Thinking about a rice paddy

[WhistlingBadger]

So, we are leaving Badger Manor next month for assorted reasons; for now, suffice it to say it is a good thing.

Once we've made the move, I am thinking about making a nano (5-10 gallon) rice paddy tank. A Sumatran rice paddy, to be specific. Blue rasboras, dwarf rasboras, shadow catfish (if I can find any) or kuhli loaches (if I can't), amano shrimp, and hopefully a breeding pair of licorice gourami, sparkling gourami, or betta imbellus.

I want to plant it with rice plants (open top, obviously), along with arrow root, christmas moss, and assorted aquatic weeds of a rice-paddyish type. This leads me to my problem. Aquascaping is one of my joys; I love arranging rocks, branches, and such. But there just doesn't seem to be much going on hard-scape-wise.

Any thoughts?

T

[SueD]

I'd suggest a minimum 10g to support that many different species but also consider a 20g long. This would give you much more room for aquascaping. I'm not sure what you mean when you say "there just doesn't seem to be much going on hardscape-wise". Going on where? Do you mean what's compatible with your rice paddy idea?

[WhistlingBadger]

No, I want this to be a small tank, less than 10g, long and shallow. I will probably custom build the tank to fit the space I have available; I'd like a fairly good-sized footprint, maybe 25" x 11", but only 6" deep. All the species I'm considering are very, very tiny, but I will definitely keep an eye on the overstocking risk.

By "not much going on hardscape-wise," I meant that rice paddies don't have any rocks or tree branches in them.

[Boundava]

Oh wow I didn't even know this thread was posted. Rice paddy tank sounds neat in building it yourself that long it's pretty cool. I really can't wait to see it.

And another note I hope your move is going well, or went well and you guys are adjusting to city life, LOL.

[WhistlingBadger]

Yeah, Nat, we got it done! The day before our scheduled move, we discovered that this house had hardwood under the carpet. So, yeah, what the heck, let's rip out a thousand square feet of carpet on top of everything else. ha ha ha

But we got it done. We're out of the country place; going over tonight to clean up the outside, grab my archery targets, all that stuff. New house looks like the aftermath of a natural disaster but we are gradually creating little pockets of calm amid the chaos. At least we have places to sit, shower, and sleep now. :)

[Boundava]

Great news! I love fixer-uppers, we have bought one too, just waiting on the actual close date for this house as it is up in the air now.

How is Bagerling liking town life?

[WhistlingBadger]

Great news! I love fixer-uppers, we have bought one too, just waiting on the actual close date for this house as it is up in the air now.

How is Bagerling liking town life?

Oh, she's cool with it. She has to be the most adaptable of any of us. It helps that her best friend lives a block away now, not that we can do anything about it as her family is all sick. But the idea is nice. Yesterday, I did something I hadn't done for a couple decades: Walked home from work!

I was pretty sad to say goodbye to the old place, I'll admit. But I'm excited to have a garage to work in and a music studio in the basement. Once all the boxes are unpacked and put away--hopefully around Thanksgiving--I'll start planning some aquarium projects. The rice paddy is probably going to be in either a 20 long or, hopefully, in a custom-sized tank I'll build myself.

The paludarium will go in the old 29 gallon. I'm thinking of doing a "Wyoming desert spring" 'scape: A land area with a little waterfall, lots of rocks, prickly pear, stonecrop, and whatever other native plants I can find, populated by a few sagebrush lizards and boreal chorus frogs; a water area with a few plains killifish, a couple stone rollers or mountain suckers, and a crawdad. I won't be able to do that one until next spring when I can get up in the hills and harvest some plants.

I'm also thinking about doing an invert refugium to grow scuds, water fleas, seed shrimp, tubifex worms, and whatever else turns up in the local muck.

[RiversGirl]

Congrats on your new home! I hope y'all love living in town

[WhistlingBadger]

Thanks! It's still kind of surreal and it doesn't feel like home yet, but we'll get there. Mrs. Badger spent most of the day working on the floors, and we got most of the toys out of the garage so I can start setting up in there. Yesterday I wrestled the gun safe out of the basement (yes, someone left a gun safe here) and into the garage. I always kind of wanted a gun safe--handy for storing guns, you know--but was too cheap to buy one.

The neighbor lady dropped by this morning with some gingerbread cookies. Really nice gal with a cute little toddler, and her husband is a cop. I always like living close to cops. It's a really quiet neighborhood, for town anyway. TayoDog approves of the backyard. The cats don't like it...but they don't really like much of anything.

[WhistlingBadger]

Well, we're getting settled into the new Badger Manor, and I finally uncovered the box with my test kits. Got some kind of weird results:
GH: Negligible, less than 4 degrees.
KH: 5 degrees. How can KH be higher than GH? It that even possible?
pH: High. 7.5 or 8? (On the record: I HATE reading API pH tests, since everything between about 6.5 and 8 looks the same to me)

So, I need fish that love basic water with no hardness. ha ha Or maybe it's time to start stocking up on peat and Indian almond leaves.