Advice on my Paludarium Plans

[Milet]

Okay, the following is my plans so far for my planted paludarium. This is not going to be my final attempt at doing this, rather a "Trial and Error" or a draft, so I have something to learn off when constructing one on a larger scale for reptiles and fish together. To get an idea of what they are and what they look like, have a look at http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/how-to-make-a-raised-bank-river-bank-paladarium-vt21218.html

My tank is 1220X460X460 mm and I'm running a Fluval 404 through it. I need help with in this project are; Materials for the shelf to hold substrate, technique for holding the walls together, where to put my input and output for my filter, possibly creating a waterfall with my filter output, and I'm sure I'll have a million more questions since I don't stop asking them.

In the tank at the moment are 2 Figure Eight Puffers, 10 Neons and 1 Pleco. The water is strictly fresh, but once I have completly sorted out my dry land and tank, I'll be removing Neons, Pleco and some of the Aquatic Plants. So then I will be slowly adjusting the tank to brackish water and adding my friends Archers in once the waters right.

Here are some rough ideas of what I want to accomplish.

Note: This is not all that will be in the tank, I'm just showing how I am thinking of doing the Dry land part of it.

OR

Question Time:

1. For the walls, I was thinking of using Clear Perspex. Attached with a lot of strong silicone. And possibly some small strips of perspex where the substrate will be (between tank wall and perspex) siliconed in for extra support. Will this be strong enough?

2. Filter/Waterfall. Would it work if I had the filters output going onto a slope? Kinda like the end of a hydroslide, made with bent perspex.

3. Which of the diagrams do you think would be best? Just the back wall, or the L Shaped garden.

4. In the raised land, I'm planning on having; a few small pieces of driftwood hanging over the ledge and some into the water, for the archer fish to shoot bugs of. Some small plants like grass, moss or some plants from a specific region if i choose to stick to a specific biotope. Would plants work, what would be the pros and cons and what plants would look good?

5. Also, I'm going to have a go at growing some mangroves. I don't know how successful it will be, but I may as well give it a go. I was thinking that if I tried growing them in the dry land, the roots might push out the perspex? Or I could try growing them fully submerged.

Well thats all the questions for now LOL! Oh and, Do you think this could work at all or am I just wasting my time? Any Suggestions would be great!

Thank you for taking the time to read ALL of this

[davidb]

1. yes it will be stronf enough

2. yes i think so- rather than persplex you could use rocks to make it more natural, if you siliconed lots of slate rocks togeter to make lotsa small waterfalls that would look pretty cool imo.

3. i like the l shaped, if you are putting it in the corner of a room. if I was having it against a wall i would personally have 3 sides planted. (a c shape)

4. for growing mangroves i would reccomend growing them in plant pots with lots of holes in (those plastic ones are perfect.) you would probably be best running a 150watt metal halide with a 6500k bulb in for mangrove growth and of course you would need to wait until you have converted the tank to brakish.

[Milet]

Thanks David.

Yeah was thinking about the slate idea would look real nice. I was just worried about the splashes and sprays, as with perspex tunnel i could point it where i want the flow, but im sure ill work something out for slate . So the out put from my filter would actually work good?

And Yeah the tanks in the corner of my bedroom, so the L shape would suit the corner its in.

Thanks again davidb.

Anyone else got there 2 cents worth?

[markoshark]

I have a feeling that you may require two heaters, as a fair bit of temp will be lost with the water coming down the waterfall.

Because the filter output pushes out a lot of water, what i'd try to do is have the filter outlet pointing into a perspex "box" vertically, and then having the water cascade from there, if you just point it down the waterfall, i suspect that you won't have much water there at all, it will all just go flying into the tank.

For the banks, nylon coated chickenwire, and tie rocks on with nylon, and plant it. Nylon should vanish quickly if you use fine stuff.

[Milet]

Ohok, two heaters might take up a bit of room, I have a 300Watt that I thought might do?

Thats a good idea for the waterfall, I wonder what would look more realistic? Maybe if i had it squirting the water into a bunch of rocks, then down onto my slate fall? Or Some stone-covered PVC filled with rocks?

I am going to do that chickenwire idea with climbing plants, but attached to the perspex walls, to hide whats behind it.

Thanks Markoshark

[Milet]

For the dry land with plants, how would I go about watering the plants and draining the excess water etc

[markoshark]

as to realisim, i have no clues Perhaps.. run the filter in normally, and have a powerhead filter running water down the waterfall? i'm just thinking of my 404, and know how much water i need through that to keep my tank clean (and its quite a bit smaller than yours)...

Something i have seen in model railways is PVC pipe melted, and then slate and rocks glued to that in a series of waterfalls, and painted. But then, it falls back to fish-safe-paint, especially with effectively warm salt running over it.

[Milet]

Hmm could pay for me to research the waterfall part a bit more.

Is anyone here good with plants? Not aquatic plants though. I Just want to know what to do about the watering of the plants and drainage etc.

[paekakboyz]

if you had that area where the pot plants are going to sit fully sealed from the rest of the tank could you leave yourself a space to siphon off excess water from overwatering them?

that would let you use pots with holes for drainage and you wouldn't have problems with it mixing with the 'filtered' water and messing up your ph etc...

I've been really keen to try out one of these but they require a heap of planning!!

with the heater would another solution be to have it turned up a little higher but placed right by the filter intake - it'd shed heat coming down the waterfall but the extra juice should maintain good conditions for the filter bacteria etc...

[markoshark]

Idea!

Run the plants through a PVC piping, on an angle draining into a sump, leave a small hole that allows for a pipe to be put in to drain the excess water.

For the bottom, use scoria.

Or whatever kind of porus rock that you have down in chch

[davidb]

the ultimate idea would be to have the Water in the waterfall and pond completley seperate from the water for irrigation. At one stage I had a 300L terrarium set up for whistling tree frogs and I first tried to have a pond by having no plants or soil in that area of the tank (In other words i had a 10cm layer of gravel in all areas of the tank except the pond area and the soil plants etc sat ontop of the gravel. This didn't work though as all the muck gets into the pond really quick and I ended up with a fake pond in the tank.

[davidb]

check out

click the image.

Look at Mark Jemisons Frog and Wildlife Pictures

[Milet]

I gave up on this paludarium plan, it seemed too hard to do.

But, now that my 4foot tank has burst and im selling off nearly all my fish, i might try patch up the 4foot with heaps of glass and stuff and start up the paludarium again.