I thought I'd post my progress and regress, welcoming any advice. I put 10 gallons of water in 2 weeks ago, got the S.G. to 1.010, seeded the filter with some water from an existing cycling tank, and put in my 2 mangroves which I've posted elsewhere about them not looking too good.
So, today I put in the ramp for the downgrade into the water and wound up removing all the water to avoid fouling it with sand, so I dont have to wait for the sand to settle, I got some really soft fine stuff that was really making clouds.
So here's the How Not to Set Up a Paludarium part. I decided I needed a LOT more sand than I had, and was feeling quite cheap, so I went and got some silica sand to use as filler. Thus I built a dam to seperate it from the water, and will be covering it with aragonite in the hopes that it wont leach too much silicate into the water. I have to go get more aragonite tomorrow. I aim to cover the silica sand with aragonite and make it slope down into the water. I'll attach some pictures so everybody can see what I'm talking about and inform me of any glaring mistakes .
So, today I put in the ramp for the downgrade into the water and wound up removing all the water to avoid fouling it with sand, so I dont have to wait for the sand to settle, I got some really soft fine stuff that was really making clouds.
So here's the How Not to Set Up a Paludarium part. I decided I needed a LOT more sand than I had, and was feeling quite cheap, so I went and got some silica sand to use as filler. Thus I built a dam to seperate it from the water, and will be covering it with aragonite in the hopes that it wont leach too much silicate into the water. I have to go get more aragonite tomorrow. I aim to cover the silica sand with aragonite and make it slope down into the water. I'll attach some pictures so everybody can see what I'm talking about and inform me of any glaring mistakes .