Mumma's 40L paludarium

[Mumma.of.two]

Ever since seeing Wy Renegade's paludarium I've become more and more interested in building my own. I find I'm fairly obsessed with house plants and fish keeping so it seems like the perfect way to combine the two in a beautiful display. I finally transferred the fish and plants from my 40L (10 gallon) tank into other tanks this week so now I have the perfect tank to give building a paludarium a go. I originally wanted to empty my 26g tank but last week discovered two of my bristlenose decided to pair up and produce a small batch of fry. So now that tanks staying up while I raise the fry.

I wanted to keep costs to a minimum. I always get carried away and spend WAY too much on my little projects. I started with a plastic tray I had saved (because I just knew I must need it for something....) and a piece of wood originally from the tank.




I then attempted to cut the tray to make two pieces but it was very brittle. It cracked and the pieces didn't end up exactly how I wanted them but you gotta work with what you got. I also cut the wood (I think it's goldvine) into two bits.







I cut some poly pipe to hold the tray up and zip tied them together. I then used some plastic craft mesh I had laying around to create a barrier to hide where I am going to hide the filter and possibly a heater.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

The next step was to find something to disguise the mesh. I have loads of PFS and gravel around the place so I used a combination of the two and glued it, with silicone, to the mesh. I also added some mesh to the top of the tray to hold in plant substrate.



I added some mesh to the top of the tray so it was able to hold some gravel and potting soil for the plants.



They fit well.



Added access for the pump. I'm using the pump that came with the built in filter in the tank.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Cut some foam to fit.


I used a steak knife to carve the foam into the shape I wanted. I had to make allowances for the ploy pipe for the water fall. I then positioned the wood where I wanted it.







The mesh around the top wasn't going to work. I wanted to cover it with coco fiber but it was going to look funny IMO. So I ripped them
Out and replaced them with more carved foam.





I wanted cork bark for the background but couldn't find it anywhere! Very frustrating. I then decided on coco fibber but it was tricky to attach to the foam so I settled on black silicone and
PFS.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

I missed photos of a few steps. I smeared black silicone over the inside glass of the tank on both sides to disguise the foam. I glued the sand to the foam, then glued everything in. I added the wood, some bark and some coco fiber around the the place to try and blend in some massive holes I made in the foam for the waterfall and plants.

 

[jetajockey]

Looks like a sweet project, can't wait to see what you do with it!

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Thanks jeta

I got some better pictures now the suns gone down.



The string on the front is where the water line will be.



The waterfall will come down the piece of wood in the top left corner. I haven't tested it yet but I'm hoping it will run down the wood into the water without touching too much of the background. I don't trust the silicone to hold the PFS for very long with water flowing over it.



The bark on the top right is fixed in front of a drip line. I'm hoping to grow some aquatic moss over it. I should have gotten some photos of the plumbing. The curved piece of foam in the corner is removable so I can get to the pump.

I have no idea what plants I'm going to attempt to grow but it'll probably be the usual anubias and moss with some emergent stem plants and some air plants on the wood. As for stock I'll probably move some of my glass shrimp colony over.

 

[adeebm]

Following

Looks great so far! I want to see how that waterfall turns out. I was too lazy to put mine together xD

--Adeeb

 

[hcourts]

Ok this looks awsome!! Ill def be following as this is such a beautiful project!! Are planning on just the shrimp or are you going to try some nano fish as well? And what types of house plants can you use??

 

[Andrew McFadden]

I expect it will be stunning and so far it is coming from you. I'm following along

 

[Rivercats]

I'm following too, I've always wanted to try this but just never knew where to start... can't wait to see it finished and stocked.

 

[Jason7894561230]

woah thats awesome, really excited to see where this is going!
Although is finding crabs going to be hard? Ive never seen any in australia, or atleast here. Is it any different in QLD?

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Following

Looks great so far! I want to see how that waterfall turns out. I was too lazy to put mine together xD

--Adeeb

Thanks. Me too! Have to wait for the silicone to cure before I can test its path. I can see the water come flying out and hitting the front glass of the tank. Lol. Should be fine to test on sat or sun I think.

Ok this looks awsome!! Ill def be following as this is such a beautiful project!! Are planning on just the shrimp or are you going to try some nano fish as well? And what types of house plants can you use??

I considered fish but I think the water section maybe too small. It's about 1/3 the size of the tank. As for plants, that's the tricky part. The tank has a hood I want to use so the plants have to stay short. Been thinking of using plants from my yard and my parents. Ribbon plants stay short and my dad has a whole garden of them I can steal from. He also has a massive ornamental creeping fig that I could get a cutting from. He has ivy also. I've got creeping jasmine but I'm not sure how that would go plus I hate the stuff! I thought maybe a pothos vine but the leaves might be too big for the look of the tank. There is always a small fern variety.... Anyways, lots of ideas.

I expect it will be stunning and so far it is coming from you. I'm following along

Thank you

I'm following too, I've always wanted to try this but just never knew where to start... can't wait to see it finished and stocked.

I say just jump in and give it a go! I was worried about where to start too. I thought worst case scenario I'd be pulling out foam and scraping silicone from the tank to covert it back to an aquarium.

woah thats awesome, really excited to see where this is going!
Although is finding crabs going to be hard? Ive never seen any in australia, or atleast here. Is it any different in QLD?

Crabs? We can't even have koi or rabbits as pets up here. I can't see them being legal. I've never seen them either. I've got some of these:
http://www.livefish.com.au/glass-shrimp.html
Got 20 about a year and a half ago and managed to kill all but 1 big female and 2 males. They've now taken over my 30L tank. :S

 

[Mumma.of.two]

I forgot to add I got these two plants the other day. Spanish moss and a tillandsia.



And these two are growing in one of my rips so I will try them also.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Nice job! I'll be following along as well to see this one come together. If you're going lower humidity, you might want to consider some of the smaller orchids as well.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Nice job! I'll be following along as well to see this one come together. If you're going lower humidity, you might want to consider some of the smaller orchids as well.

Thanks. Yes sir, low humidity. I looked at them at the garden center the other day but they scare me They seem hard to look after.

 

[Rivercats]

Hey Mumma look at the plants in these threads as any could be used for what your trying to do....

Anyone ever grow emersed plants out of the filter of a Fluval Spec?

Planted HOB thread.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Hey Mumma look at the plants in these threads as any could be used for what your trying to do....

Anyone ever grow emersed plants out of the filter of a Fluval Spec?

Planted HOB thread.

Thanks Rivercats!

 

[Wy Renegade]

Thanks. Yes sir, low humidity. I looked at them at the garden center the other day but they scare me They seem hard to look after.

I think in a set-up of this type they are considerably easier than they seem. They need to be watered about once a week, beyond they are good to go. If you're misting, they will need that more often. If you get ambious and want to fertilize them you can, but they also do fine without. Just make sure the roots are not in the water.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Ran across this site today, don't know if it helps or not, but it certainly got my wheels spinning and the smoke flying.

AGA Aquascaping Contest

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Ran across this site today, don't know if it helps or not, but it certainly got my wheels spinning and the smoke flying.

AGA Aquascaping Contest

Drool.... There goes my morning..... Lol