Ripariums: Riverbank Aquascaping

You may have heard some of the buzz surrounding ripariums, or "riverbank" tanks, which has been growing on aquascaping forums and websites lately. It wasn't till I saw Hydrophyte's Riparium Supply website that I started getting really excited. Not only are the ripariums on the site beautiful (see above and below) but they provide a really attractive alternative for growing out aquatic plants and are a fresh new approach to aquascaping (err..maybe ripascaping?).

The whole concept of a riparium is that you are simulating the bank of a riverbed or pond, without actually creating any physical dry ground (that would be a paludarium). So you get to grow your aquatic plants emersed in hanging planters, which means they grow much faster. Not only that, but aquatic plants often have very different forms when grown emersed, which means you often get completely different leaf shapes, growth patterns, and even flowers!

The best part: you can still keep fish and use your normal aquarium equipment. You can even still grow plants submerged. CO2 isn't needed either, since there's plenty of it in the atmosphere. You can also keep new animals, like freshwater crabs, amphibians, and reptiles.

You'll need some additional hardware to pot and hang the plants, but that's it. If I had an extra tank and wasn't moving in a few months, I'd definitely try this out. If you'd like to give it a whirl, check out Hydrphyte's blog for more information and updates. You can also buy some riparium hardware from the Riparium Supply store.

Aquascape of the Week: Radek Baszak's "Up the Scarp"

A few days late due to vacation, but better late than never! This little aquascape is so visually interesting. Radek Baszak has done a wonderful job selecting and arranging plants with contrasting textures to create lots of interest, as well as that awesome rock formation. I don't know if it was many hours of teaching the fish to "stay!" or just waiting for them to be in the right place at the right time, but they are perfectly posed as well. For more information on this tank, Mr. Baszak, and the rest of his tanks, take a look around his website.

Aquascaping Answers: El Natural

Each week in Aquascaping Answers, I do my best answering your aquascaping and aquascaping related questions. Just leave your question in the comments section!

Well, this is the long overdue Aquascaping Answers that I've been too busy to write for a while now. Sorry if you left a question and were disappointed, I've copied them down and will try to get to them all eventually!

Unfortunately I have decided that I shouldn't spend a whole lot of money right now, and I don't think I will be able to handle dosing fertilizers every day or every other day (I'll forget...). But, there's hope! An El Naturale tank. I know that they typically use no filters, but I have already purchased my Eheim Classic 2215. My sense tells me that I could still set up an El Naturale tank, but I may have to dose Nitrogen (which is easier and cheaper than everything else in addition!), to replace the ammonia which the bacteria would be eliminating. My setup would be a 46 gallon bow-front with a DIY 96 watt PC fixture (about 2 watts/gallon) with the Eheim 2215 and a soil substrate... Is this feasible? Would I have to dose Nitrogen? How heavy should my fish-load be? Thanks for helping me get started in the planted tank niche with a beautiful tank!!

I would become fully familiar with the differences between an El Natural tank and a higher-tech Dutch or Nature Aquarium aquascape. They're very different styles, in almost every way. If you'd like to grow fast growing, high light plants, I wouldn't settle for an El Natural. On the other hand, if you are perfectly content having a "set it and forget it" tank that you can pay attention to whenever you have a spare minute every couple weeks or so, and that won't necessarily rival Amano's tanks, El Natural may be right for you. Pick which ever one you think you would enjoy more.

If you are only worried about dosing and remembering to dose fertilizers, build a simple and cheap DIY fertilizer auto-doser. It doesn't cost more than $30-$50 and you'll never have to worry about forgetting a dose again, except that is till it runs out of mix (no wonder my algae was coming back with a vengance!).

For details on an El Natural and whether or not you should dose nitrogen (I highly doubt you'd need to) I'd suggest buying Diana Walstad's book or checking out the El Natural forums on Aquatic Plant Central. The rest of the tank specs sound fine, and I'd stock it only slightly heavier than a normal tank.

Good luck!

Ask a question about aquascaping, keeping aquatic plants, plant-friendly fish, lighting, CO2, fertilizing, or any other aquarium plant related question in the comments to this post, and I'll answer them in next week's edition.

Aquascape of the Week: Renaud's ADA 2008 Layout

This week's aquascape is a really fantastic layout from the 2008 IAPLC (ADA) contest, where it ranked 176th. The "canopy" of plants is just amazing and must have been quite hard to accomplish, but it is certainly stunning. Combined with a unique orange sunset-like background, the green of the Hemianthus micranthemoides in the canopy really stands out and is just fantastic.