The Swamp

[coldcazzie]

Sunday 29th April 2012
So, I’ve been planning this for a while, but thought I’d better actually write some of it down instead of just talking abut it. I’m actually writing this post in Word before even being ready to start my journal on the forum. I’ve decided on the name of “the swamp”.

My new project will commence once I have rehomed my current stock and the tanks they are in. It will be a riparium/paludarium. The tank will be filterless, run as a natural aquarium - Walstad style. There will be one or several wavemakers present so that there is some water flow around the tank. Lighting is yet to be decided but I believe will involve a custom LED lighting rig designed and built by the manwife (he likes that sort of thing.

The biggest decision at this stage is the tank itself. I’ve a couple of choices: building a wooden one myself, building a stand and buying a tank to go on top, or buying a whole tank/stand setup brand new (or rather, new to me). The sizing is as follows: 72 inches long, by 18 or 24 wide depending on whether myself and the manwife think a 24” wide tank can fit in our living room, by probably 24 inches tall. I would be very tempted to get a taller tank… but it would have to be bought brand new and the price increases significantly with a tank taller than 24 inches as the thickness of the glass increases. 24” tall = £290, 30” tall = £573! I could do a taller tank if I made it myself from wood, as I would only be buying a glass front panel, thus reducing the cost. This is an option, but one I am not overly keen on and have not fully explored yet. If I did this I would use pond paint to paint the inside of the tank.

There will be mud, covered with whatever substrate I have left in my garage from previous tanks. I have smooth pea gravel, course gravel and various sands. There will be wood. Planning on buying a large piece of mopani from Mattlee, plus I’ve got some interesting pieces which I won’t rehome. Finally, I hope to ask my neighbours nicely if I can life out one of their fence panels and visit a patch of rough ground on the other side of their garden which has a fallen tree in it, in the hopes that I can find a couple of nice bits.

Stock: I am planning to have a shoal of rummy nosed tetras. These are absolutely my favourite fish, and I’ve been missing them all the time I’ve not owned them. Numbers as yet undetermined, but will start with between 6 and 12 and go from there. The water will be around 12 inches deep, which with a width of 24 inches (which is what I’m angling for haha) gives me 75 gallons of water. There will also be malasian trumpet snails and cherry shrimp - I’ll introduce a bunch and let them go nuts. Mts will go in first, approx 1-2 months after starting planting. Cherry shrimp about a month after that, then rummys after another month. While the stock is important, it is not the only reason for having the tank - I love plants - and I want the plants to be settled before stocking.

That’s all for now, next post will involve plant research.

 

[coldcazzie]

This post is mainly aimed at keeping together my research on plants which I’m doing, so that I don’t forget etc.


Here are some reference threads which I am using to inform my choices/as inspiration/as starting points for research:

BigTom’s bucket of mud

Riparium plants on UKAPS

How to plant a riparium

Nine great riparium/paludarium species

I will add others as I find them so that other people can use them



I really don’t want to have a load of plants covering the surface - I want plants underwater as well as above so can’t have too much shade coming from above. Therefore, I am avoiding trailing plants grown over trellis, avoiding floating plants, and avoiding lilies with large surface leaves.

Here are my plants choices so far, and I’m dividing these into several categories:

• Emergent plants that will be planted directly into the soil at the tank base.
• Aquatic/submersed plants.
• Marginal plants which will be located in planters at/just below the water’s surface, or attached to wood such that they will be growing partially above the surface.
• Others which might be included in planters above the water, just for the joy of having them there.

So, emergent plants that will be planted directly into the soil at the tank base

Calla Lily: pink mist variety - I wanted a version that had slightly more interesting flowers than just white.

Peace Lily: has a different leave shape to the calla lilies so the two should compliment each other.

Cyperus alternifolius: should grow quite tall (assuming, as Tom said in his journal, that I get the right sp) so will be right at the back. Bit of an experiment is this, as it’s reportedly quite an invasive plant sometimes.

Blyxa aubertii: glass like - not sure about this, I may stick just with the sweetflag below.

Aquatic/submersed plants

Hygrophilla angustifolia: love this plant. Have grown it before to the surface, and it’s tried to emerge but I’ve had to chop it as it was in a tank with a lid (so no room for plants above the surface), plus at the time I had no idea that it could grow emmersed. Even if it doesn’t try to grow emmersed, the long flowing leaves are just beautiful.

Anubias barteri, and nana, although probably not petite: have grown these before, I love my anubia  these will be grown near the substrate on some of the woods that I already have.

Cryptocorynes: plan to have many of these - probably a mish mash of types crammed in as closely as I can get them!

Java fern: obviously, probably needle variety rather than standard or windelov.

Bolbitis: again, obvious really (plus much nicer than java fern)

Blyxa japonica/cyperus helferi: not grown either of these, but looking for a glassy type plant and both of these fit the bill. I may try both and see which does better.

