Hello Mellow, thanks for stopping by my thread. Your 5g was my inspiration to start this project!
Here's the thing...
Back in the day I started with a single medium sized fish tank, and quickly added several more. Eventually the fish took over my life, and it just became too much. I sold or gave away all the fish and most of my equipment.
So this time, I really want to limit myself. I want to have 1 small tank with very minimal livestock and thats it.
I was originally thinking to get a 5 gallon eclipse system and a betta... just to have something around. But then I saw these paludariums and figured I could have about 5 gallons of water in a 10g paludarium instead, and it would allow me to grow some plants and have a much nicer looking setup.
So... I did some calculating and figured a 10g tank w/a paludarium is more like 3-4 gallons of water, and also there's just not much space for vertical plant growth (thus the 15g).
I could get a 20... but then everything just starts to grow... don't want to be tempted to get more livestock, don't want to have to buy more plants, don't want to end up w/some crazy canister filter or expensive lights...
So the 15 might not be ideal dimensions, but if you were able to have that sweet setup in a 5g tank, I'm thinking I should be able to do something nice with it.
And again, I might have 5-6 gallons of water in this, but the additional height over a 10g for me is just for vertical room for plant growth (since I don't have a hanging light, the strip will sit directly on the glass top).
So... I understand where you're coming from, but I'm limiting myself on purpose... I think I can do something good w/this tank. (Now I just have to find one).