Vivarium advice

[Meghanwarren]

I just purchased a 55 gallon tank and I would like to set up a half fresh water aquarium/half terrarium. Does anyone have any advice or a recommendation for a website or book with good guidelines? I want it to have large plants that grow out of the tank and no lid and about 8 inches or so with water for some fish.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Sorry, can't give you any suggestions on books. However if you browse through the following thread, it may give you some ideas.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f72/wy-renegades-tiger-salamander-paludarium-192117.html

 

[WBAC88]

I just purchased a 55 gallon tank and I would like to set up a half fresh water aquarium/half terrarium. Does anyone have any advice or a recommendation for a website or book with good guidelines? I want it to have large plants that grow out of the tank and no lid and about 8 inches or so with water for some fish.

There are two ways to do this, either a paludarium where you have part of the tank actually blocked off to create a section where you can plant terrestrial plants or a riparium, where the tank is partially filled with water and the plants grow from planters that are attached to the back wall of the tank. Both can look beautiful and lush, it just depends on what you want. If you're planning on having any kind of amphibians then the paludarium is the way to go, but if you want more swimming room for your fish, then a riparium works well. I have something resembling a riparium that you can check out in my sig but of you google both you'll get some ideas. Mumma also has a nice long thread about building a riparium which you could search for. When I get home I'll try to remember to post you done links that I used when I was researching, I'm on my phone now. Good luck, though, I really like the look of these.