New Zoo-Med Paludarium

[trayp]

Well I've been lurking on here for a while gathering info, now i'm submitting my new palu. The tank is a Zoo-Med 18x18x24. It it has been drilled to keep all of the plumbing on the outside. The background is GS and Titebond. I combined organic soil, sphagnum moss and wood chips with the Titebond, smeared it over the GS (after I sanded it) and the press more of the organic soil into it before it dried. I wanted to have plants growing over the background and it turned out surprising well in my opinion. Now I'm just waiting on the plants to grown in and then hopefully some pair of tree frogs. Oh yea sorry for the pic quality I really don't know how to use my camera

[jersey]

very nice. Is the spot on the side of the glass made with GS as well? I think when I get my 40 free I am going to do something very much like this.. Is this your first? and how did you like the titebond method? I used the GS / Silicone and cocofiber, but I think next time I want to go with a different look.

I've been working on my 210 for turtles, but I am at a stall right now while I wait for our new house to be ready to move in.

[trayp]

I appreciate that. Yes the spot on the side is GS too. I actually had it up and running for about 2 weeks before I added the side part and the vines. It also had black sand in the water feature, but i replaced it with regular aquarium gravel, I like this look much better. This is actually the second build I had in this tank. The first time I used the GS, silicone and coco fiber method and I had FB Toads in it. I think the Titebond method holds up to water much better in my opinion and my hybrid method allows plants to root on the background easier.

This build is still only about 70% planted but hopefully when its done and grown in it will remind me of a flooded jungle.

[MartinM]

Nice looking vivarium. What are the shiny brown globs visible near the center of the background? What did you use for the core of the vines? Do you think your light levels will be high enough to keep that floating water plant growing?

Martin

[trayp]

Thanks MartinM. The shiny brown globs are the lava rocks I used to create the waterfall. The vines are actually from Petsmart i think there are Repzilla brand. As far as the lights are concerned, I actually have 102 watts going so I hope they do. They actually have been multiplying since i got them. Do you have any recommendations for lights?

[MartinM]

Since I have never kept animals that need UV, I just use fluorescent shop lights. My setup is a paludarium with a large terrestrial canopy build above a 55 gallon aquarium. I light the canopy from above with four 4-foot fluorescent tubes (in two shop fixtures). This serves the terrestrial plants and the plants growing on or near the surface of the water, but it doesn't penetrate very well down into the water. For that reason I have third shop light mounted behind the aquarium shining in through the back wall, which keeps plants on the bottom and in the water column nice and healthy. You might think that it looks kind of weird having lights behind the aquarium, but it works out pretty well. The back wall gets carpeted over with a nice layer of algae, and I have a herd of snails back there grazing.

This picture shows how the system looked a few months ago when I was starting a major rebuild, so the canopy is empty and the aquarium is neglected (but I think you'll agree I'd never have that much elodea growing down there without the backlighting). It looks a lot nicer now.


I was wondering about your duckweed (if that's what it is) because most plants that float on the water surface have pretty high light requirements (since in their natural habitat, open water, there isn't much to give them shade).

I like having duckweed on the surface, but I have two problems with it: I have to have it in a screened-off part of the surface or else it drifts to where my waterfall enters the aquarium and gets pulled under, and in the winter, when I bring in some outdoor goldfish for overwintering, they eat my duckweed.

Martin

[trayp]

I see what you are saying MartinM. The floating plant is Salvinia natans. I don't know if that's the scientific name for duckweed. I don't really think i need anything brighter than what I have but time will tell. I also set up the piece of driftwood in the water feature to block the flow of water from the surface but allow water to pass underneath so the salvinia is confined to the front. I actually was into planted aquariums before I dove into paludariums so I'm somewhat familiar with lighting. Here's a shot of one

[MartinM]

Nice looking aquarium. Salvinia is a neat plant, and the surprising thing about it is that it is fern. Duckweeds are in the genus Lemna and the genus Wolfia.

My 55-gallon aquarium has a cross-brace running from front to back at the middle of the tank just above the water line. I suspend a strip of fiberglass window screen beneath the cross-brace down into the water to keep surface plants from drifting to the fall.

Speaking of back-lighting: a long time ago I had an aquarium where I used back-lighting, and I observed a neat phenomenon: when the fish (guppies, if I remember correctly) swam near the light, they rolled sideways, with their dorsal fin pointing toward the light. The were apparently using light to tell which way was up, and the sideways light fooled them. This corresponds to a similar effect that I saw on a documentary film about reef communities. There was a bottom of bright white sand, and where a big shelf of coral overhung it, there was more light coming from below than from above. Certain fish, when they swam under the coral shelf turned upside down.

Ain't nature neat?

Martin

[trayp]

That is interesting. I never seen that happen. i didn't know salvinia was a fern. I hope it does well in the tank. I want it to completely cover the front portion of the water area.