Riparium setup with Synodontis petricola

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It has been a while but I got back to work on this tank last night. I tidied up the underwater area some, cleaned the glass and yanked almost all of the emersed plants. Now I am pondering a new scape and starting out with selection of centerpiece plants. Here are two options that I have in mind.

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The specimen on the right is a plant that I have been growing for some time, an emersed Anubias hastifolia. It has such as attractive way of holding its leaves.

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I am unsure as to how this plant will do long-term in an open-top setup. I have been growing it in a tank with a closed canopy and higher humidity. If it is anything like the Anubias barteri that I have tried growing in lower humidities then it won't do so well longer term. I have found that hardened A. barteri leaves hold up well enough in drier air, but new leaves whither and fail to develop.

The plant on the left is an intriguing possibility. Leather fern (Acrostichum danaeifolium) is a gigantic plant (to 12' tall) that grows in freshwater swamps and brackish magrove swamps in the tropical Americas and West Africa. Luckily my plant has only grown slowly under lights and after six months it is only about 12" tall.

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I have had this one in an open-top tank all along, so it should do well here. I intend for this rescape to be more subdued than others that I have tried so I am going to try use only green plants and avoid variegated foliage and warmer colors.
 
I decided to go with the leather fern as the centerpiece plant. I figured out a general theme and got a few plants in the tank to illustrate. This is only half-planted, but you can imagine the general idea--a background with the grasslike Acorus gramineus and a few other plants with more unusual foliage as accents.

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I will also add stem plants on trellis rafts all along the emersed midground. This will cover up those planters and create more visual depth.
 
I have a pretty good idea for a midground plant, and I already picked one up at a local garden center. Basket grass (Oplismenus) grows as a sprawling plant in moist and shady spots, and it has this terrific foliage.

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The small, broad and dark green leaves of this plant will set up a good contrast with the Acorus gramineus. I am going to plant up most of the midground trellis rafts with the basket grass. Here is a shot of these two combined from the 65-gallon tank that I had going a while ago.

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I have found that Opllismenus does not root so well in the gravel in a hanging planter, but it grows just fine with its roots right in the water, so it's a good choice for planting through the holes on a nano trellis raft.

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The underwater area still needs work, but I think that I have the emersed layout pretty well figured out. I shuffled things around a bit and added a couple of new plants. These plants are mainly full size, so I don't have to wait much for it all to grow in. The midground plants on rafts (such as the Oplismenus) will need a few weeks to grow and cover up the foam.

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I have some nice plants in here. I should come back with a list of what I planted. I also need to work on the underwater area.
 
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