Flowerpot Riparium continued

None of my aquarium projects ever proceed with any swiftness. After I assembled everything, I partially filled the flowerpot with water. After a week with no leakage, I added more water. I kept adding water every week until the pot was filled to the level I wanted it at. Then it sprang a leak!

I was in the work room in our basement when I felt water dripping on me. Looking up, I saw water dripping from an electric wire strung through the joists of the floor above me. I ran upstairs to discover a puddle of water under the flowerpot. After four weeks of leak testing, the flowerpot had sprung a leak. This necessitated another delay since I had to empty the flowerpot, let it thoroughly dry, and then seal the leak.

Finally, after leak testing for another month, I was ready to add the plants. By this time, however, the upright philodendron (Thaumatophyllum) had grown quite a bit which required me to trim it down so it would fit in its flowerpot.

Riparium with upright philodendron and duckweed

After four months in the riparium, the philodendron doing well as is the duckweed (Lemna minor).

I have this in our dining room which does not get enough light for plants to grow well. For additional light, I am using an Intpro LED light inside a basket. I couldn’t find a lampshade that would fit over the LED light so I resorted to using a basket. It is almost too heavy for the lamp stand, so I placed a brick on the lamp stand base to keep it from tipping over. I have the lamp plugged into a ESP8285 smart plug that I flashed with Tasmota. The smart plug is connected to Apple Homekit via Homebridge I have running on a Raspberry Pi. This allows me to set a schedule for the light while also allowing us to turn the light on/off from our iPhones. Low tech with high tech.

All that is left to do is add guppies (Poecilia reticulata). When I checked the water last week, there was no detectable ammonia or nitrite but the nitrate was at 80 ppm. Water hardness and pH were right where I want them to be. Once the nitrate level drops to 40 ppm or less, I’ll add guppies.

Flowerpot Riparium

My plans for a paludarium have been set aside until I find a 40-gallon long aquarium. However, while perusing Tanner Serpa’s YouTube SerpaDesign channel, I found a project idea I could immediately undertake – a planter-based riparium.

A riparium is a vivarium that incorporates both terrestrial and aquatic elements. If that sounds like a paludarium, don’t be surprised because they are similar. The key difference is the ratio of terrestrial-to-aquatic elements. A paludarium has enough terrestrial elements to support semi-aquatic animals whereas a riparium has almost none, being able to support only aquatic animals.

My father-in-law had gifted a beautiful large, glazed flowerpot to me that was ideal as the container for the riparium. I had most of everything else I needed but, to begin the project, I visited the local Ace Hardware store and local fish store to purchase the remaining items.

A clay flowerpot — An unprepared clay flowerpot

The first order of business was preparing two clay pots. I used a hole saw suitable for masonrary to cut several holes in both pots. One pot will contain the featured plant while the other will be a base for primary pot. In the pot intended to contain the plant, I covered the holes with 1-mm plastic mesh to contain the substrate while allowing roots to grow through it into the water column. The outgrowth of roots into the water column will be essential towards maintaining water quality, as they will clear the water of ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates.

Two clay flowerpots with holes cut into them.

As did Tanner Serpa, I will be using an upright philodendron (Thaumatophyllum) as the featured plant. Because I already had an upright philodrendon, my plan was to propagate it by take a cutting from it. After failing to propagate it after several months of effort, I resorted to buying another upright philodendron at a local greenhouse. This is the first time I’ve failed to propagate a plant by cutting.

To be continued…

The First Planted Aquariums

The Story

I don’t know how I got started with planted aquariums but it was a result of my researching the environmental conditions for keeping bettas. I learned they preferred warm, slow moving water with plants that offered places to hide and rest. I found information on low-tech planted, AKA Walsted, aquariums and decided that it was more my style of project. Our friend Linda, who got me started with fish keeping, gave me a 20-gallon long aquarium.

We repurposed a nightstand as an aquarium stand, placed the new aquarium in our living room, and built a new, planted aquarium. I purchased an organic potting soil from Home Depot for use as a substrate, purchased a bunch of plants from the local Petco store and World of Fish (located in Richfield, MN). I used the heater and HOB filter from our previous betta aquarium.

For the first time, I began performing water tests. Much to my joy, once the aquarium had cycled, the ammonia and nitrite levels were undetectable, that is 0 ppm. The nitrate levels were measurable but low, measuring between 10 and 40 ppm. pH levels were generally around 7.5, varying with time of day, which I learned was to expected with planted aquariums.

After the aquarium was stable, we introduced a betta, several shrimp, a couple nerite snails and a mystery snail.

That first aquarium functioned well for a year and half before it crashed. The snails died as well as the shrimp. Soon the lush plant scape thinned and algae took over. Water tests showed the pH, GH (general hardness), and KH (carbonate hardness) levels were rising. I performed extensive water changes and added new plants but to no avail. After about a year and a half, the betta died. I pulled the plug on the heater and filter and began planning for a new setup.

For the second iteration of the planted aquarium, I again used organic potting soil purchased from Home Depot. I had learned that the natural environment of bettas had soft, low pH waters, so I used distilled water to reduce the pH, GH, and KH levels. Unfortunately, I learned that not all organic potting soils are the same.

