55gal long paludarium

[Mink]

Alright, so this tank was my first tank and before that was my dads reef tank. it was a colorado pond biome palu initially and from there it became a home for my various projects. Now im finally out of law school and decided to finally do something to honor the memory of the tank and my father. so ya, heres my 55 gallon paludarium.

empty tank with some whiteboard marker blueprints to get a general sense of size


false bottom and some superstructure for great stuff



this was going to be used for a misting system powered by a diaphram pump. i have since abandoned this idea because i want the misting coming in from the top.


the false bottom with the first layer of GS on it. the PVC supports that i will be using decided not to stay on, they will be re attached with marine epoxy when the foam is finished.


this is the water fall portion that will sit on top of the false bottom, it empties into the pond. in this picture the egg crate has already bent (note to self, in the future when using great stuff it can and will pull egg crate so what used to be square is out of shape, lay it flat and use MANY layers but first take care of all the horizontal edges)


new filter parts to eventually wind up being used. i didnt want to use a full on canister but also didnt want to use a submersible turtle filter


and where i was yesterday on this tank so far, this is the waterfall after it had been carved for the first time. it has since seen some major changes involving the stream/waterfall as well as had sections for plants to be planted inside of it


next up and for the rest of today i will be finishing up spraying/carving the great stuff then permastone/epoxy.

If you have any questions/comments/concerns regarding this project feel free to ask on here or in my inbox and i will attempt to answer them as best i can/get you a picture or description of what i did and how.

*a note* I work a lot, and every thing I say or do will be judged, because of that; I care very very minimally about proper spelling/grammar while away from work. When i make a mistake please keep your fingers and keys quiet and not point it out.

[Mink]

alright, update time

after the first carve, this was done more to get a general idea of my final shapes before adding more greatstuff.



2 cans of great stuff later and many hours of late late night carving



total greatstuff used so far (6 16oz, 1 24oz, 1 12oz big gap)


I didn't want to add more holes to the walls of this rental, so i decided to make the tank plug in and admire style to future proof it. To acclompish this i drilled into the screen cover overlap. (a picture of this might be helpful but i took this one at 4 am and i wasnt thinking perfectly.) anyways, i put two machine screws through the holes and added double square nuts. the reason i went with square nuts was they offer a bigger area on either side of the canister. this is likely not a major issue but for the same price I decided to go square.


thats it for this update, ill be updating when the fall/stream gets some permastone covering it(should be shipping to me ATM).

when i started this build i had no idea what i was going to put into it. At the moment i am planning on having a pair of Phelsuma laticauda. while the tank is not vertically oriented i believe the added space will make up for it. the biggest worry is one of them falling into the pond and being too stupid to take the ramp up or grab onto a piece of bamboo, ive never had a problem with this even with Testudo kleinmanni whose diminituve size made me very wary about having a 6" deep pond in their outdoor viv(im calling it a viv because it had a defined space to it and i planted plants specifically for the tortoises, also of note, this outdoor space was originally built/designed for Testudo graeca which is a larger tortoise species)

anyways, thanks for looking

[Mink]

I got tired of waiting, figured this tank won't see any animal until I move in january so went out and bought some ultraflex II thinset. It'll be soaked for a long while in a turtle pond where my parents used to live but I don't rent out.

First layer
(I heard so much talk about paint brush thin that I made it really thin and didn't really like it/it dried out in 3 hours)



Second layer
I made this layer just a little on the thin side of what I normally mix thinset to.


Todo;
Another thick layer that has an aggregate (thinking decomposed granite and a bit of sand, advice?)
Test that the waterfall stream works
Touch ups and fixes

[Mink]

After some paint and a good long soak




It'll be put in and installed over the weekend

[little98dime]

Your folks lived in a turtle pond??? lool j/k looks great.