are going to be 54"x15"x10", so I should be able to stock a good number of fish I'm also having second thoughts about the biotope idea seeing as many of the plants I'm going to use aren't from asia, but I still want to base the tank around the gouramis.

 

[coldcazzie]

to change the title you click to edit your first post, then click "use full editor" and you can change it there. if the option isn't there then give me a shout and I'll do it for you

PS; that lighting is kinda what I'm looking for for temp lighting for mine - where did you get it from?! for the life of me I can't find anything like that anywhere!

 

[OwenB86]

Thank you! Glad that's finally sorted. I found the light in a cupboard so I can't really help you there sorry

I really liked your riparium and biotope tanks by the way

 

[coldcazzie]

Heh thanks

Lol at the cupboard! I'm currently using my daughter's desk lamp!

 

[wirralbull]

You will need to change them bulbs if youre going to try grow plants. Swap them for cfls for a better and cheap option or leds . But they r expensive

 

[OwenB86]

I'm currently using my daughter's desk lamp!

You will need to change them bulbs if youre going to try grow plants. Swap them for cfls for a better and cheap option or leds . But they r expensive

Cheers, I will try and pick up some of those bulbs. I can't really afford and LED setup just yet so the cupboard light will have to do for now.

 

[OwenB86]

Update!

Sorry I haven't posted for such a long time, I've been on holiday twice and I got my first car a couple of weeks ago so I've been quite busy lol

I've been told that the piece of furniture I wanted to put the tank on isn't strong enough to hold the weight of the water, so I will have to rethink the tank size. To keep myself occupied until I know what the new dimensions will be, I started a small project:

I had a 30L tank lying around, so I though why not set it up as a practice tank I'm not very good at remembering to take pictures, so it ended up looking like this after about an hour:

Some flamed heather I collected on holiday:

Final hard scape with some random cuttings from my cold water tank (excuse the clarkson books):

Planned stocking: Cherry shrimp, possibly some CPDs
Plants: Dwarf hairgrass, cabomba, maybe some microsorum and anubias.

Thoughts?

 

[minnnt]

A background.

Plans sound great!

 

[OwenB86]

Well I went to my lfs today to get some cherry shrimp and came back with 6 dwarf rasboras

Pics (sorry about the quality):

I also got an anubias nana to start off my rooting plants, and added some more cabomba and elodea to give more cover and keep the tank filtered.

I love these fish, so much more interesting to watch than my goldies. They were 6 for £10 so I was thinking of getting another 6 to bring their numbers up I think I'm also going to get maybe 6 or 12 pygmy corys for this tank instead of shrimp, the only shrimp in the shop were £3 each!

A background.

Plans sound great!

Thank you! I was going to print a temporary background off but my printer's broken