ekmek's Bedside Bog Display

[ekmek]

I received a little tank, and figured I'd do a journal-esque thread documenting the project

The plan is to do a little bedside bog / pond style aquascape; with roughly one third of the container constantly submerged while the rest of the container is out of water. The container measures 25x25x12cm, and looks pretty sleek if you ask me

Initial hardscape using a piece of driftwood and some lava rocks:

The layout will more than likely go through a few more iterations before I'm happy with it. Probably going to raise the whole structure up a bit, so that the wood protrudes a bit more from the aquarium, but that will have to wait till I get the substrates into the container. I still need to decide between trying out an media like planted aquarium soil like people do with Heliamphora, or just do the standard peat + sand mix. frontal aquatic area will have a thin layer of sand and some small botanicals to complete the look.

Planting will consist mostly of Utricularia species, Drosera species, along with some cool aquatics like Eriocaulon quinquangulare, and of course a tonne of mosses.

 

[stevebradford]

Great idea it’s going to look awesome.

I have done a few of these kinds of things and find they need to be flushed on the regular to keep the plants happy. What I do is once a week totally flood saturate the display let it sit for a few hours then tilt it to dump the majority of the water out hopefully flushing the system to keep it from going stagnant in the bottom.

Mixed carnivourous pots

Working on a new one. mostly new young plant starts. Im excited to see things fill in over time. Big thanks to @Carson Hardy Catopsis berteroniana Cephalotus follicularis Darlingtonia californica ‘black’ Heliamphora hispida Heliamphora purpurascens Pinguicula gigantea Pinguicula Primuliflora...

www.carnivorousplantsociety.ca

 

[Lloyd Gordon]

Needs some U. gibba

 

[Chen]

That's a really nice looking enclosure. Hope you continue to post progress as it comes along! As Steve mentioned, I worry about the bottom becoming stagnant. Every time I have an enclosure with no drainage, I always put a layer of LECA followed by a layer of charcoal.

 

[Lloyd Gordon]

You can use those under soil medium grate devices they use for aquariums. All the debris goes to the bottom and you can drain it out.

 

[MimiStew24]

You can use those under soil medium grate devices they use for aquariums. All the debris goes to the bottom and you can drain it out.

what about them hydroballs at bottom?
I’ll put them at bottom of my cps.

 

[ekmek]

Thanks for the input guys! LECA + charcoal sounds like a good option, I'll look around locally for LECA and see what I can find. There is also a little pocket I constructed with some stone that will be bare of substrate, so I can tilt the container and drain it when I need to.

what about them hydroballs at bottom?

I may be wrong but I believe Hydroballs is just a brandname/Tradename for LECA, so it should be fine as well to use after its been rinsed well.

Needs some U. gibba

I'll absolutely add some gibba, I have so much of it just hanging around in cups around the house

 

[Daphne]

This looks like it'll be a fun project! I would love to set up something like this as well so will be following along to see how it turns out.

 

[ekmek]

Went to all the nurseries and hydroponics stores within my area and not a single one had any LECA

Might take a little longer to get things rolling on this than I thought.

 

[MimiStew24]

Went to all the nurseries and hydroponics stores within my area and not a single one had any LECA

Might take a little longer to get things rolling on this than I thought.

AMAZON!

 

[MimiStew24]

AMAZON!

I bought some off Amazon couple weeks ago! There’s few ones on there!

 

[ekmek]

Ended up finding some lava rock locally for a decent price and decided to go with that for my drainage layer

a half an hour with a hammer, various screens and some broken saftey glasses later; we have our drainage.

rinsed it one more time in case there's any dust left and then added it to the container

now we get to move on to the next portion of the set up: the sand foreground. Concept here is to use a light coloured sand to lighten up the area, and provide a bigger contrast between the stones, wood, and green plants. I ended up using some of the ADA La Plata cosmetic sand I had lying around from a previous aquascape.

Smoothed out the sand and added back the stone

and finally added some small detail stones:

Next step is the most fun part, selecting plants and planting them! Given the season that might be a while but it'll happen eventually

 

[MimiStew24]

Ended up finding some lava rock locally for a decent price and decided to go with that for my drainage layer

a half an hour with a hammer, various screens and some broken saftey glasses later; we have our drainage.View attachment 13022

rinsed it one more time in case there's any dust left and then added it to the container

View attachment 13023

now we get to move on to the next portion of the set up: the sand foreground. Concept here is to use a light coloured sand to lighten up the area, and provide a bigger contrast between the stones, wood, and green plants. I ended up using some of the ADA La Plata cosmetic sand I had lying around from a previous aquascape.
View attachment 13024

Smoothed out the sand and added back the stone

View attachment 13025

and finally added some small detail stones:
View attachment 13026View attachment 13027

Next step is the most fun part, selecting plants and planting them! Given the season that might be a while but it'll happen eventually

Looking good!!!
btw ODDISH I CHOOSE YOU!!!! @ekmek

 

[ekmek]

Added the growth media to the container. Used a mix of sphagnum moss with some orchid bark, alongside a few pieces of charcoal with springtails on it.

Additionally we have live plants!

Persicaria hydropiperoides

Hygrophilia polysperma

No carnivores yet, but they will come in time.