Wy Renegade's 30gal Paludarium

[LyndaB]

They are really a couple of cuties, can't wait to see the final product!

 

[meegosh]

Very nice progress! Just read through the whole thread. As far as cutting the tubing for the canister, I would wait until you have it in the final resting place before you decide what lengths to cut. Nothing worse than having to buy more tubing because you cut an extra inch off.

Good work and keep us updated! Any plans for the bathtub? Going to take it out back and smash it like Office Space? Lol.

 

[Wy Renegade]

They are really a couple of cuties, can't wait to see the final product!

Me too - excited to make some more progress now that I got the barrier water tight.

Very nice progress! Just read through the whole thread. As far as cutting the tubing for the canister, I would wait until you have it in the final resting place before you decide what lengths to cut. Nothing worse than having to buy more tubing because you cut an extra inch off.

Good work and keep us updated! Any plans for the bathtub? Going to take it out back and smash it like Office Space? Lol.

Thanks Mike, that is what I had decided on the tubing, although I did have to cut to insert the shut-offs. You could tell it wasn't going to stay were it is setting eh ? as for the bathtub, I tried to get some different students to take it, but no takers, so it is most likely headed to the local landfill. Just have to round up some help to pack it down the stairs.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Finally Progress

Well its been so long, I bet you all thought I had given up on this one LOL. Actually the last two months have been spent filling, finding leaks, draining and trying to get them stopped . Yep, after my big announcement about having all the holes plugged, it ran for less than 6 hours before springing another leak . Finally go the last one sealed off last week and ran the tank for a full 24 hours with no leaks. So Saturday I was able to spend some serious time putting things together finally. Pictures to come in a bit.

Here it is after its final time being drained. My wet/dry shop vac proved to be a huge asset on this project.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Filtration

Here's the final placement of the filtration system. All attachments to the bulkheads are plastic, and the final hose attachments are locked in place with plastic locks.

I seeded the ZooMed 501 with a sponge and material from the aquaclear filter on my bog tank. Even with the added filter materials, the filter still pushes a pretty good current.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Hardscaping

I created two pockets in the initial rockwork to provide pockets for aragonite sand.

The right hand pocket near the barrier wall;

And the left hand pocket in the left rear corner;

I used Ion brick substrate, and then covered it with polished river rock to create a stream bottom look to the hardscape;

 

[Wy Renegade]

The Riparium Portion

On/in the Ion brick, I added two large pieces of lava rock that contain Rabbits Foot ferns, a piece of driftwood and several larger pieces of larger black river rock. I planted a Ruella plant that I aquired from Hydrophyte over on TPTF, and sloped the substrate from back to front, to create a deeper pool effect in the front.

I then covered the remaining ion brick with polished river rock to create a stream bottom look.

Here's a shot just after it started to clear-up.

I decided the polished river rock was too uniform in color and size, so I had to make a quick trip to the local hardware store to pick up some additional polished rock of different sized and markings. Removed all the original polished river rock and then added the new and finished with a scattering of the original. Here's a picture of the new look when the water started clearing up.

A shot from the long view and a couple close-ups of the ferns and driftwood.

Eventually I hope to add a miniture orchid to the hole in the top of the driftwood.

 

[Wy Renegade]

The Palandarium Portion

For the Palandarium portion, I laid down a base of large gravel which I covered with a piece of fiber matt to prevent the soil from dropping down into it.

I used Earth-Gro Top Soil from Home Depot mixed with reconstituted coco fiber as the soil. I planted my bonsi tree, added the driftwood cave and placed the Lady Slipper orchid in a clay pot sunk into the soil.

I need to add some leaf litter to cover the soil and in about a week, after the water pH stabilizes from the Ion brick substrate, I hope to add the salamanders and assorted invertebrates.

 

[Wy Renegade]

The Plants

A few detailed shots of the various plants;

Rabbit Foot fern rhisoms;

Lady Slipper Orchid;

And the Flowers;

 

[Wy Renegade]

The Required FTS

It still has a ways to go obviously, but here is the required FTS;

 

[meegosh]

Wow! That is some great work. I really like how it turned out and can't wait to see the inhabitants in there. Plants look great!

 

[Wy Renegade]

Thanks Steve, now that I've finally been able to move onto the actual build part again its exciting. There for awhile it had gotten a bit frustrating.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Well, after two days of running, the pH is sitting at just above 6.5. I expected it to be low for a week or so, so no surprise there. While it is within the range of acceptable, its lower than I like, so I'll be waiting a bit before adding anything else living to the tank;

I didn't like the visibility of the return, so I found a nice rock to cover it up with as well;

 

[Mumma.of.two]

It's looking really good!

 

[Wy Renegade]

Thanks Elise, its come together nicely so far.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Couple more shots of the terrestrial area and a updated FTS from yesterday.

The driftwood cave;

Cave with bonsi tree and orchid in background;

Little more focus on the orchid;

And the FTS;

I added my piece of cottonwood bark today, but haven't had a chance to get a picture of it yet.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Terrestrial Zone Update

Had a chance to work on this a bit over the past week or so. I added the cottonwood bark in for the background. Right now the pieces are just sitting there, but I have a feeling I'll have to silicon them in once I go to hang the orchids on them. Here's some shots from yesterday.

I ordered some orchids today, so hopefully I'll have a nice collection by the weekend. I also added some cottonwood leaves as leaf litter and I'm soaking some to add to the riparian zone once they get waterlogged.

I tried to get a shot of the interior of the driftwood cave where I added some moss at the entrance and to show the leaf litter, but it didn't come out (wrong angle on the glass), so this is the best I could do.

And a full shot of the terrestrial zone at this point.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Aquatic Zone Update

pH tested out at 7 over the last couple of days, so I've got an order of invertebrates coming in tomorrow to add to the tank. Off the top of my head, some daphnia, hydras, planaria, red worms (for the terrestrial side), scuds and some others I don't remember. So I figured I better get some stuff placed on the aquatic side. I picked up three packages of the disease free aquariums plants at my not so local LFS a couple weeks ago, some Bacopa (Bacopa caroliniana), Microswords (Lilaeopsis brasiliensis), and some Dwarf Hairgrass (Eleocharis parvula). Unfortunately, they aren't looking real great, but I got em in and we'll see how they do. The Hairgrass is in the background and the Microswords are in the foreground.

And this kind of shows the big picture at this point.

Any suggestions on additional plants that would do well in this setting are more than welcome.

 

[Wy Renegade]

The Driftwood Cave

Got some new shots of the driftwood cave today, gives you a better idea of how it is set-up.
From the front;

And top down so you can see the moss bed;

 

[Wy Renegade]

Aquatic Plants

Aquatic plants are looking a little better today, hopefully they will pull through.
The microswords (Lilaeopsis brasiliensis);

Microswords and the Dwarf Hairgrass (Lilaeopsis brasiliensis and Eleocaris parvula);

The Bacopa (Bacopa caroliniana);

And the Rabbit Foot fern (Davallia solida) showing some new growth;

Still open to suggestions for some others . . .