55 Gallon Riparium build

[Muni]

Ok. So measuring from the the top of my plastic base trim to the top lip of the tank is right near 19 inches of exposed glass.

Using the golden rule then I should fill the tank to a height of 11.4 inches above the trim if I read that correctly.

That is 12 inches of water from the bottom of the tank which is really close to 30 gallons. Not a bad volume.

 

[Muni]

So I'm a bit impatient. The GE 1 dries to the touch pretty quickly and since it is just extra insurance in this case I filled the tank to the "golden rule" line of .6 of the exposed glass.

Think it looks proportional?

From a little higher angle to show the water.

I'm gonna go get my white sand and put it in there to see how it looks.

 

[hydrophyte]

Nice work. That old tank was a mess but you cleaned it up good. That vertical brace is an interesting solution. It does get down into the visual frame of the tank, but it doesn't look bad at all.

White sand is a good choice. The emersed riparium plants can throw a lot of shade, so light-colored substrates and bright green underwater plants are handy for brightening up the underwater part. What kind of sand do you intend to use?

 

[Muni]

I have some white silica kicking around. I'll have to check it out. I think it is sand blasting media. not sure.

Edit: Just checked. It is not sand blasiting media. It is Lane Mt. Sand. 100 pound bag of Silica. left over from my uncles breeding setup. Raised 1000's of fish with it so it can't be that bad. It was next to my sand blaster so I thought it was for that. Bag is still sealed. No contamination.

 

[Muni]

So my white silica sand turn a light brown when saturated. Odd. But I think it looks very natural and is still rather reflective.

I set a light on top of the tank with a grow bulb and a full spectrum light in it so it gives an idea of how bright this tank will be and the color you will see. Got my Diatom filter cleaning out the little nasty bits at the moment. Added about 50 pounds of sand so it raised my water level about 1 inch above the "golden" mark I made on the tank.

 

[hydrophyte]

You sure work a lot faster than I do. It would have taken me a month to get that far with all these different projects I have around here.

Here is a pretty recent (end of November) shot of my 55.

That gives an idea of scale anyway. With your plan yours will just be different in that it will probably have plants growing up and out of the top.

 

[kallmond]

I like the new water level. It fits the rule of thirds if you don't count the substrate.

 

[Muni]

You sure work a lot faster than I do. It would have taken me a month to get that far with all these different projects I have around here.

Here is a pretty recent (end of November) shot of my 55.

That gives an idea of scale anyway. With your plan yours will just be different in that it will probably have plants growing up and out of the top.

My water level is much higher then that. Guess we were looking at different "golden" rules. But it is 2/3rd's of the way up. Which I remember from my photography experience and your other thread you have.

It took my diatom about 30 minutes after that picture was taken to make that water crystal clear. not bad considering I've seen some builds around here that take days to clear up the sand clouding the tank.

 

[kallmond]

He just took the opposite.. His tank is 1/3 full 2/3 empty.. yours is 2/3 full and 1/3 empty. Still fits into the rule, it just depends on weather your focus is the plants or the fish.

Personally I like 2/3 water and the plants coming out the top of the tank as with hydrophyte's rimless tank.

 

[Muni]

He just took the opposite.. His tank is 1/3 full 2/3 empty.. yours is 2/3 full and 1/3 empty. Still fits into the rule, it just depends on weather your focus is the plants or the fish.

Personally I like 2/3 water and the plants coming out the top of the tank as with hydrophyte's rimless tank.

That is kinda where I was going with mine since it is now rimless.

His 55 pictured above works better with everything being in the tank since it still has the top trim on it. Kinda frames everything in nicely. If the plants went above that you would have a big black bar across your plant view.