Fly's 90 gallon paludarium

This is hopefully going to be a picture heavy construction journal of my 90 gallon paludarium. I have had a hi-tech 75 gallon planted tank for the last 5 years and I decided it was time to try something different. I know everyone says not to mess with water features in your first build, but after tons of research, planning, and my planted tank experience, I am confident I can pull it off. With a newborn at home and being a medical resident, this is going to be a slow build with the goal of having this planted and running by Christmas.

Here are some pictures of my 75 gallon planted tank over the years. I am going to use the same stand and canopy of the 90 gallon. I will also use of the canister filters to filter the tank and drive the water feature. I have a custom built high output LED setup I will be using that is controlled by a bluefish mini controller. The manzanita from the tank will also be cleaned and re-purposed for the paludarium

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T5 retrofit will be removed from the current canopy









Sad to see it go, but time to try something different. And onto the new....

Here is the start of the waterfall/partition between the water and land. Carved from foam sheets then sealed with redguard. Next step is to put 3 coats of grout/mortor over it then pain with drylok and acrylic paint. It will be raised 1/2" off the glass and has cutouts in the middle so water can flow from one side of the tank to the other. Water will be about 3" deep.





And here is my 40 gallon breeder growout tank with various plants growing under LEDs







Bump: Grout/mortar 3 coats complete. Next step drylok then get plumbing complete





Coated in drylok



Dry brushing of the rocks/waterfall complete. Not 100% satisfied, but I think they look fairly realistic and good enough.