A 10g Build!

[rstar26]

Hello everyone,

My name is Ryan, and I am new to this forum. I am in the process of building a paludarium out of a spare 10g I had kicking around.

This is my first experience with this type of system. I have many many years of experience keeping marine tanks, specifically reef biotopes. Everything from nanos or large volume systems, so I am quite used to being methodical and precise with my hobbies.

I decided to go the plaudarium route because it was something totally new to me. I've spent the last 4 months reading all over the web about set-ups etc, and finally decided to take the plunge. Critiscism both good and bad is appreciated as its a good thing to learn, and I enjoy learning new things.

I have not decided what types of plants I would like to house, but I do know I would like to attempt some moss eventually. As far as livestock goes, my daughter is in love with frogs so once the system is established I would like to try an easy frog.

The tank will have a false bottom constructed from egg crate, and will try and incorporate some type of water feature into the design, I will be using "Great Stuff", sealed with silicone to add dimension to the background and to construct the water feature. I will be using coconut fiber, and husk to make the background.

Without further ado this is my build so far. (I started today)

[rstar26]

Here is todays update!

I finished most of the skeleton for the water feature, as well as applied the rocks to the edgeing of the water area.

I did this by applying a thin layer of aquarium safe silicone to the rectangular pieces I spray-foamed last night. I then poured some leftover aquarium gravel from my last FW setup into the silicone and gently pressed it in. I left a pile on top as weight to keep some pressure on the gravel. The final result is what you see. I think it turned out pretty good, I was quite pleased with the result I got. Once the silicone setup up a little, I turned the pieces over and applied silicone to the back to comepletly seal in the foam so it does not break down

[shibbyplustax]

looking great so far!

[rstar26]

Yesterday I spray foamed the water featur and let that set up. The foam expanded alot more than I was expecting, as up until yesterday I was a totaly noob with using it. Here is what that looked like;



Today I carved the features out of the foam and applied silicone and rock to the whole feature.









I think I will epoxy the areas inside the little cave at the top and the water fall just to further water proof the area. I am fairly confident that my silicone and rock job would hold water but I am not too sure how prolonged flow over the rock will keep them adhered to the silicone.

Tomorrow I will attach the water feature to the false bottom and re square everything and begin to fill corners and gaps to make them blend in.

[rstar26]

Here is todays update;



I attached the waterfeature to the base, and sprayfoamed in the pots I will use for some larger plants, I also foamed the edges of the water and side to create a ridge that will stop the substrate from slipping into the water. The foam takes about 8 hours to cure so tonight I will blend in the foam and finish the rock on the water feature, and also start attaching coconut fibre to the ridge along the waterline.

[rstar26]

I decided to finish most of the enclosure tonight. I started by adding the coconut fiber to the background and rim I created, then placing the whole thing in the aquarium and sealing it to the sides of the tank with great stuff. I let that set up for a couple hours and trimed it and applied rock and substrate to it. The final thing I did was to epoxy the waterfeature to ensure it lasts long and is water tight. This is the end result!

[TrojanDylan]

Looks great I love the aquarium substrate on the rocks I haven't seen that before. Are you going touse a filter and what inhabitants(if any) are you considering to put in the water section?

[rstar26]

Thank you! I live in a small town and so I had to come up with something I had available for the rocks, and went with what I had! I am quite pleased with the outcome! As far as livestock for the water portion, im not too sure what I could successfully keep in 2" of water so if anything it will be small, maybe a couple shrimp or something. If i do decide to keep livestock in the water I will build a cartridge that I can house some filterfloss and carbon in and then insert repti-flo pump into. I build the left part large so that I could have easy access to the pump and heater for this reason!

[rstar26]

I let everything cure up overnight and brought the tank into the house today to put the finishing touches on it! Here is the final product, with a video of it running!!! As a side note this was one of the funnest projects iv'e built to date, and am very excited to see where I can take this!





Video: