Category Archives: Worldbuilding

Mangrove tank refresh

Posted on by

Wow. The brackish mangrove tank has been up and running for 3 years! In that time I’ve figured a few things out.

  • Mangrove seedlings really do not like to be planted in deep ( > 4″) water.
  • If you are going to keep the tank temperature close to 80F/26C in a climate controlled building a chiller is not necessary, even if the tank is in a window. The only time the chiller ran was when I fiddled with the controller to test it.
  • In spite of all its good points (weight, etc.) I am still not a fan of acrylic for tank construction.

Over the summer I took it into my head to re-do the mangrove tank. I wanted to move it and swap out the (starting to scare me w/ cracks) acrylic tank for a glass one a friend had given me (thanks, Scott). The original tank was 48x18x18, with an 18″ cube at one end housing the filter (6″) and chiller (12″). The new one is 36x18x18 – exactly the same water volume – and as we did the move we’d be able to rotate it 90 degrees so the 36×18 side would face into the room.

brackish aquarium re-do

Getting things ready. Two black mangroves, the tank, filter foam and a foam fractionator  (aka protein skimmer).

*

brackish aquarium re-do

Test fitting the filter foam. I set up a modified Mattenfilter using Poret foam. I can’t recommend this rig highly enough. I have 2 freshwater aquaria set up this way (powerhead just recircs back into the tank – no skimmer) and -knock wood- they both work beautifully.

*

brackish aquarium re-do

The roots of 2 black mangroves and the planters both will go into. Mangroves and planters courtesy of Riparium Supply – thanks, Hydrophyte!

*

brackish aquarium re-do

Old tank drained and moved, new tank in place. The mechanicals – pump, heater, skimmer – are ready, the red mangrove is planted in some muck scooped from the old tank and the substrate is in place. I saved about 25 gallons of water from the old tank – in it goes, along with enough new water to get us where we want to be.

*

Voila!

brackish re-do

*

brackish re-do w/ archerfish

*

brackish re-do

*

brackish re-do

*

I’ll update as things settle in, meanwhile, there are more pictures here.

Bog Garden II: planting

Posted on by

After a few days waiting for the peat moss to hydrate, I figured things had settled as much as they were going to. First, I trimmed the excess pond liner and then in went the plants! Super-easy transplanting – scoop an appropriate hole with your hands, and tip in the greenery.

Click through to see notes on what went where.

the bog

*

Sarracenia purpurea

Sarracenia purpurea

*

Sarracenia rubra

Sarracenia rubra

*

Cypripedium reginae (1 year old plants, just getting started after dormancy)

Cypripedium reginae youngling

*

Sarracenia flava (also year-old plants)

They’re either ornata or rubricorpora – I lost the tag on the pot.

Sarracenia flava

*

And finally a tribute to Watkins Glen in the ’70s. I was there before the rowdiness got going, but read about it in car magazines. As I recall, burning the bus was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.

The Bog wants the bus!!

“The Bog wants the bus! The Bog wants the bus!”

Bog Garden I: construction

Posted on by

I’ve been thinking about putting in a bog garden for a couple years now, since I first encountered Mike and Richard’s excellent example:

Bog at Black Jungle

*

Info on how they did it is here.

Rather than use a preformed plastic pond, I decided to use pond liner (should be available at any nursery/greenhouse with a water garden section; I got mine from Wentworth Greenhouses). It went like this:

Layout – I used a garden hose to outline the bog. I wanted a teardrop shape; since my liner was 8′ x 10′, I sized the bog at 5′ x 7′ at its maximum. The 3′ extra is to accommodate an 18″ depth (obvious, but…). the teardrop is oriented so that the narrow end points at the low spot in the layout. We’ll see whether I pull it off, but what I want to suggest is a seep/spring that peters out into the grass – I’m going to transplant some Siberian Iris into the drainage area.

bog build

*

Digging out. A bamboo culm to span the sides, a tape measure for depth readings and a level. Getting the sides perfectly level is less critical with a bog that it is with a water garden – sphagnum will hide some sins. That being said, it’s probably best to avoid pitching the thing like a dang ski jump.

bog build

*

Dig? Dug!

bog build

*

Most pond-liner how-tos I’ve seen recommend putting down special underlayment to protect the rubber and if my soil had been a little bonier I might have considered it. It’s not though; I’ve got nice sandy loam down to 18″, so I took the swamp yankee approach – a newsprint protective layer.

bog build

*

Laying the rubber in place:

bog build

*

And beginning the fill with a sphagnum peat/rainwater slurry:

bog build

*

I used 3 1/2 bales of peat

bog build

to get it mostly filled up

bog build

and then topped it with a bag of long fiber sphagnum (I’ll add another bag if I can find one).

bog build

*

Voilà!

bog build

KPK wunderkammer pano

Posted on by

At last Sunday’s NH Media Makers meetup, @spyboy turned me on to the 360 Panorama iOS app. It stitches in real time as you pan and uses the accelerometer to control panning when you display the photo. Way fun! Here’s the wunderkammer end of the classroom across the hall.

KPK Pano

*

Update – here’s a link to the spinny version.

Update II – pano taken during a lunchtime walk to a local bog here.

 

West African Stream Tank Re-do

Posted on by

In this case, at least, plastic needlepoint mesh has shown itself to be a suck substrate for Java moss. After seven months of very little progress, I decided to re-do the back wall of my West African stream tank. I ordered a random selection of driftood from AES and picked up a couple pieces of red lava rock.

Layout:

The masked-off section to the left is space that needs to stay free for the filter plenum.

*

Foamed in (hooray for Handi-Foam!):

*

Detail – with placeholder hose section – of where the water will return to the tank, producing a nice waterfall/drip wall.

*

The waterfall in action with unidentified W. African fern, Bolbitis heudelotii and Anubias:

*

More Anubias, some African begonia and an Aeranges biloba:

*

The tank looks 100% better and I think it’ll only improve as the begonia grows in and covers everything – I’ll post some pix once things start to grow.

A year from now

Posted on by

microcosm

“Tree Walkers International is proud to present Microcosm, a celebration of life under glass.  Microcosm is a new kind of event that brings enthusiasts together through the common bond of nurturing life within glass enclosures, from aquaria to vivaria, greenhouses and Wardian cases.

The theme of Microcosm is conservation.  Just as species combine to form healthy, functioning ecosystems, Microcosm seeks to form a coalition of partners who apply their skills in cooperation to safeguard the planet’s biodiversity.

Microcosm is a two-day event that includes field trips, lectures, workshops, and a sale.  All proceeds benefit Tree Walkers International to support amphibian conservation efforts.”

September 3-4, 2010, Lynnwood WA. More info here.

Project updates

Posted on by

A quick status check on some of the irons I have in the fire.

  • The brackish tank is doing well. I’ve managed to persuade the archerfish to take Arowana Sticks in addition to crickets, so feeding is a lot easier. The scat will eat anything, but loves the sticks too. With summer and increased insolation, I’ve had some trouble with green water (single cell algae free-floating in the water column) – increasing the frequency of water changes has helped and I’m awaiting the delivery of  some Corbicula fluminea. I’m hoping that filter feeders in the tank will consume the last of the free algae. I’m growing out some black mangroves (Avicennia germinans) that Hydrophyte sent me (along with some other aquatic/emergent plants in an awesome care package) – not sure yet how I’m going to integrate the blackies into the brackish tank, but I have time to ponder while the mangroves embiggen.
  • Plants in the African stream tank have gotten over transplant shock. All the Anubias are sending out new roots, the Bollbitis are fiddleheading and the Java moss is sending out new growth as well.
  • The frog rack is fully populated. I moved my new banded leucs out of their quarantine tank into the middle level viv. They are quite shy; I’m hoping they get bolder as they get used to their new home and as the tank grows in and provides more cover.
  • The Mediated Toybee Tile project keeps simmering. Adhesive testing is pretty much done, though we may want to run some additional tests with this stuff (or just use it, give how nicely plain ol’ 5-minute stuff performed). I need to touch base with JY and CT and talk next steps as regards tile fabrication.

Ephemeral project – over and done with – baking with cherries from my little tree.