Persistent Myths about Planted Ripariums

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hydrophyte

Feeder Fish
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Aug 10, 2009
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Madison, Wisconsin
Persistent Myths about Planted Ripariums

This thread is for the discussion of several ideas about planted ripariums that aren't really representative of how they work or the best ways to plan, assemble and maintain them. I plan to raise a number of points and then when there are several I will also maintain an index at that end of the thread. Please post here if you have any questions or additional observations.

This list summarizes the main components of riparium setups and how they are put together:

  1. Taller emergent semi-aquatic plants are planted in riparium Hanging Planters, which are hung close together on the rear pane of aquarium glass.
  2. Shorter riparium midground plants are planted onto riparium Trellis Rafts, which are snapped into place on the Hanging Planters
  3. As the riparium plants grow their foliage covers up the foam and plastic planters to create a natural scene.
  4. Aquarium fish with underwater plants and/or underwater hardscape complete the display for an authentic recreation of the vegetated shoreline environment.

That is basically it. A really important idea to keep in mind about planted ripariums is that they are very simple systems. I have seen several cases where hobbyists had real trouble growing their plants or making their setups look good because they were adding extra, unnecessary steps and components.

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More soon!
 
Here's the first one...

Myth #1 - You can put any kind of plant into a riparium with good results.

Not true! The best kinds of plants to keep in ripariums are those that are adapted to grow in the natural shoreline environment. While the banks of rivers, lakes and streams often have abundant water, sunlight and nutrients, they pose special problems for growing plants. A very important limiting factor for plants growing in this kind of habitat is oxygen availability around their roots. The amount of oxygen dissolved in water is limited to begin with, and where there is substantial bacterial activity (as there often is in nutrient-rich muddy sediments) it is further deprived. Plants that are evolved grow in wet marginal areas can thrive in these sorts of oxygen-poort soil conditions, but most other plants will quickly suffer root death and perish if planted into a shoreline habitat, or a riparium planter.

Furthermore, plants that are evolved to grow in deserts, treetops, forests or vegetable gardens will also make a very poor representation of the riparian habitat. There are hundreds of fascinating and beautiful plants that can grow in the shoreline environment--most of the underwater plants that we keep in aquariums can also grow as marginal emergent--so it is a much better idea to select among these when planning a riparium layout. You will have much better results growing the plants and your setup will look much more like a real shoreline area in nature.
 
OK I have some observations on the next one...

Myth #2 - Planted ripariums are perfect habitats for turtles, frogs, crabs and other amphibious animals.

You could maybe keep fully aquatic herps OK in a riparium, but anything that might climb would not be good for the riparium plants. Most of those plants that grow on the rafts have fine, thin stems and it is easy to knock them over. A lot of the best plants to put in the planters are similarly flimsy. Crypts can grow into really impressive emersed riparium specimens, but the stems are so soft that any animal larger than a small insect would just flatten them out.

There is not any real land area in a riparium, so there is no good place for herps to bask. One could include a shelf or flaoting island or something like that, but those feaures would just get in the way of the riparium planters. To get a good-looking planting it is usually necessary to fill most of that whole real rear pane of glass with planters + plants.

There so-o-o-o-o-o-o many different options to explore for fish stocking. You can make a really engaging display with some nice active fish to go with the riparium plants. It appears to me that some hobbyists get really stuck on the idea of keeping herps in a riparium because their own frame of reference is mainly with the vivarium setups used with dart frogs and other herps. I once had a discussion with somebody who insisted that I should put some dart frogs into a large open-top riparium filled with plants, and robust cichlids and livebearers; we were standing right in front of the aquarium. Dart frogs would have just drowned in that tank and the fish probably would have eaten their legs off. I thought that the setup looked nice just the way it was, but that guy could not shake that idea.

If you want to keep amphibious animals with plants, then something more like a regular paludarium setup with a built-up hardscape would be a better idea. However, as mentioned earlier a hybrid setup with the right riparium plants might also work OK for amphibious animals. I have pondered setting up the mangrove planting that I have going in a 65 for mudskippers, but I decided to use other fish instead. Most of the plants in there are are upright and sturdy, and it wouldn't be hard to make some good areas for the mudskippers to climb around by adding some more big manzanita stumps to the water. You could also probably make a nice hybrid setup for turtles if you were to forego the trellis raft and just select some really big and sturdy peace lilies in planters to put on one side of the tank, then position a floating basking platform on the other side. It might be hard to get a layout like that to look totally natural, but the plants would add some nice greenery and help to keep the water clean.
 
Myth #3 - Riparium plants require CO2 injection for vigorous growth.

The emersed aquatic plants in a riparium will be able to uptake more than enough carbon dioxide from the air, where it is normally many times more available than in water. There is no need to inject extra CO2 for riparium plants. I have seen a couple of riparium setups that used CO2 injection for underwater foreground plants. However, I have never tried this and I would be disinclined to do it. For the setups where I have used underwater plants I have included low tech selections (swords, crypts, Anubias, Java fern) that grew very well without any extra carbon dioxide. By installing a CO2 system one would be losing out in part on the beneficial low input and cost-saving features of planted riparium.

Another tack that one could apply for the underwater area would be to use no plants there at all and instead develop a compelling underwater layout with a well-rendered hardscape, high-quality natural gravel and active fish display.

A related idea is the use of high-nutrient substrates for the underwater plants in a riparium, such as mineralized topsoil mixes with top dressings of other gravel substrates. I think that this would also be overkill in most cases. Topsoil plant substrates might be best used where underwater plant nutrient demands are very high, as with the use of bright lighting and CO2 injection. If planted into a riparium the underwater plants will usually be less demanding. The emersed riparium plants can throw a lot of shade on the underwater area and in a fully-planted riparium there will only be spaceand light for underwater plants up in the front 1/2 or 1/3 of tank depth. It is usually a better idea to select low tech underwater plants and feed them with some water column dosing or tablet or capsules fertilizers, rather than setting up a more complicated layered substrate.

Check out RootMedic.com for excellent aquarium plant fert products at great prices.
 
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