New 29 Gallon Paludarium Build!

Goanna · #1 08-24-2009, 10:23 PM

I am in the process of building a 29 gallon Paludarium from a "Marty Made" 29 gallon tank with sliding glass doors.

I ordered some 1/2" Bulkhead fittings from the LFS and a 1 1/8" Drill bit from glass-holes.com and I drilled out the two holes and installed the bulkheads. I want to keep as much equipment outside the tank as possible since it's a limited space already.

After I drilled the tank I sized up some plastic egg crate and cut it to fit inside, around the bulkheads. I will be gluing the egg crate to the back of the aquarium and then using great stuff on top of that. I have found that the egg crate gives the Great Stuff much more surface area to grab hold of, and it seems to make it hold it's shape better. The last two times I did a great stuff background without it, it wound up shrinking and pulling away from the glass, with the egg crate it seems to stay in place nicely.

The filtration will be done with an Eheim 2213 and the output will be used to create a waterfall in the tank. I will probably have to use the doubletap to restrict the flow a bit so the waterfall isn't too powerful, or I may T it off and divert some of the water directly back to the pool area.

My Goal is to create a smaller version of this tank, Paludarium Construction Photo Journal - The Planted Tank

Here is the first set of pictures

Next I installed the glass divider. I went with a simple angled piece of glass instead of trying to replicate the underwater cave area in the link I provided (which would have been cool, just couldn't figure an easy way to do it). I siliconed it in place and it sits just below the track of the sliding doors (I now regret not making it a bit shorter, as the cork bark sitting atop the divider now sits higher then the sliding track

). I spackled the silicone on the front where the divider is as well, as I will trim it out to match the foam, and hide the glass from view, as I dont like the view of glass siliconed to the front of the tank.

Next I started on the background. as mentioned I use Plastic Egg crate as a lattice to keep the foam in place. If you stick the nozzle of the Great Stuf right into a corner of a cell, it will inject Great Stuff under it, and then expand into and over the cell, so it completely encases the egg crate and holds on very well. It seems to cure/set faster as well, and it doesn't shrink or pull from the glass when you do it this way.

I let the foam cure for 2 days and then I did the fun task of Silicone and Coco Fiber. Worked on areas about 8-10 square inches at a time and made sure I got the silicone in every nook and cranny. Let it sit about an hour before I blew off the excess fiber with compressed air and moved onto the next section. Basically took the whole day to finish this. The stupid compact fluorescent in my floor lamp is throwing a nice yellow hue which is making my photos look crappy. It looks pretty good in person.

And that's basically where I am at now.

I am trying to decide if I should do an egg crate false bottom, or just a layer of Hydroton. The animal which will call this Paludarium home for the time being is a south american water snake (small liophis species, gets 2-3 foot max and is only a hatchling right now) so I need to make sure the snake cant get down to the Hydroton or get below the Egg crate. I am thinking maybe I will just keep my bromeliads and other terrestrials in pots for the time being and just do a layer of deep substrate, no drainage area, and I will have to clean it out every now and then.

If anyone has ideas on the best way to do the land area, I am all ears

.

Any other comments/feedback are welcome as well. Thanks for looking!

jclee · #2 08-25-2009, 06:10 PM

Thank you for the tip about the egg-crate-great-stuff background. I'll make a mental note for future. Do you seal the egg crate in place first? Or just let the GS hold it.

Goanna · #3 08-25-2009, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jclee

Thank you for the tip about the egg-crate-great-stuff background. I'll make a mental note for future. Do you seal the egg crate in place first? Or just let the GS hold it.

Last time I cleaned the glass with alcohol first, then sprayed small mounds of great stuff in the corners and some more in the middle, then set the egg crate right into it. Let that cure, and it held it in place really well, then I did the rest of the great stuff.

This time I used silicone to hold the egg crate in place. A few dollops all around the back glass, and then siliconed it along all sides. Let the silicone cure for a day, then started the foaming. Either way has worked for me, but I think the silicone method might be a bit stronger. The egg crate really didn't feel like I could pull it from the glass, it was held in place nice and tight.

Goanna · #4 08-25-2009, 11:44 PM

Okay, well it's been over 48 hours since the last of the silicone was applied, so I filled up the water section today and tested out the waterfall.

