70 gallon paludarium suggestions

[beckdg]

my answer to #:
1... just for show really... it adds depth and the wall behind it doesn't detract from the overall look afterward. a dark background, different color paint or tint, or a sheet of dark paper that covers it all would work. if you go with a cover of sorts instead of tint or paint i suggest using some cooking oil or vaseline to hold it up... just smear it on the glass and press the b/g cover on then smooth out the bubbles.

2... remember the cork would just be for hiding pvc, not for support

3... the turtle would eat the fish, snails and shrimp. that's the idea behind letting them breed for a while and getting cheaper aquatic pets that could easily be found on many fish forums in good health. besides... if you get a musk turtle it'll likely be just bigger than your thumb at first so it'll take a bit to wipe out 4 breeding colonies. when it does i'd just get more. they'll make wonderful treats for him anyways.

red cherries should go for about $1 ea... guppies... close to the same... mts... anywhere from 10/$1 to free with another order... ramshorns... about the same

i'd want about 20 rcs, 20 mts, 20 ramshorns and 3-5 FEMALE guppies
4... yes, the big one

5... sand would look better and accentuate the little bit of light you'll get down there making it brighter. pool filter sand is great. regular colored play sand is fine but will need severe cleaning first... when my local home depot has it back in for the season i'm getting a few bags for my tanks though.

6... rhizome... the leafs grow up out of it... the roots grow down out of it... it looks like a little green turd in the middle of the plant

7-9... i'm not too good with plants but... cryptocorynes, swords, vals, mosses, anubias, coral moss, java ferns, etc.

12... i'm not too good with plants, lol

15... compact fluorescent lamps... spiral replacement bulbs... ge makes a daylight one that's pretty good most people can find at walmart.

16... 20



i think peat should definitely be used at the top since at least 1/2 the land will basically be bog area. i could be completely wrong though.

i don't think a disco ball would help the plants. if you want one and can pull it off go for it.

[froggsong]

Originally Posted by LNK_89

5. The only sand I have found is the white sand used in the saltwater tanks. What are some good kinds of sand ? Why is sand better ?

Originally Posted by beckdg

5... sand would look better and accentuate the little bit of light you'll get down there making it brighter. pool filter sand is great. regular colored play sand is fine but will need severe cleaning first... when my local home depot has it back in for the season i'm getting a few bags for my tanks though.

The sand I just put in my fish tank is the same I use for my beardie and it looks just wonderful in the aquarium. It should be wasy to find as it is a national brand and is inexpensive. It's the Quikrete Medium Sand, available at Home Depot. It comes in a brown paper package and has green trim. The sand is white, and would actually help reflect the light in the bottom of the tank, making better use of what you have available. This said is washed, kiln dried, and screened. It's inert, so no worries about it screwing up the tank parameters. This stuff is clean enough that it barely clouds the water even if you stir it up considerably (I missed the plate a few times and stirred it up quite a lot, but it never clouded the water more than a slight milkiness). It seems like it was less than $10 for 100lbs of it, a totally great deal. I always thought that dark substrate would look better, but the white looks AMAZING. I have a thread with some crappy pics of the tank in the Off-Topic forum if you want to see how the substrate looks.

Now, an idea for lighting the underside of the land portion... Have you seen those new under counter LED light strips? They have some that are VERY small. My suggestion would be to get either one long enough to go across the tank, or enough of them to link together to go across, then make a black housing for them (so they won't look so bad) and mount them to the front of the tank right under the water line. This way the light will shine into the tank without shining in your eyes when you look at it, and it will open your options for plants under the land portion. Also, the LED lights are very efficient, so there will be little power consumption. Also, if you wanted to maximize the light output, you could mount a narrow mirror under the false bottom to reflect more light. Placement would depend on the shape of the beam of light produced by the LEDs.

[froggsong]

Originally Posted by Epiphile

Does the tank see any natural light? It's going to be tough to plant beneath the land area if not (though as a small aside, have a look at this build that I read about yesterday- some enterprising fellow's figured out a great way to beat that: http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/par...m-journal.html).

