Duff's 8g tank revamp - Paludarium (ish)

[schoolzoo]

It is really coming along. I love how you attached the stump and the land part.

[duff]

I was able to get one step closer to the final product! Now it's time to sit back and see what survives! I just added water to the tank so it is still cloudy but made a little filter with a small pump, black foam and a zip tie. So far so good with water movement - maybe a bit too much...

I'm actually pretty please with how it turned out, silly stump and all. So for the plants here is the list -
Button fern (I think),
Oak Leaf Ficus,
Peacock moss,
a little plant that sprouted up from nowhere (on the tree stump, in the little pocket)
Begonia prismatocarpa
Christmas Moss (Laid out towards the back on the land area and on the walls where the water meets)
a few sprigs of Dwarf Hair Grass (I need more, anyone have some to sell??! )
Crypt Parva (next to the stump)

The flooded part works pretty good and once the plants take hold I will lower the water level by about 3/4 of an inch.

Right now I will be adding ferts to the water column and then using a pipette to water the back plants. Misting with distilled water and put a piece of cling wrap on the top to hold in humidity.

Substrate! (Hydro's Ion Brick of course!)


Water! (mix of fresh and old tank water)


Plants!!!!

[FIT BMX]

That is really nice!
One of these days I need to get back to work on mine.

[schoolzoo]

Looks great what kind of fish are you going to add?

[duff]

Thanks Guys! No fish for now (everyone is over in my Riparium happy as can be).

I really wanted to try my hand at building this and testing out the design, water flow, planting area, etc. Since this was my first try and it's such a small tank. Now that it is up and running I see many changes/opportunities for improvement.

I hooked up an old zoo med 501 I had laying around and the flow is perfect so I am thinking of starting over; lowering the land area, reducing the area behind the tree to a small hole and adding another one to the other side for the intake/outflow to create a larger planting area.

I'm not happy with the tree over all and think it would be better to make it all out of foam with no PVC as it really got in the way of carving it and limited me quite a bit. I've got a piece of wood that I can use as a break between the land and the water which I think will be better in the long run. Plus the land area does not need to be as deep as I made it with the plants I am using so I would save on additional space by making it thinner. I'm thinking of picking up a cheap 10g tank to play with next and letting this one settle for a while to see how the plants do over time. Anyway, it's a great learning experience and now I see what I need to change in the future.