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

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

  • I like it and want to try it

    Votes: 185 47.8%
  • I like it but wouldn't try it

    Votes: 102 26.4%
  • I like it but was unsuccessful trying it

    Votes: 10 2.6%
  • I don't like it

    Votes: 90 23.3%

  • Total voters
    387

revhtree

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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!

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Greybeard

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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.
 

fish farmer

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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!

54730564_10156845166991071_8914833985880719360_n.jpg

55598919_10156845167191071_2514354918291144704_n.jpg

54524306_10156845167076071_352102531322609664_n.jpg

54114913_10156845166956071_5176353937292263424_n.jpg

54727422_10156845166871071_8910471755101896704_o.jpg

53921495_10156845166821071_4291473649342349312_n.jpg

55551963_10156845166786071_4893834553384239104_n.jpg

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.
Summer2013 021.jpg

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.


reef morning glory.jpg

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.


Al's Atoll.jpg

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


IMG_7162.JPG

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.
Summer2013 033.jpg


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.
 
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U

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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.
 

starypotter

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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 ;)
 
U

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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

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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.
 

Seawitch

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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.

IMG_3341mbaqu.JPG
 

sfin52

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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.

IMG_3341mbaqu.JPG
Im right there with you. Im doing it with fw. I dont want my sw to resemble my fw.
 
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