Need Ideas for Keeping Dirt out of Water

[Evilwezal]

I have a Paludarium thats has the water pool in the middle with land on both sides. My FBT's keep dragging coco fiber into the water and they are eroding the Land sections...I've found T-Rex Log Landings help keep the areas seperate. But I don't want to spend $20 bucks each on them. Any ideas on what I can use to do the same thing? Any help would be appreciated.

[MtuPup]

i used larger sized river bed rocks (aquarium gravel type) around my pond. seems to work - tanks been running for 3.5 weeks now.

[Evilwezal]

Any pictures?

[JohnEDove]

Live near any rivers or wooded areas?
Dead wood and drift wood, especially Cottonwood, are great for creating barriers. Just be sure to boil it first.
I have an old bathtub outside, set on blocks, that I dump wood and bark in then add water and half a gallon of bleach then build a fire under and boil whatever it is I am wanting to clean. After boiling for a minimum of 30 minutes, while the object is still hot, I pull it out and scrub off anything that is loose with a wire brush.

[MtuPup]

Plants around the water area should help too - much in the way that they naturally help with erosion problems in wetland areas.

If you're asking for pics of my rig, I won't be able to take any updated til Saturday/Sunday - I'm packing up to go back to school at the moment.

[repman01]

just throwing it out there but you could try using gs and do a thin bead around the outside of the pool and then cover it with moss or something along those lines

[seritchey]

I'm in the same place I'll tell you what my idea right now is though. take come of the plastic and flexible garden wall and use it for the walls, but cut/drill it so water can pass through, then silicone some rocks to it so a more natural look. Then to create a ramp into the water, I will silicone a piece of slate at an angle on one side

[froggsong]

You could also try plastic craft mesh as a very inexpensive alternative. It already has tons of holes in it, is flexible, and easily cut to size. You can also easily sow it together with fishing line is you need to make angles or doors or anything like that.

EDIT: I know this is an old thread, but i thought I would put this out there for seritchey and anyone that might have this common problem in the future.

[seritchey]

is it sturdy enough to hide behind decorative rocks?

[froggsong]

You may have to find some way to keep it from bending over, but you could probably use small plastic garden staples and go through the mesh into your substrate behind it to hold it steady. I'm assuming you mean that it would have rocks siliconed to it?

EDIT: you could also use artificial rocks made of foam (you'd probably have to make them yourself) to keep it from becoming top heavy.