[Nefarious]

Shortly after starting up my first aquarium (planted or otherwise) in this 55gal tank I saw pictures of paludariums and knew that I had to have one. Fast forward 2.5yrs and the time has finally come. We had to treat the house for termites and as such, all inhabitants of the planted tank had to be removed during the process. What a perfect time to rescape the tank. I rehomed all the fish and relocated my colony of RCS to a 5gal bucket with a cycled sponge filter and heater. This is going to be a lightning-quick build as I want to minimize the time the RCS spend in a bucket.

I started with a sheet of light diffuser, 48lb of rock, Malaysian drift wood (also carried over), and a can of pond foam.

The return is on the viewer's right and will flow through the hollow section of the upper driftwood (I hope ).

Terrestrial Plants:
I honestly have no idea other than pothos and maybe swiss cheese.

Aquatic Plants:
TBD mosses
Anubias nana (only plant I kept from the previous setup)

Animals:
Red Cherry Shrimp (carried over)
Amano Shrimp (carried over)
White Cloud Minnows

Mechanics:
Ehiem Pro4+ Cannister
In-line heater

 

[greenguppy]

you should check out serpadesign on youtube he has quite few paludariums.

 

[Nefarious]

you should check out serpadesign on youtube he has quite few paludariums.

I’ve watched every single one of his paludarium videos for tips and tricks.


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[greenguppy]

cool I follow him too, but I have'nt had a chance to set one up yet... someday. I will be following.

 

[Nefarious]

Not a very glamorous update but the goal was to get the tank back up ASAP.

This is very much “trial and error” journal as I figure out how to not kill plants above water.

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[greenguppy]

Very nice are you gonna have any living things above the water line?

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[greenguppy]

You could have isopods or spring tails.

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[Nefarious]

You could have isopods or spring tails.

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I'd love some isopods or springtails but not sure I have enough landmass for them. I've also thought about possibly a vampire crab but I'd have to bridge the two islands to get enough landmass for it to be happy. For now, I think I'll focus on getting a healthy set of plants above and below the water before I venture into something living above the water.

 

[cstmg8]

Looking good. I would love to do a large one for mudskippers, had one years ago.

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[greenguppy]

I think the land mass should be more than enough for spring tails. Vampire crabs. That would look nice.

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[Nefarious]

Moved some things around and added a few new plants: 3 Air Plants and a fern. I’ve also started building a bridge between the two islands to allow more space for a semi-aquatic animal.

 

[Nefarious]

The pond foam has cured and been trimmed to fit. I'm pretty happy with the way it looks so far.

Now I just need to decide on a plant to soften the transition from land to water and what substrate to use in the land area. I'm considering HC, java or Christmas moss but am open to suggestions.

 

[greenguppy]

Looking great,

 

[Nefarious]

I’ve added some new plants & fish. Also, I can not seem to get the hard water spots off the glass so excuse the glare & spotty pics.

Submersed
S. Repens, dwarf baby tears

Emersed:
Ludwigia

Terrestrial
Baby fern, anthurium, air plants

Fish:
Celestial Pearl Danio x10
Otocinclus x2 (last two the store had)

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[greenguppy]

Looking good.

Where do you get your hard scape from?

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[Nefarious]

Where do you get your hardscape from?

Sorry for the delayed reply, I missed your comment.

The Malaysian driftwood came with the tank when I picked it up on craigslist a few years ago. The rock came from a local landscape rock company for $0.33/lb. I was able to handpick the large & medium rocks while there so I played with the stacking/layout on site.

 

[greenguppy]

Ok good to know.

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