A shallow paludarium?

[Glud]

I'm really sorry to reply with this very late answer, but i've been so busy setting up my 75 gal. Tropheus tank and taking care of my small company, and i'm first getting my money situation under control again now, so it looks like i'll soon be starting on this project. I really, really thank you, Zurp, for the long and VERY useful reply. The perfect describtion on what to do with the styrofoam was great, but i have actually been thinking of doing it a different way as follows: I got a relatively large bunch of petrified wood and MANY anubias with a 75 gal. i bougth, so my plan is to include them, and use the anubias both under and over water. Now to the master plan: Stack the petrified wood(PW) in a way so that i creates many caves and holes for the fish, instead of a styrofoam block taking up a lot space. I would let the PW go up to the waterline(6 inches from the bottom), place a carved styrofoam board on top of the rocks and glue it on with silicone. Paint it with some kind of cement mixed with fish-safe colors(before i glue it on place), prefereably ligthbrown. Fill the carved styrofoam with bark, fx. ReptiBark. I'm not sure if plants can thrive in it but i think it looks great, it keeps on the moisture and rainforest reptiles love it. I can eventually plant the plants in pots. Decorate the island with wood and different plant, and plant anubias and javamos on the rock-structure and place C. helferi or sags under the water. Then i would carve out some driftwood long enough to reach from the island to the bottom of the tank and place a pump behind the styrofoam pulling water up from the waterpart and make it run down the wood. Maybe add a spray system if necessary.

OR just let the PW and some driftwood stick up from the water and plant it with plants that doesnt need a substrate, but then i wouldnt be able to keep reptiles..... Hmm....

Help needed :?

/Glud

[Wheat]

All you have to do is stack rock wood or whatever where you want the banks and fill the land area with gravel about an inch or two higher than you want the water line. Then lay screen on top of the gravel and go get some coco fiber bricks at most pet stores and put that on the screen.
Ill try to attach some pics

[Wheat]

That is how i did this one also. It turned out cool except for the tea water but carbon will clean that up in a couple days. good luck

[Glud]

Those tank looks really cool! But i had those in my house i would be a little worried about those rocks laying directly on the glass. I would lay a 10 mm. styrofoam block under them. To my luck i think i got just enough petrified wood to form a land part.

So, i have finally found what style i will use(Wheats)but what animalt can i keep in it? The wil be about 10 gal. of water left, and since i waned to keep puffers for a long time a dwarf puffer is going in. Now for the landpart. I really dont have any knowledge about frogs, but i like the look off D. Tinctorius, plus it's affordable over here. Do you tihnk it would be comfortable?

Thanks

/Glud

[Wheat]

I would not recommend darts and deep water they could drown. I have about 6 or 7 inches of water in the big tank above and I have newts and firebelly toads and a leapord frog. No little fish though the newt will eat them. I put some eggcrate under the big rocks.

[Glud]

I finished the tank tonight, i just need to fill the land part up with gravel/soil.

Well, okay. Firebelly toad and newts shouldnt be too hard to get over here, i think i have seen them in a LFS. What about: 2 firebelly toads, 2 firebelly newts and betta?

/Glud

[Glud]

BTW, how coarse does the gravel have to be? And cant i have sharp edges?

/Glud

[Wheat]

I wouldnt use to big but not to small water will have to drain through it. I usually use medium size natural gravel from fish store or from hardware store. just make sure you build the gravel high enough above where your water line is going to be so the soil will drain and whatever you do dont use potting soil.

[Glud]

Okay, i will just grap some gravel up the next time i go to my LFS or garden center.

Yeah, i actually think i have to drain a bit more water, or else the soil will get flooded. The water is about 6 inches high now.

[Wheat]

Ok make the gravel line minimum of 7.5 or 8 inches.

[Zurp]

I have found that newts don't seem to bother ghost shrimp. As a bonus, they clean the plants and scrap food from the floor. They also look neat... Fast scooting little buggers, like crayfish motions.

You can also reduce frog death from drowning by populating the tank with floating leafy plants... I don't know what I have, but they grow like weeds with big leaves that also sprout plants from each leaf. They interlock themselves, and really help reduce odor. The fire-belly toads that I have sit on this carpet all day, once in a while taking a dive underneath. (Smells like a pond instead of a marsh.)

The newts also love this stuff to hide in. I found that if they are sick or hurt... they stay in these things almost all of the time. (Not sure if they feel more protected, or just have trouble swimming from the bottom when they need air.)

[Zurp]

By the way, I LOVE your tank... That is my dream... Next week!

One more addition to what I said before... The plants can easily double in volume in a month or two. Then, as they shade each other, they grow slower and with shorter leaves. They can also be damaged easily, creasing and spotting, leaving darker colored, translucent sections. They remind me of lettuce, they have a rigid leafy feel and sorta crunch when I remove them for cleaning my pond bottom.

Usually they come out as one intertwined carpet.