It works pretty well but I want to try and get the flow to have multiple streams, like in the photo in the link above of the Bowfront Paludarium. Right now it kind of condenses into just one cascade. I might have to try to carve out the cork bark a bit to emulate the same type of cascade.

Also, I think the Eheim 2213 is a bit powerful for this, so I am probably going to swap it with the filter on my Exo-Terra Paludarium (an Eheim 2211) which has a slower flow rate, plus the filter itself is smaller and the total water volume in this paludarium is under 4 gallons, so a 2213 is overkill.

Here are some pictures of the waterfall now.

Once I start planting, I may also just try to drape some java moss off of the corkbark on the fall and see how that looks.

Goanna · #5 08-29-2009, 08:31 PM

Well, I think I came up with a way to make a snake proof drainage layer

.

I was contemplating the idea of trying to silicon the weed block fabric to the glass above a layer of LECA, but then I though, why not just make the weed block fabric into a pouch!

So, I took a bunch of weed block, broke out the sewing machine, and pretty much made a pillow case out of the weed block fabric. It's not nylon thread, so it may eventually dissintegrate, but if I were to do the same thing with Nylon Thread it would last a very long time.

So, I have a big case of hydroton which I can now seal with a zip tie, and then put my coco fiber right over that. Even if the snake burrows down deep, he wont be able to mix the LECA with the substrate and make a mess. Plus, if for any reason I need to strip this down, it will be very easy to do now.

froggsong · #6 08-31-2009, 08:54 PM

Hmmm, Goanna, that is a GREAT idea! That might be one that folks will have to replicate in the future. Does the "case" go all the way to the corners to keep the coco fiber from sifting down under the case? Do you have any pictures of this?

Goanna · #7 08-31-2009, 10:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by froggsong

Hmmm, Goanna, that is a GREAT idea! That might be one that folks will have to replicate in the future. Does the "case" go all the way to the corners to keep the coco fiber from sifting down under the case? Do you have any pictures of this?

Yep! I made the first one a bit small, so then I just did another one and made it over-sized, so I can shift the Hydroton/LECA around inside of it to make a nice even layer and fill all the corners. Then I just folded all the excess (which wasn't too much anyway) toward the center so you can't see any flaps of material from the glass. It just looks like a solid black mass under the soil, almost as if I would have painted it with the black silicone.

For a large tank, you would definitely be able to make a few bags and just but them next to one another instead of having to deal with all the loose hydroton if and when you ever need to take the tank apart.

Goanna · #8 09-02-2009, 09:28 PM

Okay, here are some recent pictures. I just got a bunch of assorted Tilandsias in the mail (from eBay) and I just have them all sitting on the ground for now so they get some light. I will be splitting them up between my two paludariums.

I also have some Dwarf Bromeliads on the way (also from eBay). I am thinking that I will just stick with Epiphytes, so I can mount them to wood/rocks, and if the snake uproots them it wont be too detrimental to the plant. Also the soil is not too high either (2-3" at most), so rooted plants wouldn't have much space.

I do have live spanish moss to drape around as well, and I'll get a couple aquatic and/or small emergent plants for the water area. Maybe some mosses as well.

Oh, and included in one of the pics is the sewn weed block bag underneath the soil. I didnt take apic of it before I covered it

.

froggsong · #9 09-03-2009, 01:47 AM

This case you made is sparking lots of ideas for me... You could even enclose your soil in such a bag to keep it from getting dragged into the water. You could cut Xs in the fabric where you want to plant a plant. Then, to keep it looking nice you could put moss or something on top of it (which would probably get dragged into the water, but hey, it just came to me, lol). Anyway, I'm all hopped up on cold meds and I think I'm going to bed. Stupid flu season...

Goanna · #10 09-09-2009, 12:10 AM

Got some larger bromeliads. They were sold as "Dwarf" species for terrariums, but they were a bit bigger then I expected. I dont think I can fit all three in the tank, maybe I'll just use two and some of the tillandsias, as three would take up almost all of the land area, lol.

I also took a picture of the live Spanish Moss that I will put on the background and around the base of the tillandsias after they are mounted. I put a bunch of it outdoors on my trees in the yard as well as i got way too much to use on this tank, lol.