"Nature Aquarium" Riparium in 15-gallon

I have a start on a new display. I don't have the tank in place yet, but I think I have a clear vision in mind. This new one will go into a 15-gallon rimless tank (24" wide X 12" tall X 12" deep). I have not tried a riparium in such a small enclosure before, but I have a good plan in mind for plant selection and other important points.

I had a lot of fun with my latest layout (now dismantled) and I intend to use certain elements of that setup for this new project. Here's a shot from that 50-gallon riparium setup.



I have that one journaled in this thread...

Riparium setup with Synodontis petricolak

Here are some features that characterize that design pretty well:

• A tank filled with water to about 2/3 of total depth
• Relatively bright lighting
• Erect, tidy, "grassy" background plant (Cyperus) that throws relatively little shade
• Fine-leaved sprawling stem plants (Bacopa, Limnophila, and others) growing on trellis rafts and forming dense floating carpet
• Underwater scape lacking plants, but with an artistically-rendered stone layout
• Relatively large and showy fish
• A striking centerpiece plant (Cyrtosperma)

My new project in the 15-gallon tank will use some of the same elements, with a few important variations. I hope to adapt a general Nature Aquarium design concept for this riparium planting. I list here some elements that will support this idea:

• Emersed plants with relatively fine foliage
• Emersed plants having mainly subdued, green foliage, as opposed to leaf variegation or bright coloration
• A well-rendered underwater hardscape lacking plants or having just a few bright green plants
• A group or two of small, tightly-shoaling fish
• No conspicuous centerpiece plants or fish

With another post or two I will explain more specific ideas for hardware, scaping, plant selection and fish stocking. I would be interested to hear any ideas that you might have.

Hey thanks everyone. I have some more pictures to post I will be back here in a bit with another update.

I made some more headway late last night. I had all of the plants goring out the top of a 20-gallon, which was sitting in the same spot where the new setup will go. I moved the riparium plants to this plastic basin while doing the switch.



I think that I'm going to use most of these same plants for the layout. This gives an idea of what they might look like anyway.

Here's the tank, a "flood damage special", standard 15-gallon with top plastic rim removed.



I decided to clean and re-silicone the 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 worked pretty slick and scraped the silicone bead down to a nice even seam.



After letting it cure overnight, this morning 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 looks pretty good.

I'll give it a couple-few days to cure before adding water. I will only fill this tank to about 2/3 full (~10"). The glass is less than 3/16" thick and flexes freely with just a little pressure on the two long sides. I don't trust it filled to the top with water.

I painted a background on the tank. It goes to a bit higher than 2/3 up. I will fill it to even with the top of the paint, so there will be about 3 1/2" of seem above the waterline.