I was going to suggest something very similar to what the fellow has done in that link, but then I noticed the rocks under the water line. I've toyed with that sort of idea in the past, but never really tried it out. It's nice to see someone has done it. I'll have to read through the whole thread later to see exactly how he did it.

[Epiphile]

Originally Posted by froggsong

Now, an idea for lighting the underside of the land portion... Have you seen those new under counter LED light strips? They have some that are VERY small. My suggestion would be to get either one long enough to go across the tank, or enough of them to link together to go across, then make a black housing for them (so they won't look so bad) and mount them to the front of the tank right under the water line. This way the light will shine into the tank without shining in your eyes when you look at it, and it will open your options for plants under the land portion. Also, the LED lights are very efficient, so there will be little power consumption. Also, if you wanted to maximize the light output, you could mount a narrow mirror under the false bottom to reflect more light. Placement would depend on the shape of the beam of light produced by the LEDs.

Now that's a good idea- I guess the only trouble would be keeping water out of it from both directions. Don't they make strip lights from them that are sealed in plastic? Worth a look, anyways.

Are you sorry you asked for advice yet, LNK_89? You've now gotten enough advice for a hundred new tanks, ha ha.

Originally Posted by LNK_89

The water level wont be going down any. Believe me I already tried to get him to do that. What are some good substrates that will allow the plants to grow well. Right now my dad is planning on just putting plants on what he has there now. Will that work ? Where are some good places to find all these plants if we cant find them localy ?

Hm- if he's stuck on the water level, it'd be tricky to grow anything other than emersed aquatics or bog plants, I'd think, if he's stuck on growing plants on the coir mat. I guess you could use more marginal plants and aquatic mosses and still get a nice lush look, provided that mat stays evenly moist at all times.

I'd try one of the planted aquaria forums for any aquatic plants (you guys have got it really good in the States)- there are many hobbyists more than willing to give you a great deal on what you're looking for.

[LNK_89]

I like that LED idea. My dad is kind of a tech guy and seems to love anything to do with LED's, so maybe he would like that one. I will have to talk to him about the sand although I dont think he will want to change it.

haha no Epiphile im not sorry I asked for advise. I like the ideas im thinking of taking over his tank actually. The problem with the mat is it's not evenly moist. Only part of it gets wet, manly the swamp part and the sides.

I'm not from the states, Vancouver BC actually. Unfortunately so far my dad doesnt really seem all that into my suggestions. I told him some of your ideas and he went hmm, well im not sure what I want to do so im going to think about it. So I dont think he really liked the ideas. I also found out that he is thinking if he has to do major changes he will just fill it all up with water and have a normal fish tank. Which is really annoying because the tank was a christmas gift specifically because he said he wanted to do a paludarium.

But on the plus side I now have a 30 gallon tank that can be used for something, but the question is what ?

[Epiphile]

I guess we can't push him too far- if he needs help with anything specific, just let us know.

The uneven moisture opens up your plant choices, I think.

Sorry for assuming you were American (and Americans, I'm sorry for apologizing to him for assuming he was American). I bet there's a decent aquarist community out your way, as well. And when Stimpy gets back from central America I'm sure she'll have some good suggestions for bog plants, amongst others.

You should build a paludarium of your own in that 30 and take all our good advice, ha ha.

[froggsong]

So that this thread doesn't get off-topic, I'm moving that last post about the 30G to a NEW thread.

[beckdg]

^^^off topic^^^

[LNK_89]

hello everyone,

Here is an update on my dad's paludarium. All the plants and fish seem to be doing well, everything is growing nicely. In june we went to a reptile show and my dad bought two big eyed tree frogs and put them in the tank. Sadly they both died within two days. We have no idea what caused them to die, I think lack of air flow, but my dad thinks it was too wet. We contacted the guy we bought the frogs from and he said he would call us but never did which was very dissapointing.
Now we are still wanting some sort of land inhabitant for the tank. Does anyone have any sort of suggestion on what would work well ? He is open to doing small changes to the tank to suit an animals needs.