maestro

Thank you 'Aelyph' for your kind remarks. Of all the exotic terrestrial, epiphytic, and aquatic emersed/submersed plants that I keep, the CP's are one of my favorite. 99.9% of all my variety of CP's are maintained outdoors. This particular tank was created for an Aquascape lay-out contest/show to display and promote a 'different perspective' to aquascaping. Aquarium keeping is no longer just an enclosed habitat for housing our fish, pets, or plants...it has sinced progressed to being exhibited and maintained as an Aquascape, a terrarium, a vivarium, a palludarium. and most recently as a ripparium. The Neo-Aquarist now has the opportune to express his/her artistic creations thru natural aquascaping, biotope replication, or by ingenious creativity.

fishyjoe24

hi what type of light fixture are you using.. it looks like it can just clap and old it's still up from the back of the tank.. I like that. is that custom are does some company make those legs. thanks.

maestro

Hi, there's two lighting fixtures that I use as the main lighting for this layout. The fixture in question is a clamp on manufactured by Archaea. It provides 36w of 6500K T5 lighting in an aluminum 24" fixture. It has an excellent polished reflector, and a unique telescopic leg and swivel for choice options of height and light illumination angles. The other lighting supply is a suspended system above the tank, is a Hydroponic set-up and has four 24" 24w 6400K T5 lighting in a polished, mirrored reflector. The combined set-up has an illuminating duration of 14-16 hours and provides a total of 132 watts of light.

wet

I love that you're consciously using this tank to break rules and traditional ideas about aquariums, maestro.

And congrats for your well-deserved place on APC's front page!

simwiz

I just love it!!! I didn't know one could do so beautiful things within a 4-glass container! Congratulations! Maestro!!!

maestro

Thank you 'Wet' and 'Simwiz' for your gracious remarks. To be on APC's front page is an unexpected surprise....thank you APC for allowing me to share this with others of similar interests. . . thanks again, I stand graciously, and humbly, honored. . . . .

Bunbuku

beautiful tank maestro

I had been contemplating setting turning my unused mini-M/Solar setup into a terrarium with terrestrial moss and other bog plants. Now seeing your tank I think I'll change over to UG. Too bad its too hot to buy plants over the internet right now.

What substrate are you using? I only have AS and Flourite on hand. I am hesistant to use the AS as the NH3 release might burn the UG.

Also do you think these plants need to eat bugs on can, we supply nutrients by other conventional means? (root tabs liquid ferts, etc).

maestro

Thank you 'Bunbuku' for your nice compliments. UG comes from the family of bladderworts, and submersed as a foreground or scape filler, makes a very nice carpet as an alternative to Eleocharis hair grasses, HC, Riccia, etc. In it's emersed state, it will produce blooms of beautiful mini orchid like flowers, in white, blueish, or pinkish hues. That mini-M/solar will make an awesome terrarium. The substrate that I used for this layout is a 50/50 mixture of sphagnum peat and sand, and is a basic blend used for CP's. And yes, fresh Aqua-Soil will burn out the newly planted roots and bladders (traps) of UG. If you must use fresh AS, I would rinse the amount you will be using, in a pail, for a few days to neutralize some of the ferts. Once the UG has been established, you could fertilize occasionally with a very, very, dilute dose of liquid ferts. Most CP's are very sensitive to ferts. UG's will trap micro/planktonic animals with their bladders in the water column. I haven't intentionally introduced any microscopic foods for the UG , but I did notice some newly hatched gammarus (scuds) in the water column which I'm sure the Utri's are enjoying. Good luck with your project, I'm sure it will be an awesome display!

JeffyFunk

Most carnivorous plants can be "fertilized" by feeding them powdered milk (or so I've read - not sure where, though). Most experts, however, suggest you simply feed your plants "bugs" as suggested in the following link (Most aquarium stores usually carry the following bugs so this shouldn't be an issue):

http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq2440.html

Meat or bugs w/ too much fat in them are not good for carnivorous plants. Most insects they would naturally eat are actually very lean. Housefly's are not good to feed to carnivorous plants as well; They're the Big Mac of insects - not very nutritional and bound to lead to health problems if eaten regularly (If they caught one or two, i wouldn't remove them, but i don't think it's a good idea to feed them to the carnivorous plants either. Sarracenia may be the exception since they normally catch a lot of flys, but don't quote me on that.)

Feeding with powdered milk has been suggested for the easy to feed plants like drosera, pinguicula, etc. Utricularia, as far as i know, feed on microscopic bugs in the water so I'm not sure how to feed them other than raise bugs. (I'll also freely admit that I was never into Utricularia much either - what fun is a carnivorous plant when you can't see the trapping mechanism?).

Bunbuku

You know I just realized Hikari and other companies sell different types of freeze-dried critters - bloodworms, mealworms, brine shrimp etc. I wonder if CPs can eat these?

Not sure whether other members of the household will be happy about introduction of live bugs into the home. LOL!

Dried milk? The stuff is usually skimmed so there won't be fat, just protein.