Paludarium Redo! (Load Warning)

Some of you may remember my palu that I made out of a 40 breeder terrarium but if you don't no big deal. I made it a few months ago and was happy with the way things were working out but then due to a few technical errors, things changed. The land plants withered while the emersed aquatics (or submerged terrestrial?) thrived. Two plants in particular have taken over. Those are the pothos vine and the piece lilies. They are huge and bright green but neither seem to work planted in the land section and I barely have enough space in the water for all these plants. So to help I upgraded lighting and made minor changes to help with humidity. These seemed to help everyone including the pothos and lilies. While I am happy that the plants are doing so well I am not happy with the overall setup now. I feel like the land section is not only too low (blocked by water plants) it is also boring. Everyone that sees the tank thinks it looks great but I've noticed people never seem to spend any length of time looking at it and I think it is just that there isn't much to see. So for the past few days I have put together a list of things to buy, do and make and over that time I got everything I need (I hope). This morning I started the teardown phase of the project. I can explain all I want but I know what everyone really came here for......


Pictures!




I forgot to get a pic before I pulled the aquatics but I did get a few shots of them in the temp. setup.




That is a 5.5 gallon tank! Clearly they liked the setup!


Then compaired to the land plants. You can see how that could cause a problem viewing them...


Bare setup


I don't remember putting this much dirt in but I found the false bottom!


All the dirt is out and most of the water is out.


The false bottom is out and so is the sand. It's on a black chest so it's hard to see the difference from sand to no sand but it's there! Haha.


I have a design made but it's hard to read so I'll sketch up another and see if I can get it on here.

Thanks for viewing, any comments or suggestions are welcome!

~Razz

I considered that when I first made the divider but I wanted fish and with a betta now that I have no space to move, I'm not sure if there would be enough water. I have a plan for hiding the divider so it is not such a big feature in the tank.

I would like to change out my 20 high from an aquarium to a viv for dart frogs so maybe then. But thanks for the suggestion!

mellowvision said:

you end up with more water volume if you ditch the divider and let the water flow. not less.

Click to expand...

How's that? I know water can flow under the land section but could I get it 6 inches deep without making it look like a huge hole under the land? Either way I've started on the construction of the new tank.

So the last few days have been busy but today I was able to attach the egg crate to the glass and create the upper level. I planned out the stream but it won't actually be in place until the tank is full or dirt. Then I just coated the whole structure in spray foam. It has to cure for another two hours or so and then I can start carving it out. After that is done I will coat it in silicone and then cover that in dry moss. Then 24 hours of cure time and I can start filling the tank! I hope to have it done by Monday. I took a few pictures but not many so those will be up shortly.

~Razz

Alright here they are!


I couldn't find "The Great Stuff" so I settled for this.



So I'm not a pro at putting it on but I'll be carving it down before covering it in silicone and moss. It it ok to sand this stuff? I don't want to destroy it!

Left side. I put tape down to keep it off the glass but now I have no idea how to get it out from between the foam and the glass without ripping off my work! Maybe I'll just cut some of the extra foam off.

Right side. Wow it looks really gross... Oh well! The black hose (ribbed plastic tubing cut in half) will be the stream (same for left side). The clear hose on the right is for the filter/pump which will push water up to the top of the stream.




I love my macro mode! Haha. GE Silicone I will be coated over the foam and then covered in moss and sand. Also the back says it cures in 12 hours, do you think I should wait 24 to be safe?

This is Exo-Terra Forest Moss expanded and dried. I hope this will help with humidity. The upper portion of the foam will be covered with this while the lower (under water) will be covered in black sand. I just don't want rotting moss in the water and since there will be black sand as substrate in the water it will blend together nicely and hide the divider. Both will offer places for the frogs to climb up and out of the water because with the old design they could only get out using planters stuck to the glass so this should help.

That's about it for now! I can't wait to get it all set up and running!

Any comments or suggestions are welcome as always!
~Razz

Those pics are a little bigger than I thought they'd be! :lol:

Thanks! For me, the hardest part was coming up with a pleasing design and then figuring out how to do it without going broke! I suspect a taller tank would make things easier but I think this will turn out alright... I hope!