# 90 Gallon Wide Riparium



## deepRED

Just wanted to share a couple pictures of my riparium.

-The tank is a custom 90+ gallon (60"x25"x15").

-Lighting is a 4 bulb 54w HOT5, 2 bulbs set on 10 hours and 2 bulbs running 6 hours.

-Currently running AC110 for filtration, although it is mainly for keeping the water moving as the plants will really suck up all the nutrients.

-Plants are a mix of submersed and emersed growth aquatics plants and tropical house plants.
I'll probably add a few more varieties of submersed plants into the sand, but I would say it's about 80% there in terms of plant density.

-Simple scape of river rock, silica sand and driftwood. Nothing fancy.

Excuse the cloudy water as the pictures were taken right after I shifted stuff around.





Currently it is home to some koi as they are awaiting the warm weather, at which time they'll be heading into a 2000 gallon pond at my mom's house.

After that, I'm leaning towards a school of congos, some cories and possibly some hatchetfish. Alternatively, I'm thinking a large school of ember tetras and some rams. Still not sure though so I'm open to suggestions. The tank is really shallow and open top, so there is really only 12" or so of water in the tank, which rules out any tall fish like discus or angels.

What do you guys think?


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## Reckon

That looks superb. You and I need to exchange notes. I'm trying to improve on my little riparium. I suggest some Tillandsias for your emerging hardwood though  They look like dry Eriocaulons and they'll something exotic and color to your scape.


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## deepRED

Reckon said:


> That looks superb. You and I need to exchange notes. I'm trying to improve on my little riparium. I suggest some Tillandsias for your emerging hardwood though  They look like dry Eriocaulons and they'll something exotic and color to your scape.


Funny you say that, I was just at Hawaiian botanicals last week taking a look at their stock. I agree, a few nice showpieces will definitely add an exotic look. I'm a bit tapped out on my aquarium fund for now, so it'll have to wait. 

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## Momobobo

Absolutely beautiful! You got my brain thinking of ideas, curse you :bigsmile:


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## Reckon

Thanks for mentioning Hawaiian Botanicals, it's still a long drive but I was wondering if there was a local place to scope out air plants and Bromeliads (any idea if they can be used with a riparium?)
Ps apparently my wife rides the WCE with your wife. Wonder what they really say about our hobby...


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## deepRED

She mentioned that a couple weeks ago, though I wasn't sure who she was talking about. What a small world. 
I work about 5 minutes from Hawaiian Botanicals, so I swing by after work from time to time. They usually have a good amount of stock, though I was at art knapp in Poco this afternoon and they had a decent amount as well.

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## Algae Beater

Avoid hatchets as they will jump quite easily out of the open top. Cognos are a good fit, I have only lost one of those due to jumping from an open top. 

It looks great though!


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## deepRED

Algae Beater said:


> Avoid hatchets as they will jump quite easily out of the open top. Cognos are a good fit, I have only lost one of those due to jumping from an open top.
> 
> It looks great though!


Thanks! I've actually kept hatchets in an open top tank before, although it wasn't filled to the top and it was covered with floating plants. I know they have a tendency to jump, but from my experience they're more likely to jump out of an opening in a covered tank than an completely open tank. YMMV


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic

Looks awesome Jeremy. I've been wanting to set up a similar system but with an enclosure above for keeping Archer fish.

As Momobobo stated, curse you :bigsmile:


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## TomC

Looks great. Is that where the Mangroves went?


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## deepRED

TomC said:


> Looks great. Is that where the Mangroves went?


Thanks Tom. The mangroves haven't fully sprouted for me yet, but once they do they'll end up in this tank as well.


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## ddcool

you can probably get some Tillandsia at Triple tree in MR as well. We sold them some in March.


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## DBam

deepRED said:


> Thanks! I've actually kept hatchets in an open top tank before, although it wasn't filled to the top and it was covered with floating plants. I know they have a tendency to jump, but from my experience they're more likely to jump out of an opening in a covered tank than an completely open tank. YMMV


Or maybe they had floating plants to stop them before in your tank. I have an old center braced 44 gallon with a sliding glass top. I thought it would be jump-proof. I moved my hatchets over to this tank and within the first 2 weeks I lost most of them to the center brace. There's no more than a half inch between the center brace and top but they somehow managed to jump in there sideways and die there time and again.


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## deepRED

DBam said:


> Or maybe they had floating plants to stop them before in your tank. I have an old center braced 44 gallon with a sliding glass top. I thought it would be jump-proof. I moved my hatchets over to this tank and within the first 2 weeks I lost most of them to the center brace. There's no more than a half inch between the center brace and top but they somehow managed to jump in there sideways and die there time and again.


The water level was a good 4-5 inches from the rim of the tank. 
I had more trouble with my tank with a glass top with jumpers. I wonder if it's the condensation with a glass top that makes them jump up.

Either way, I might go with fork tail rainbows and Congo tetras.

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## deepRED

Just a quick update.

Finally had time to move the koi outside this week and was able to do a little re-scape of the tank.

A trip to Hawaiian Botanicals yielded some sweet tropical marginals that help to add some much needed colour and textural difference in the look.

I'll be monitoring the nutrient uptake quite closely as some of these plants can be heavy feeders. The one good thing is that I don't have to be as worried about cO2 as the majority of the plants are emersed. 

Also added some fish today. I'll try to snap some pics in the next couple days as they settle in.


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## onefishtwofish

oooooooolala


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## deepRED

I haven't updated in about 9 months, but this is what the tank looks like today:


























Not as clean and things have really grown in. More like an indoor bog now...Also, impossible to keep plants in place as the turtle likes to do her own interior decorating. &#128516;


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic

So after watching last night's episode of Tanked, where they set up a brackish tank with Archer fish, my wife was half joking about having me set one up. I'm guessing that her goldfish are going outside into the pond and I'll be swapping out the 2' cube goldfish tank for the 30" 93g cube in the car port set up as a riparium. :bigsmile:


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic

Goldfish tank is drained and just waiting for a buddy to do the big switch over to a nicer bigger cube.

Jeremy, hope one day my riparium is as beautiful as yours. Yours totally rocks my friend.


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## deepRED

Can't wait to see the results! 


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## The Guy

Jeremy it looks awesome bud, I had to look at it!  now I want one.


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## deepRED

The best part about it is that it is dead easy to care for.... I don't even run a filter on this tank, just a powerhead to move the water around. 
I have my kyoga flamebacks in this tank now are they are breeding non-stop. 
I went through a bunch of sub tropical marginals in the tank that did well and bloomed but then died off. Plants that have done the best have been peace lilies, pothos and house plants of that nature. I also have some giant Hygro growing emersed in the tank as well. You could technically grow tomato plants or any other water loving vegetable if you wanted to. 


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