My 20H paludarium; FBTs and fishies

[ElBoltonero]

Figured I'd show off my tank a little, after months and months I finally have it more or less done and clicking on all cylinders as it were.

The trim was taken off the bottom of a standard 20H because it's on a counter that's 12" wide...it would have stuck off too far without it. I added more silicone to the seams to be safe, and 3 of the corners also have other things attached to both sides.

The land/cave was constructed with eggcrate, great stuff foam and black GE1 silicone.

It houses 2 Fire-bellied Toads, smaller schools of Cardinal Tetra, Oto cats and dwarf Corys (C. Habrosus). And there's a juvenile Ram...sold as a Blue Ram but he's not coloring up much, so I suspect he may be Bolivian. There's also a couple of godzilla-sized amanos I got from Msjinxzd, and various snails...some intentional and others not so much. It's obviously a little overstocked, but good filtration, lots of plants, and frequent water changes seem to be keeping everyone happy.

The water enters an intake in the bottom of the tank, up a pipe that's built into in the "land" part and into the canister. Coming out it gets mixed with some DIY CO2 (I have the stuff for "real" CO2, but not the space), through a UV filter and then out into what I call the "water column". It's heated in the water column, then falls down the waterfall into a little lake, down a river and into the main water part of the tank. You can see the "guts" in the last picture, including the jello CO2 bottle behind the filter.

On the land there's Java Moss, Flame Moss, Christmas Moss, Anubias Nana and a Crytocoryne (uh, Wendtii?). Of the mosses, the Christmas Moss looks the best emersed and really has formed a nice carpet. There's also a couple of air plants. I originally had more air plants, but they really didn't like the humidity much.

In the water there's a bunch of things, including Baby Tears, Dwarf Red Lily, Brazilian Pennywort, a Banana Plant, a couple of different narrow-leafed varieties of Java Fern, Java Moss, Cryptocoryne Nevillii (which are growing/spreading amazingly), Dwarf Sags (which aren't spreading at all) and Dwarf Hairgrass. I originally had planted a ton of the hairgrass but it mostly didn't take (and there was nothing blocking their light originally). I've never had any luck with the stuff. There's also some Süßwassertang free-floating in the cave area to break up some of the lines in there. I like the more random layout rather than plants organized in areas...since it's a 3-sided tank there's no real fore/middle/background anyway.

Every hour and a half a fogger (hidden in the lake, with a "cage" around it so the frogs don't get hurt) and an airstone kick on. 15 on/75 off. The airstone just because I'm paranoid about oxygenation and thought that might have been what was causing my previous shrimp deaths. I can't imagine there's not enough oxygen with the waterfall etc. but it's not hurting anything. Oh and there's a little blue LED light that comes on at night over the water. The cardinals look awesome in it, their blue strip reflects it brightly.






(the Amanos are under the rock)

[Assassynation]

Cool setup, I tried to keep bull frogs in my buddies tank. His mother in-law bought some Walmart aquatic plants an didn't anchor them down. To say the least, the plants floated and 5 bull frogs escaped.

[Vicious_Fish]

Very nice setup!

[ConnerFish]

What do you have the moss planted on? And what kind is it? I am very jealous to say the least. I have a 55 with four and some fish and it does not look as nice as yours.

[user_name]

Wicked nice set-up, keep up the good work!

[ElBoltonero]

What do you have the moss planted on? And what kind is it? I am very jealous to say the least. I have a 55 with four and some fish and it does not look as nice as yours.

It's java moss, christmas moss and flame moss. The java moss isn't doing so hot on land but the other two are. It's on top of silicone with either sand or eco-earth pressed into it, or the part that juts out into the water is actually another piece of slate siliconed to the bottom of the rest of the land. There's also a bit of sphagnum and/or frog moss under it, I believe. They didn't take well but made a nice bed for everything else. A little of the water coming down the waterfall is diverted onto the land part to keep everything hydrated.

The rock above the lake (first picture is a close-up of it and it's in the back left of the second) just has java moss sitting on it. It's not doing particularly great up there.

[bettalover77]

that is an awesome setup you have there!