Newcomer first question

[RBR]

Hi guys and gals.
I only joined this forum today and yet I’m going to shoot off with my first post. Apologies to all for the length of it but maybe that’s a good way for you to know where I’m coming from. I used to have aquaria when I was just knee-high to a grasshopper. Then I changed to terraria and kept (and more importantly bred) a variety of snake species. When I moved from Europe to Africa, I had to sell up everything. Now for the last couple of years I got interested in fish keeping again and spent my ample time in designing different models of habitats / biotopes. Due to personal circumstances it has been only theoretical for me so far but acquaintances and friends have successfully built according to my plans. Here I have to mention that everything, well almost*, in these designs is d.i.y., known to be working from my terraristic days. *(if I had the equipment I wouldn’t even buy pumps and power heads but build them myself, call me a whacko if you will) Now my latest (theoretical) project is a large river tank. Whilst doing my research I came across a thread on this forum by ‘hx’, I think from 2009. His tank comes freakishly close to what I have in mind/on paper and seeing that he had quite a substantial following with plenty of good advise I thought I could save myself a couple of hours worth of (re)searching by asking a few questions right here. I sincerely hope these questions were not answered somewhere in that thread and I just missed them. Don’t want to bore anybody more than I have done already. Here comes:

1 – from the pictures posted it looks like the ‘paludarium’ is in this case an open style display, which is what I am planning on too. I would like to know if anybody who has such or similar set-up can provide me with data about average water evaporation. For me not so much about water top-ups rather than “Do I have to plan for dehumidifiers?”

2 – hx mentioned in the thread that he needed to sort out the lighting since immersed growth was not satisfactory. Any news or updates on that one?

3 – lastly I’m going to ask a probably intensely stupid (to those in the know) question, but I could not find an answer to it yet. Do any of the likely inhabitants i.e. hillstreamers have a tendency to vacate their environment via ‘jump without bungee”?

That’s it for now; any reply will be highly appreciated and quickly devoured.

Btw ‘hx’ that tank is absolutely gorgeous and I could see that you believe as much in d.i.y. as I do.

Regards
RBR

[chefkeith]

Large open aquariums usually do cause humidity issues. You'll probably most definitely want an air-conditioner or de-humidifier.

And yes, jumpers can be a problem.