I want to grow a tree out of an aquarium...

[Magnum Man]

someone linked a website, a while back...

and this particular tank caught my eye...

River Bank, Big Walnut Creek, Ohio – BAP

Learn how to decorate a perfect biotope aquarium from River Bank of Big Walnut Creek, Ohio, USA! Read about water parameters, fishes, plants!

biotopeaquariumproject.com

this is the link of their "contest" if you scroll down you'll see the contest categories, all the entries & their scores... if you click on each particular entry, it shows the tank, several pictures & details...

BAC2022 Results – BAP

BIOTOPE AQUARIUM Contest is proud to announce the ranking at the BAC2022 sponsored by Fluval, Sicce, Aquael, Aquarium Munster, Oase, Newa and Dohse Aquaristik! Enjoy Nature!

biotopeaquariumproject.com

I've been in & out of aquariums for probably 20 years total... not scientifically, just as an enthusiast, & I have always had house plants growing out of my tanks ( even 20 years ago, when it was unheard of )... I recently started several common philodendrons, & a few Monsteras, in a couple of my tanks... & it's something I like... after seeing the tank pictured above, I started to wonder about doing a small tree... I'm positive a willow would be no problem... but as I'm growing vegetables hydroponically in my Tilapia tanks, as part of the filter... I've been thinking about edibles lately... I recently watched a video of someone growing strawberry's in their betta tank... got me wondering about doing a bay laurel tree, or what I'd really like to try, is a couple of smaller potted olive trees... it's not my intention to stick a big tree trunk in a tank, but start with smaller house plant size potted trees

although, if I end up doing the 120 gallon for some discus fish, a couple dwarf banana trees would look cool, along with some other jungle plants...

anyone doing larger houseplants or dare I say, a tree in their tank??? how about edibles???

 

[Magnum Man]

I just like a natural, bio look around my tanks, always have... not really interested in a garden look over the top of my tank, I want everything to blend in, & look as natural as possible... but if there were snacks

 

[Magnum Man]

BTW... my last post was addressing a post that must have gotten deleted...

 

[Back in the fold]

BTW... my last post was addressing a post that must have gotten deleted...

I posted a post and then unposted the post because I deemed it smart-alecky . Some of this stuff that people want to do borders on the silly in my opinion but to each his own huh ? Everybody likes something different and if you’ve got that kind of spare time - knock yourself out . I have enough to do just keeping a bare bones simple aquarium operating right . Now , what would be really cool is a six foot aquarium with an operating remote control submarine with an underwater camera and a universal language translator so I could tell the fish what to do and punish them if they don’t. Sort of a Jacques Cousteau / Dr. Moreau thing .

 

[AlexT]

Is this your way of getting leaf litter? Grow you own tree in the tank? Admire your ambition though. The old fish keepers mind never stops churning eh?

 

[Lcc86]

I think the picture in your link looks really cool, and would love to see pictures of whatever you end up doing. I'm not green fingered in any way, so am just happy that I can grow any aquarium plants full stop let alone anything cool like this.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

I have a few tea plants in my paludarium. They aren't doing terrible but they probably aren't going to last extremely long. I'll replace them with Anubias coffeefolia at some point.

Unlike certain old grouches on our forum, I LOVE stuff like this. The obvious problem I can see with growing a real tree in the tank is that the roots are going to outgrow it fairly quickly, with possibly catastrophic results to your aquarium glass. I think I would use dead wood for the structure, drill it out to make sort of a disguised planter, and have leaves growing out of the tree trunk. That way you get the look of an emergent tree without the danger.

 

[Back in the fold]

@WhistlingBadger “certain old grouches” ? I hope I’m not in that category . I don’t mind new and interesting stuff . I would be happy to go over to somebody’s house and look at it and eat all their food and then leave but I prefer the simple for myself .

 

[emeraldking]

I love biotope tanks.. And that one from the link looks awesome... I also love those scaped tanks but my preference goes to biotope tanks.

 

[Wills]

Initially, I thought the tree must have been made out of drift wood and then some kind of terrestrial plant growing on or around it but it is an old chopped down tree thats started new growth...

I did see someone recently grow some kind of pine tree sapplings from a tank but it was very shallow set up and the owner knew it wouldnt last long. It's hard to know how you could get such big roots from a plant that can be kept indoors. Mangrove trees feel like an obvious choice but I don't know too much about how to keep them.

I do like WB's idea of making the structure out of root wood and then growing terrestrial plants in the emerged section, something like a Monsterra Delliciosa would do great as a natural epiphyte and it would benefit from having its roots in water too. I did also see someone growing strawberry plants out of an aquarium recently too and it bore fruit!

Wills

 

[Magnum Man]

I was looking at some bonsai weeping willows earlier today… that might be kinda cool

 

[Wills]

I was looking at some bonsai weeping willows earlier today… that might be kinda cool

That would be very cool - presumably given I usually see them on river banks they could grow in substrate in a foot of water?

 

[WhistlingBadger]

I've always wanted to try a bonsai tree growing out of a biotope tank but have never had the guts to try it. But I'm sort of hoping my tea bushes will grow that way. Keep us posted on how it goes!

 

[Magnum Man]

I’m doing a lot of day dreaming, while I get my water straightened out… have fish I want to buy ( replace ) that didn’t do well with my bad water… funny, some absolutely have to have a certain water, while others will live long enough, to make you think it might be OK, others seem to thrive… I‘ve got 3 different groups of Cory’s that should not like my water, but all have done well… all 3 groups started out at 1/2”, and now in 3-6 months, are all 2.5” fish… but I told myself no more soft water fish until I get the alkaline down to normal, and get the ph down from 8.5… I’m starting to get there with adding RO

So house plants are the only things I can think about adding right now, a lot of my aquatic plants have suffered from the alkaline as well… so right now, this is the only way I can play today

 

[Magnum Man]

Right now I’m using hang on / in pots, filled with ceramic filter “Co Co puffs, hung on the inside of the ends of the tanks… the co co puffs hold the plants up, and there are slots in the pots on the sides, and bottoms for the roots to come out… an air stone under the pots circulates water and air to the roots and to the media