First Viv: 30 gallon paludarium

Revision17 · #1 (**permalink**) 07-23-2008, 12:52 AM

I have a 30 gallon tall tank (about 24x12x24") I want to turn into a paludarium for my desk at work.

So far I've had some freshwater planted aquariums and nano reefs, but this is my first setup which has some dry area.

I saw this on a terrarium store website, and it seems like a pretty easy way to make a nice wall:
Page 1

I thought maybe having an island for a waterfall type thing (with it's structure made out of PVC), along with marginal water plants (like cryptocoryne). I did a quick drawing of the PVC in sketchup (attached).

As for animals, I don't think I'll have any land creatures which could potentially crawl out of the tank and have an adventure in the office. A small shoal of cardinal tetras or a few dwarf puffers may be possible after the tank has cycled (I'd probably be using ammonia for N instead of KNO3 initially to fishless cycle it while still letting the plants grow).

For watering land plants, is running a water pump with airline tubing for watering enough? Or is a misting system very beneficial?

Also, is the internet the best place to get terrestrial plants? There seem to be quite a few aquarium stores which have large aquatic (some of which are marginal) plant selection, but no real terrestrial plants. Garden centers have plenty of tropical plants, but most of them are too large for a setup of this size.

Pufferfan · #2 (**permalink**) 07-23-2008, 01:25 AM

Dwarf puffers will be a spicies only tank. If you want puffers you HAVE to devote the entire tank to them.

They will kill anything else.

Heres a good link for them Dwarf Puffers : Home

Revision17 · #3 (**permalink**) 07-23-2008, 09:44 AM

Don't worry pufferfan! I'd never consider tossing a fish in the tank without researching it.

I've actually read through that entire site multiple times in the past year.

Green Ghost · #4 (**permalink**) 07-24-2008, 02:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Revision17

...For watering land plants, is running a water pump with airline tubing for watering enough? Or is a misting system very beneficial?

Also, is the internet the best place to get terrestrial plants? There seem to be quite a few aquarium stores which have large aquatic (some of which are marginal) plant selection, but no real terrestrial plants. Garden centers have plenty of tropical plants, but most of them are too large for a setup of this size.

With that much water surrounding the land there will be alot of humidity. I'm pretty sure you'll be more worried about keeping the land part dry enough and not worried about adding more water. But to answer your question yes I think airline tubing would be enough. I would go for a misting system, though.

About getting plants, yes the internet seems to be the best/easiest place.

Revision17 · #5 (**permalink**) 07-24-2008, 02:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Green Ghost

With that much water surrounding the land there will be alot of humidity. I'm pretty sure you'll be more worried about keeping the land part dry enough and not worried about adding more water. But to answer your question yes I think airline tubing would be enough. I would go for a misting system, though.

About getting plants, yes the internet seems to be the best/easiest place.

Wow caught your post right before getting to sleep. You say that I'll have trouble keeping the land part dry.. will the wetness cause troubles for just the plants which require dryer conditions, or might I have issues with mildew and such?

I already have an RO unit for my nano reef. You say I should really go for the mist system... if I do get one, would it be worthwhile to get just the $50 habbamist or are the mistking systems everyone talks about really that great?

Honestly after doing more reading about some of these terrestrial plants, I'm thinking of now making it 1/4 water and 3/4s land, rather than half and half.

Jason · #6 (**permalink**) 07-25-2008, 06:59 AM

The thing with the " Habbamist" units is thay dont mist more then thay spray and then drip for 5 min till the cheap lines equalize in pressure within the tiny 28 OZ Reservoir, i think thats like 0.2 - 0.3 gallons. Thay also have mounting problems, just google reviews. On the other hand most people love the mistking units but thay are expensive, if i remember correctly something like 160$ for the standard model, thats not including shipping and nozzle upgrades or additions. I built my own 2 gallon 3 nozzle units for 100-120$$, thay only require a repriming and filling once a week or so depending on the misting needs.

Revision17 · #7 (**permalink**) 07-28-2008, 10:35 AM

Alright, did a bunch of work this weekend on it. Because home depot didn't have the right PVC joints for the island thing, I decided to improvise the supports.. which didn't really work. However I think PVC cement is plenty strong enough to support the weight of whatever will be on the island thing... should be much better than using great stuff alone.

I've done gone through 2 cans of great stuff so far. The pic below is just after I added 1 can of great stuff. I added a can of great stuff "big gap filler" this morning, but I didn't add a picture of that. I'm probably going to look at it and see how the big gap filler did vs regular, and buy 2 cans of whatever seems better.

Arg, also as I type this I just realized that I forgot to put the pots and drip lines in before using great stuff

I guess I'll take a serrated knife to it after work tonight and cut out holes for 'em.

froggsong · #8 (**permalink**) 07-28-2008, 11:41 AM

Interesting...

Revision17 · #9 (**permalink**) 07-29-2008, 07:05 PM

So far I've found that great stuff: big gap filler is better than regular great stuff for this since it expands more, and I think is a better deal for this type of project.

3 cans of great stuff and some peat most pots later ($0.50 per 12 pack at the drug store!

)...

Green Ghost · #10 (**permalink**) 07-30-2008, 06:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Revision17

Wow caught your post right before getting to sleep. You say that I'll have trouble keeping the land part dry.. will the wetness cause troubles for just the plants which require dryer conditions, or might I have issues with mildew and such?.

I'd say yeah. But you can workaround. PC fan pushing the right amount of air (either circulating or pushing fresh air in) on a timer. It's trial and error at first until you get the right amount of humidity. I didn't see mildew being a problem with mine, mainly mold, but actually it doesn't harm anything. I ignore it. You just cut the humidity for a few days. Then bring it back up. Cutting the humidity for a couple of days doesn't hurt anything because there's so much water area in the tank. When you bring the humidity back up, bring it up to a little (one or two percent) less than what it was when there was too much mold. You just keep repeating that until you get the right balance. Where you point the fans counts too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Revision17

I already have an RO unit for my nano reef. You say I should really go for the mist system... if I do get one, would it be worthwhile to get just the $50 habbamist or are the mistking systems everyone talks about really that great?.

About the misting system what Jason said is bang on. If you can afford it get a good one. Coupled with the Reverse Osmosis system you already have IMHO it's worth it. Misting system with fans also cool your viv. A lot cheaper than A/C

I'd also mention that if you have a marine setup and an RO sys, then you must know about sumps. I'm a sump fan. You can run multiple tanks off a sump.

EDIT: yeah just wanted to say looks good so far.