Wy Renegade's 30gal Paludarium

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I have the same problem with duckwed and filter. It's a never ending battle. I'm seeing browning in my duckweed, it gets natural sunlight an date occasional uv lamp. Wat else would you guys recommend?

Hhhhmmm . . . mine isn't really a problem, I was just noting the location based on flow. In my bog tank, I have some issues with duckweed being pulled into the filter intake. In this tank, since it is drilled, I'm not having that issue. Browning is most likely plant death resulting from either a lighting issue (perhaps too much?) or a lack of nutrients. I just reintroduced the duckweed back into my bog tank, as it had completely disappearred because the other plants grew in so thick it wasn't getting any light.
 
that tank is epic. i dont know how you have planaria in there,they look soooooo much like leaches
 
that tank is epic. i dont know how you have planaria in there,they look soooooo much like leaches

Thanks AlLexX! Actually once you get used to seeing both, the planaria look nothing like leaches. I do have leaches in the bog, but not in this tank. Not the blood-sucking variety of course, just some of the scavenger species. Flatworms are actually pretty cool in their own right.
 
New Aquatic Plants

Had a chance to visit the not so local LFS this past weekend, about a two hour drive, so I picked up a few new plants for this tank while I was there.

I replaced the Bacopa caroliniana with a new cluster;
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And a new Peacock fern, which isn't looking real great yet, hopefully it makes a nice comeback;
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Also picked up a couple new plants which were mounted on pieces of slate, they were labeled as Anubias, but I have no clue. Anybody else recognize them? They are only temperary in this tank.

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Had to redo the terrestrial portion today, its been staying too wet, and I was afraid the plants would rot off and the salamanders wouldn't go into the soil. I pulled everything out and added another inch of gravel and then put in a siphon drain so that when things are too wet I can siphon the water out of the gravel under the soil. I also replaced the Lady Slipper with a Paph. Venus orchid which will hopefully be a little more tolerant of wetter conditions. When I finished up and dropped the leaf litter back into place, I added a few redworms to the soil as well. I noticed I have a pretty significant fruit fly or gnat population going in the leaf litter as well. Need to remember to order some springtails to help with terrestrial decay. If I had frogs in there, they would sure be happy with the fly population.
 
Well its been a while since I've had time to think about an update, but I have been messing with the tank all along, and its doing great. I've added a number of things since my last post, the first and foremost being the tanks new vertebrate inhabitants. After quite a bit of consideration, I decided against the salamanders due to size and instead introduced a Western Chorus frog as my main vertebrate inhabitant. Like the salamanders, they prefer the moist environment rather than the water, yet they are considerably smaller, only reaching 1.5 inches in size so I think they will make a better choice. This little guy was about the size of a quarter when he is pictured (I say he tongue in check, as I've made no effort to sex it at this point).

The first shot here he is in a plastic container;
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The following two were after he was introduced to the tank;
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And here he is once he finally crawled out of the water;
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I also added in some nice small rush from one of the local ponds, so we will see how it does long term as well;
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I've added a mist/sprinkler system to the tank as well, which I took pictures of but can't find at this point as well.
 
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Wy Renegade said:
Well its been a while since I've had time to think about an update, but I have been messing with the tank all along, and its doing great. I've added a number of things since my last post, the first and foremost being the tanks new vertebrate inhabitants. After quite a bit of consideration, I decided against the salamanders due to size and instead introduced a Western Chorus frog as my main vertebrate inhabitant. Like the salamanders, they prefer the moist environment rather than the water, yet they are considerably smaller, only reaching 1.5 inches in size so I think they will make a better choice. This little guy was about the size of a quarter when he is pictured (I say he tongue in check, as I've made no effort to sex it at this point).

The first shot here he is in a plastic container;

The following two were after he was introduced to the tank;

And here he is once he finally crawled out of the water;

I also added in some nice small rush from one of the local ponds, so we will see how it does long term as well;

I've added a mist/sprinkler system to the tank as well, which I took pictures of but can't find at this point as well.

That Guy IS really cool!!! I catch those frogs by my house all the time. One time i guess the tadpoles had just turned into frogs and there were thousands of baby frogs that were not even a half inch long jumping EVERYWHERE. Has the tank itself changed at all? Can you upload a fts? I recently just put some rush from the local pond in my pond at home too
 
That Guy IS really cool!!! I catch those frogs by my house all the time. One time i guess the tadpoles had just turned into frogs and there were thousands of baby frogs that were not even a half inch long jumping EVERYWHERE. Has the tank itself changed at all? Can you upload a fts? I recently just put some rush from the local pond in my pond at home too

That sounds pretty cool! I'd love to see tons of these little guys hopping around. I'd love to accomidate the request for a FTS, but unfortunately I'm out of state right now, so I can't. What I do have however is a few pictures of the mininture orchids getting added and some shots of the terrestrial zone which I'll post up here in a minute.
 
Miniture Orchids

Well as those of you who have been following the thread will recall, one of the things I've planned all along is to add a number of miniture orchids on the cottonwood bark and driftwood. I got those orchids quite a while ago, but just haven't had time to mess with them. I finally got an afternoon this summer that I managed to slip into school and spend some time placing the miniture orchids. I tied the orchids in place using brass eyehooks and fishing line, if you look closely at the first two pictures, you can see both the hooks and the fishing line. Once the orchids roots grow onto the medium, I should be able to remove the eyehooks and fishing line.

