Plants above the water line and a reef you don't want to miss!

[revhtree]

This thread is two-fold!

1. Have you seen this amazing tank?

2. How do you feel about plants growing above the water line and have you ever tried it?

ENJOY this reef from Garrett Morizio!

 

[Homelander]

That is outright stunning! Absolutely gorgeous!

 

[James M]

I would love to try that but the only downside about that is you can’t have a lid. Every fish jump

 

[Peter Clark]

I like it, but the lack of a lid would be a deal breaker for me.

Now what I really love are those paintings behind the tank! Who is the artist and where can I find them!?!?!

 

[Greybeard]

Had a friend that did a 90g freshwater tank, half full, with archer fish... well decorated above the water line with all kinds of plants. Kept some anoles there as well.

Cool tank.

In a typical rocky reef? Nah.

As a mangrove biotope system? Deep, fine sand, shallow, fairly low flow, mangrove trees, very little to no rock... soft corals, sponges, gorgonians, mangrove appropriate fishes.. yeah, it'd be a cool system. I suppose I might consider something like that.

 

[Peter Clark]

And I just noticed there is a minion on the island

 

[fish farmer]

This thread is two-fold!

1. Have you seen this amazing tank?

2. How do you feel about plants growing above the water line and have you ever tried it?

ENJOY this reef from Garrett Morizio!

revhtree,

Are you reading my mind today?

I've been on a major fact finding mission today regarding brackish palundariums....I should be doing my taxes.

So here is my experience with raising plants long term above the waterline...here is Al's Atoll, a saltwater palundarium concept hooked up to my 29 gallon wall reef in June of 2013.

Most of that stuff died, but what did fine for a while was the fern in the middle, the aralia in the potted section on the right.....and the patch of moss in the center, that actually spread up and down to the waterline. It was strategically below the ATO of freshwater. I misted this setup almost daily with RO/DI water.

You can have flowers over your reef. I planted some morning glory seeds somewhere and they came up several times on their own, but my recent try didn't work. Notice the moss behind had expanded, but was starting to brown out. I think this was maybe 6 months after start.

This was within the first year.....I added some mangroves on the right.

This is a fairly recent shot from few months ago. I've been training and pruning the mangroves for close to 6 years. I added some more air plants and have put a succulent and sago palm in the tank to see how they fair. The tank has a current usa freshwater led fixture on it, too low a light for coral or macroalgae to grow down below. I used to have a 90 watt PC which really dried the tank out so when that failed I went to the cooler fixture.

Here is how it sits in the kitchen, the reef is above, drains to this, then to the sump hidden to the right.

I think salt creep is a major factor in long term care of non salt tolerant plants and probably to salt tolerant ones as well. Mangroves are great, but eventually they will shade out whatever is below them. There are lots of plants to chose from that are salt tolerant and many are available at green houses. I pulled some lists online fairly easily. Estuary type plants other than mangroves seem to be harder to find. I sourced some emergent grasses, but would have to buy a big flat of them.

I'm currently rethinking this entire system, first I was going to put more light back on it and make it a display refugium. I'm still determined to make SOME terrestrial plants work in this tank. The direction I may take is separate it from my reef system and slowly convert it to a BRACKISH tank. I haven't decided on where I want the salinity to land yet, but I figure salt creep should be less and I can use more aggressive misting.

I thought maybe mudskippers, but today I was looking at Hawaiian shrimp, Halocaridian rubra. I may even consider guppies or something similar as fishes.

 

[User1]

On another board there was a lad who had a rimless mixed reef although I forget what size it was. 40 - 50 gallons maybe. Anyway had a waterfall sort of trickle thing going on with a mostly soft and lps coral reef. Very attractive and well done. There are a couple others out there I'm sure but this one really had a lot going on and it was interesting how the coral was growing.

 

[fish farmer]

Was it this one? http://reeftools.com/featured-tanks/volcano-reef-tank/

 

[starypotter]

I absolutely love it, I want to do something like that or incorporate it in some way with my next tank. Maybe just a nano with some mangroves. I have mangroves in my sump now and I love them only I'm worried that they're going to get too big soon, they're really growing great so maybe that nano will be here sooner rather than later

 

[User1]

Was it this one? http://reeftools.com/featured-tanks/volcano-reef-tank/

That is one of them yes, but there is another that I'm thinking of but having difficulty finding the thread...

Search the web for: "Our 40g Island waterfall" and you will come across it. It is unfortunate that there was a family emergency and it is sad in the end. It was a fun thread to have participated in though and interesting to see how other hobbyist keep reefs.

 

[fish farmer]

Yeah I found it over on RC, picture heavy, sad that he passed away.

 

[User1]

Yeah I found it over on RC, picture heavy, sad that he passed away.

It is. Sometimes it is the random involvement of a thread that brings interaction between strangers then before you know it a something catastrophic happens that makes one check ones mortality.

 

[fish farmer]

I'm going to throw another idea regarding an "island" tank. You see lots of center rock structures which have very little real estate for land.

If I had to do it all over again I would design a drop off tank with the upper section be the land with rock work extending down into the reef. Easier to light this way as well I would believe, corals and plants would have dedicated lights.

 

[flchamp89]

Google Aqua clear HOB planter. It was a hot thing in FW planted for years. We used lots of air plants, wandering Jew, pathos, and even coleus

 

[Nep2nRev2]

ENJOY this reef from Garrett Morizio!

Truly exceptional!! Great concept and imagination. Outstanding livestock!! Definitely a 10!!!

 

[Seawitch]

I think it's cool. I've done it with FW, but I don't think I would with SW just because there aren't so many plants to choose from in the SW trade that can grow under and over water.

 

[sfin52]

I think it's cool. I've done it with FW, but I don't think I would with SW just because there aren't so many plants to choose from in the SW trade that can grow under and over water.

Im right there with you. Im doing it with fw. I dont want my sw to resemble my fw.

 

[Jon Fishman]

Lack of lid doesn't bother me so much..... I just flat-out don't like the look of it. The stuff INSIDE the tank is stunning though.

 

[nonstopfish]

The poll needs a "I am doing it" option.

I am currently building a 350 gallon system around a display tank with this premise. Mangroves growing out the top on one side.