Because I had used up the previous bag of organic soil on other projects, I had to buy more soil. Not remembering what the previous brand was, I bought what looked to be suitable. To my eventual dismay, I learned this soil was very high in carbonates. Despite always using distilled water, I could never get the pH and KH down. The KH levels were at the upper limit of what my test kit could measure and the pH level was in the high 8’s. After a frustrating short year of fighting perpetual algae blooms, the tank again crashed and our third betta died.

While researching the issues with the second planted tank, I learned that high pH levels are conducive to algae growth and that high KH levels buffer pH, making it difficult to bring it down. Asking on reddit for suggestions, I learned of ADA Amazonia substrate, which provides a naturally low pH and KH environment. However, this was about 6 months into the COVID pandemic with its disruptions of supply chains. None of the local fish stores had ADA Amazonia nor could I get it online.

Eventually, the second aquarium gave up the ghost and I was left with a dead aquarium. By this time, it was 18 months into the COVID pandemic and the supply chains had sort of unkinked themselves. I found an online seller who had ADA Amazonia in stock and bought a 9L bag of version 2 to of ADA’s Amazonia soil.

I dumped the contents of the dead, second aquarium in the backyard and began setting up the third planted aquarium. For the base, I used pea gravel left over from a previous aquarium project and layered the Amazonia soil on top of it. I added plants I purchased from the local Petco store, chola wood and other items from the previous tank, and the already cycled filter media from the HOB filter from the previous aquarium.

Despite starting out with media and items from an already cycled aquarium, it took longer than I expected to cycle the new aquarium. The ADA Amazonia soil came with fertilizer tabs that contributed to the elevated ammonia and then nitrite levels. The ammonia and nitrite levels dropped to 0 ppm after three weeks but the nitrate levels continue to remain at 80 ppm after six weeks of cycling.

Despite higher nitrate levels and slow plant growth, I added a Betta, two Otocinclus (Oto) catfish, and three Neritina natalensis (Nerite) snails.The nerites and otos seem happy. They tore through the algae that was growing on the aquarium decorations and items I brought over from the previous planted aquarium.

So far, the water parameters have been low: low pH (<5) and low dGH and dKH (~3.5) with total dissolved solids (TDS) at 190. For reference, the TDS on the previous aquarium was at the upper limit of my meter.

What I Learned

Algae prefers high pH levels (8+). Plants do well with lower pH levels (<7).

KH (carbonate hardness) buffers pH, that is, high KH levels maintain pH levels regardless of how much pH-down conditioner you add.

Choice of substrate matters. And not all organic potting soil is equivalent.

Next Up

Next up is a 40-gallon long paludarium, a type of vivarium that incorporates both terrestrial and aquatic elements, that can host a school of fish along with a Betta. I am hoping to have a school of 10-12 Boraras, along with a few Otocinclus catfish and Malaysian trumpet snails. I plan on using ADA Amazonia soil as the substrate along with aquatic plants such as Hygrophila corymbosa, Pogostemon helferi, and Rotala rotundifolia, all which are native to southeast Asia. I’m hoping to create a beautiful aquarium that replicates the biotope that wild bettas and boraras inhabit.

When I ask about these topics on reddit, I often receive a “don’t worry about it, bettas can tolerate a wide range of conditions” response. I’m not worrying about it. I’m exploring and learning. The next project will be a learning project. I’m looking forward to it.

The First Aquariums

The Story

I got started with keeping fish in aquariums about a decade ago when our friend Linda helped me set up a 25 gallon tall aquarium that I stocked with a pair of comet goldfish. I used a HOB filter, a heater, and a Tetra air pump that connected to a sunken treasure chest bubbler. I decorated the aquarium with colorful blue gravel and a few other colorful decorations.

I performed partial water changes every weekend, using a gravel aquarium siphon to clean up after those messy fish. The aquarium was located in a window between the kitchen and our living room. It was located right above the kitchen sink, which made it easy to perform water changes.

At night, the aquarium added a pleasing ambience to our living room. During our annual Tiki parties, I would hang light blocking curtains on the kitchen side to block the light coming from the kitchen and then turn down the lights in the living room. It greatly enhanced the Tiki aspect of our living room.

When we were in the kitchen, either preparing food or cleaning dishes, the goldfish would watch us. We rewarded them with food so they were always eager to engage us when we were in the kitchen.

I replaced the comets with shubunkin goldfish when the comets died and eventually added a fancy tail goldfish. At some point, Kat became interested in bettas, so we bought a (too) small aquarium and put a betta in it. Kat was diligent about cleaning it every week. Initially it appeared happy in its home but as summer gave way to fall and fall gave way to winter, our house would become colder and colder at night. We would wake in the morning to find a very sluggish betta.

Being concerned for the betta, we researched what bettas needed for environmental conditions. To our dismay, we learned that what we were providing was inadequate. To provide a warmer environment, we added an in-aquarium container that we placed in the goldfish aquarium. While it was warmer, the betta was not happy with the constant water movement. We eventually bought a 10 gallon tank to which we added a small heater and a low flow HOB filter. The betta was much happier in that and lived for another 3.5 years.

What put an end to the goldfish and betta aquariums was a complete remodel of our kitchen. We removed and closed off the window and rearranged the kitchen. It is so much better than before but there was no longer a good location for an aquarium in the kitchen.

What I Learned

Not all fish are as easy to care for as care-free comet and shubunkin goldfish.

Up Next

Planted, low tech aquariums.