The orchid on the driftwood I simply attached in position in the tank;
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The cottonwood slabs I was able to remove and I attached two minitures to two of the pieces of slab;
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Unfortunately, the picture of the one that was blooming didn't turn out, but here's a shot of the flowers once it was placed in the tank;
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I also added a single sprig of hornwort to the largest pool area in the aquatic zone;
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We had also gone hicking that morning up in the mountains, and I brought home some more moss that was growing on a North slope that had a couple other plants mixed in with it, and some Mountain snails. Unfortunately none of the pictures of the Mountain snails turned out, so I'll have to get some more as well as a updated FTS, but these will have to do for now.

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If you look closely you can get just a hint of the mist system up in the top left corner.
 
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Had a chance to get home this past weekend, so I was able to get the requested FTS shot;
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I'm pretty pleased with the way this tank has filled in at this point, although a lot of the aquatic grass was floating. Not sure if that is a result of the auto fill method or what.

The blooming orchid is about done at this point;
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the Rabbits-foot fern has lost all of its original foliage, but the new leaflets are looking very dark and healthy;
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The Java moss I added at the foot of the driftwood piece is growing like mad, and is actually starting to come out of the water on the driftwood;
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And the hornwort has pretty much exploded, filling the little pool area quite well;
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I also got a couple of decent pictures of the Mountain snails, which are a terrestrial species of snail that likes higher moisture and generally is found below the leaf litter;
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And here is one of them working its way up one of the orchid leaves;
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July 2012 Update

Had a chance over the weekend to do a little maintanence and snap a couple of different pictures. Several clumps of the dwarf hairgrass had come up and were floating around, so I went ahead and removed those that had done so. The duckweed population is in full bloom as you can tell from the top down shot of the aquatic portion;

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One of the rabbit-footed ferns had been all broken by the students in messing in the tank, so I went ahead and removed the large lava rock in order to open up more swimming space. The plant in the upper left has actually grown too tall for this tank, its bumping up against the screen top and bending over, so I may have to transplant it to another tank and move some forget-me-nots into this one.

The terrestrial portion is going strong, the mosses I've introduced seem to be taking hold quite nicely, and even the small rush seems to be doing well. Still waiting on one of the minutures orchids to bloom. It has a nice long flower spike, but hasn't opened up yet. The bonsi has put out a ton of new growth, I'll have to do some pruning this fall.

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Here's an updated FTS for July;
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And a close-up of one of the Mountain snails out on the glass over the aquatic portion;
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Snapped a few more pictures last weekend.

The two anubis plants are growing quite well;
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The Java moss has really taken off as well, and is starting to climb up the driftwood;
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And the moss in the terrestrial portion is hanging on as well;
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The rocks were getting a pretty good coating on them, so I moved two Horned Nerite snails into this tank from another (thanks Severum and HN1). Not the greatest picture;
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A shot from the long view;
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And a updated FTS;
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Been a while since I updated, so I guess its time. I actually snapped these pictures back in August, just haven't had time to get them posted. Right now the duckweed has really started to grow, and most have roots of an inch or more, so its quite a bit different from the pictures. I'll have to update again soon.

Riparian portion;
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I added a couple of Forget-Me-Nots to either side of the emerging driftwood.

Terrestrail portion;
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And a close-up of the interior of the driftwood cave;
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I've been experimenting with some different mosses, but don't think I'm keeping them sprayed enough. I think I'm going to have to add a fog maker of some type to get the effect I'm really looking for with this portion of the tank.

The emergent driftwood has become nicely covered with the Java moss, and I'm pretty pleased with the effect;
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Unfortunately my Rabbitsfoot fern has died way back and lost all of it's old root growth, so I added a native fern from my bog tank in that I know does well under emersed conditions (on the right);
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One of the mounted orchids bloomed this month, so a couple shots of it;
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Updated FTS;
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and an updated end shot;
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Very cool. Thanks for sharing

Always happy to share! In fact, its time for an update.

The duckweed has gone hog wild as you can see in this shot. I'm pretty amazed that anything manages to find its way around in there. I did remove over half of it and moved it to a window tank I use for growing scuds. If you look carefully, you can see the tanks only fish, a small Swamp darter I added last fall, down in the bottom right;
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The Java moss is also doing very well, climbing up and out of the water in its emersed state to cover the whole front of my driftwood. I'm thinking about adding some to the bank area as well.
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The Forget-Me-Nots I added to this tank are growing great guns, so they have also made a nice addition;
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The Rabbits Foot fern is making a strong comeback, so I'm still holding out hope for it;
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While the native fern suffered a bit of a set back from the transition (the original fronds are all dieing off), it is also making a nice come back;
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I was hoping to have some new orchid pictures to post up, but unfortunately my new flower bud died off without opening up, not sure exactly why at this point.

Last spring at the end of the year, I moved this guy from the tank I had previously been holding him in, into this one. He has done quite well, and I think the aquarium provides him with plenty of food in and of itself. We examined some "pond water" samples out of it this fall and it is crawling with different microscopic life. He is often times hard to see, not only because the tank is overgrown, but also because he blends in so well as you can see here;
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In fact I had some students swear up and down that there were absolutely no fish in that tank. The funny part was, he was sitting right up in the front, and I was able to walk up and point him right out to them. Kind of fun. I'm sure he's a little lonely in there, but I'm hoping that Jeta is going to be rounding a few more up to send me here soon.

And of course here is the obligatory FTS shot;
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The mosses on the terrestrial portion just haven't done well for me, I'm assuming its because their just isn't enough humidity, but I'm not sure. I decided to go ahead and add one more feature to the tank, which has kind of made a nice addition. Unfortunately, the fog doesn't quite get up onto the land, I think I would need to switch from a screen top to glass in order to accomplish that, and I'm not sure I want to do that at this point.

Anyway, kind of a fun feature;
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