Marginal plants which will be located in planters at/just below the water’s surface, or attached to wood such that they will be growing partially above the surface

Hosta white feather: really like this one as the white leaves are quite unusual. Stays relatively small for a hosta (50cm x 50cm) so will be good for a side position in a planter, or perhaps on the back to the right corner.

Sweetflag: talk and grassy like.

Anubias hastifolia: I already own one of these. I plan to get 2-3 more. Will be attached to wood such that it grows at/above the surface of the water.

Anubias lanceolata: Another that I’ve already owned and grown emergent. As above.

Anubias heterophylla: this is one I’ve not grown before, but don’t see why it shouldn’t work as well as the others above.

Anubias afzeli: as above. Did I mention I love anubia?!

Others which might be included in planters above the water, just for the joy of having them there

Herringbone plant: I already have one of these and love it. Not sure whether I am going to use it or not but if I did it might be a planter just above/at the water surface as it likes wet soil but not to be boggy, or it might just be at the tank brim so above the marginal plants.

Spider plant: as above.




My next stage is to plan vaguely where everything will be going. Cue bad paint picture

 

[ian]

sounds good Caz, remember to ensure those LED's aren't to powerful.

 

[coldcazzie]

Yeah I know - they will be sparing. I'm not after very bright lighting - aside from anything else it will be next to our living room window so there will be a certain amount of natural light getting to it.

Here's my bad paint picture.

Cyperus alternifolius
Peace lily
Calla lilies
Sweetflag
Hosta white feather
Hygrophilla angustifolia
Blyxa japonica/cyperus helferi
Crypts
Anubias]
Some kind of echinodorus - this is something I've yet to research, but I'd like to try a large sp in a planter, plus perhaps a couple of smaller sp immersed.

The left side of it is a lot clearer in my head than the right side, so things might change a bit.

Now it's dinnertime and then back to the neuroimaging essay

 

[ian]

looks great, looking forward to the pics.

Neuro imaging as in CTB's and MRI's??

 

[minnnt]

Blimey Caz, you must have loads of time on your hands. That write up would have taken me hours to write!

The 'drawing' looks great. I think i am going to be starting a new planted setup soon, i am missing being part of this section of the forum.

Looking forward to seeing it evolve. If it ends up even half as good as Toms you will have a stunning tank.

Good luck,

 

[coldcazzie]

Neuro imaging as in CTB's and MRI's??

fMRI, PET, TMS, EEG, MEG...

"Neuroimaging techniques tell us a great deal about structure but very little about "normal" cognitive function. Discuss."

Fun eh?!

Blimey Caz, you must have loads of time on your hands. That write up would have taken me hours to write!

The 'drawing' looks great. I think i am going to be starting a new planted setup soon, i am missing being part of this section of the forum.

Looking forward to seeing it evolve. If it ends up even half as good as Toms you will have a stunning tank.

Good luck,

I got stuck in front of the computer with Giraffe asleep on my lap, so I thought I may as well properly look at and write down the different plants I'd been considering and looking at for a while.

 

[ian]

Not to step away from the thread to much, but neuro imaging is great for telling us about cognitive function, look at the dementia patient. We can tell what kind of dementia and where it's gonna spread, hence altering congnitive function. I'll save the rest for a pm! Lol

 

[coldcazzie]

Haha, I'm not disagreeing, but that's the essay title. I've still got a few more articles to read before I can really get stuck into it. Look forward to your PM

 

[FishFanatic04]

I'm so excited to watch this happen. One of the biggest things that drew me so deep into this hobby was the plants. Without them, I would have one tank right now and money on hand

This is going to be great!! Goodluck the whole way through.

 

[stu40]

Good luck
get as many Rummys in there as you can, brilliant fish, behaviour is soo much better in groups larger than 10

My LFS' show tank must have 50+, and it's awesome.

 

[DrRob]

I'll be watching carefully. I've been inspired by the bucket of mud of Tom's and have a plan, kinda agreed by the OH, for a 36"x24"x24" in a dark corner that will lend itself to similar.

As for imaging, surely anything that assists with defining or predicting abnormal function does, by it's nature, therefore define normal by default. Particularly with conditions like PCA out there.

 

[coldcazzie]

I will, but the numbers won't be as high as they could be with a filter as it's just the plants filtering. The cyperus is a good filterer though.

 

[stu40]

I will, but the numbers won't be as high as they could be with a filter as it's just the plants filtering. The cyperus is a good filterer though.

i was using 50 as an example, not a template

 

[Biulu]

During my last absence I got cut off from electricity for a month and all my fish survived! I am sure it is due to the plants. Stocking was normal and plant mass not exaggerated. I think you can put more livestock in there than you think.