38 Gal Paludarium Build

[megamax42]

Hello! New to this forum but a member of quite a few others. Figured I'd share my paludarium build here, will post pictures as soon as the forum lets me.

The plan right now is a fire belly toad tank, planted in land, water and immersed conditions. Fish also inhabiting the water portion.

A dilemma I've run across is whether or not to drill drainage holes. Originally I was going to, however I'm slightly worried about what could run into the water portion, so I was hoping I could get away with very careful watering, what do you guys think?

---------- Post added at 10:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:11 PM ----------

Sorry for the huge copy/paste from my other thread. There's also a couple youtube videos in there somewhere.


The cardboard in the pictures is in there just until some silicone dries





The destruction left behind:



I was initially gonna use the black foam for just the waterfall and against the glass on the sides, so it would be black when looked at from the side, however after seeing how little the pond foam expands I've decided to use it for just the waterfall.




Really should've been more patient with this part, got a lot of sag. For the time being it'll at least be a good base for the top layer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP8CL...fLqK40QFeahWSE





















http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0grqT...pyuaqrYyYtKSc=


Here's some pictures of the tank after the first coat of sealer dried. Still haven't fully sealed the tank because there's more grouting and great stuff work to be done so there's no fts yet but here's some closeups of it



So far I'm really happy with the sealer, easy to apply, easy to clean and comes out looking great. In quite a few spots it gathered on individual coco fibre strands and looks like droplets of water

Here's a couple pics but it was tough to get a good shot of it. I'm also still failing at taking a good fts with the current lighting so I'll probably take a video later and post that.





Just took a video of the paludarium after the new light arrived. Sorry for the really dirty glass, I'm waiting on razor blades to clean up the leftover mortar mix. I also added some G.S. to the waterfall for a more realistic look. The blue led's are near the end of the video.

New light for Paludarium - YouTube

[megamax42]

As for the water substrate I was thinking Flourite original for the color.

[thething84]

Looking good so far. Eagerly awaiting more pics. I am currently trying to design and decide how to make my FBT tank

[megamax42]

Thanks! How are you going about building yours? I had a hard time deciding false bottom or partition.

Here's a video of it I took today, having the light on it made me see all the spots that need touching up but other than that it's almost ready for plants.

So close I can taste it - YouTube

[megamax42]

Nighttime led's, although the camera I was using really hated the wavelength generated
I also went ahead and bought an Eheim 2213, as well as flourite original and dark so I can do some experimenting.

[megamax42]

Just ordered a heater as well:

[megamax42]

Got the filter in today, hooked everything up but not entirely happy with a couple things. The little pool next to the waterfall that has water coming entering at a drop a second (literally) has a spot near the back where the water is dripping onto the platform, that same spot also needs some grout so I'll post pictures once everything is finished

[megamax42]

I ran into a couple problems when I filled it up, the little pool to the left of the water feature (which slowly feeds the pool) had a low spot in the back where it was hard to reach. When it started filling up the water would drain backwards onto the platform instead of into the water portion, an obstacle I had for some reason not thought of when I was designing it. Thought I fixed it, filled it back up and there's still water back there! However it stayed the same level, so I tried draining the water portion and sure enough it drained from the platform, so there's a hole somewhere on it. I have it partially drained right now trying to dry out the platform so I can smother it in black silicone, since there will be soil over it anyways. Yesterday I added some of the flourite as well, will post pictures when everything settles.

Here's some pics now though to stay true to the title

Bottom of the tank; when I first started and used black great stuff I ended up spraying normal great stuff on top of it while it was still wet because I ran out of the dyed G.S., that black streak along the bottom is the black G.S. expanding underneath the white. I was mindblown at first to come to the tank the next day and see black G.S. oozing out of normal G.S. about a foot from where I sprayed it lol.





Flourite original and dark, original seems a little too light, dark seems a little too dark, hopefully combined it should just about match the grout.






Heater and filter, really love the quick disconnects that came with the eheim, ball valves so I can adjust the flow to the water feature if need be.

[thething84]

mines only a 24" tank. but i have gone for a partition rather than flase bottom. thats as far as i got atm. slow build mine.

[megamax42]

Girlfriend lost the camera charger so in the meantime here's a crappy cell phone pic. The plant decisions/placement are not finalized yet and I still need to find some very high light plants that will be suitable for the upper planters.

Planted some dwarf baby tears in the little pool next to the waterfall in the hopes that they switch to an emersed state and form a carpet poking out of the water.

The plant on the right is a peace lily, not sure if this will stay but in the meantime it takes up some space.

The vals in the front will not be staying, I just threw em in there for cycling purposes.

That ivy-esque plant (species unknown, however it resembles Ficus pumila var. minima) on the left doesn't have a permanent location yet. I like where it is on the ramp, however I don't want it stopping the toads from climbing back on to land. I would be ecstatic if it started creeping up the planter on the left (the coco fiber thrown into the grout should be great for it to grab a hold of), however I also want some to remain hanging in the water. The white clouds (the only occupant of this tank at the moment) really enjoy them in the water and can very often be seen swimming through the leaves, an awesome effect with the backdrop of bright green and the fish so close to the surface.

I got the moss from my lfs a couple days ago, a huge patch I managed to cover most of the lower platform with for only $3. However the moss between the left cave and shallow pool isn't doing so well. I'm assuming it's the light intensity because the moss on the far left and right is doing fantastic, and they're shaded by the planter ledges. Fortunately there's a bunch of low light, medium light, and high light zones, so I'm just gonna let them do their own thing. Hopefully the different zones will do some landscaping/aquascaping for me.

As for the construction, I'm generally quite pleased with it. The only negative aspect I'm seeing is the sealer turning cloudy after being submerged. Though hopefully over time bacteria and algae will have grown and died repeatedly on it until it's no longer noticeable. If you look at the water feature where it dumps into the aquarium portion you can see it's already turned from milky colored to a dark greenish-brown.