New Paludarium Project

[jamestothemax]

hey all

ok well after my tragic loss of newts i decided that i can't go on without some form of tank in my room and since its been a while since i had a big tank i thought i would take the leap and set up something I have wanted to do for a while.

I have hopefully arranged a tank and stand off a friend that was originally destined to be a marine tank but turned out stuff happened and it would have been to heavy to be handled by the floor boards. luckily my room has a good old concrete floor and has had tanks up to 1500x900x600mm high before so all good for the size and im sure with a bit of re arranging and tidying i can make it fit in not a problem.

Hopefully ill get my A into G and get some pics sorted and get a bit of a progress thread going as the set up goes along and also hopefully this initial thread will get me a bit motivated (but that may be a bit of wishful thinkign when studying architecture full time and having two part time jobs hahahaha) but i digress.......

so anyway the tank is 1500x500x500mm, not as tall as i would have liked due to the plans i have but its a good deal and knowing my history of revamping tanks, its use could change many times by the end of my ownership. I had originally wanted a planted tak but now after my newt experience i am going to try and combine the two. The tank also has a overflow with a hole drilled in the bottom of the tank for running to a sump. I can't figure a way to run a sump with my plans so figure ill just use the hole and overflow to run the power cables from the heater and plumbing from the external canister filter and such out.

I also have a large amount of polystyrene that i was given for architecture model makign but i don't really use it so want to put it to god use. The plan is a large carved landscape covering the back wall which should also hide the overflow and will be carved out to have the plumbing and heaters and things hidden behind it. I also want to cut out a series of waterfalls running from the external cannister outlet with a series of little pools running along the back wall the length of the tank then turning and going in a lil stream back to the main water area. If the external cannister outlet doesnt work i may just use a small pond pump to run the water fall and have the external cannister just as filtration.

so im going to carve out teh poly to make the landscape and some cavities for planting a range of plants above water. This is where teh first issue comes up. I have read a few articles about putting drainage in the bottom of planted areas of set ups like this to avoid water build up in the bottom and flood the roots causing them to rot. I was thinking of just running a small hole from the bottom of teh planter cavity down into the water but was wondering if this may cause odd water parameters with the water flowing through the soil first. also not to sure if i want to just cut holes out and fill them with soil or make them the shape of small pots that can be removed for re potting plants and stuff.

I plan on joining a few peices of poly to make the full landscape with liquid nails or somethign similar then coating this all in black pait. now right now your all probably screaming "TOXIC TOXIC!!!" but i want to then do a few layers of resin to seal it and then on the last layer of resin cover the above water area with soil so that hopefully in the damp conditions this will get covered in moss if i start it off with a few peices. Hopefully this should make a pretty solid unit of landscape so the next issue i have is how to mount it in the tank. As i mentioned earlier i may want to use the tank later for a planted tank or marine or who knows so would prefer to keep the walls clean as possible and avoid siliconing the landscape to them but i was thinking maybe siliconing it to the base since this can be covered with gravel and sand and stuff when i do take it out.

I will probably have a section of teh landscape at teh top removable so i can get dow behind it and access any hardware i hide behind it and for cleaning and stuff.

now for the hardware. Sorry its dragging on a bit but i figure i should get it all down before i start forgetting things. SO i have a fluval 404 filter lined up and was thinking along the lines of a jager 200W heater.

For lighting because i want the plant growth i am hopign for three 150W Metal Halides at 7-10,000k but if budget doesnt allow it i will try for HO T5's. It will be an open top tank at teh mo and im goign to make a frame around the top to tidy it up and incorperate the lighting into that. I will also make a mesh to that i can put on if i decide i want frogs or something that may escape hahahaha. I also have some CO2 fermentation kits which i will use at the start and if i save up later on will look at pressurized CO2. I know the waterfall won't really help this but i just really want a waterfall.

Ok nearly there. The underwater section will attempt to be low maintenance (he says optimistically) I have a Dupla undergravel heater that i will use under the main area of planting and am goign to put aqautic potting mix down then daltons propagating sand on top of that. I use that in my planted tank at the moment and works well i think. I was also considering using peat under these? thoughts? I am mainly planing on sword plants and crypts as i already have a few of these that need a bigger home. Ill also have a carpeting plant of some sort and anubius and java fern on driftwood coming out of the water so hopefully these will spread above the water a bit to. I will see how it goes but may have a play with havign a tiger lotus to just for the animals to go on.

Havent looked into the above water plants much yet. I have a few in mind and mum being a bit of a plant fanatic, i will just take her to lunch at kings plant barn and she will thinking im being a good son but secretly its for my own good hahaha.

I have a few fish for it at the moment in my current tank but i won't be stockign it to heavily. Hopefully the filtration shoudl be enough and the waterfall shoudl cause plenty of oxygenation to keep everythig living happily. Hopefully will get a nice group of kuhli loaches and some schools of small fish and lots of algae eaters of different types.

Well thats all i can think of at the moment and any suggestion and questions would be greatly welcome, especially in the above water plant region.

I am aiming to have something come out like the paludariums at www.aquariumdesigngroup.com

After inspiration from a marine setup progress thread i have made a start on a sketchup model of the tank and also have some drawings i did while i was meant to be focusing on lectures on contract documentation hahaha so will try get those up soon.

Thanks for taking the time to read this epic novel and i look forward to your comments.

james

[nick777]

great work!!

[paekakboyz]

make sure you post your designs to keep us going till the pics start arriving!!

I've always wanted to set up one of these and agree 100% that you need a waterfall!!

that website has some awesome examples!!

[broms2]

sounds awesome :bounce: definately post pics, might make me actually start one i've been thinkin about for a while

[jamestothemax]

cheers guys. I got some light units today so gunna get some bulbs for those and make up a box and get that ready so things are slowly progressing. I got 5 x 150W metal halide units. they have halogen bulbs at the mo but i have a couple of mates who are electricians so will try get them to get some bulbs and help me wire it up.

Havent had a chance to scan in any sketches and since i use sketchup all day at work its the last thing i wanna do when i get home but will try make some headway over the weekend since its my birthday so decided to take it off.

totally agree paekakboyz will definately have to have a waterfall

[jamestothemax]

Ok so digging up an old post.

The project had to be put on the back burner once I got a job over the uni holidays in Australia. This meant all money was dissolved into getting here (australia) and sadly meant no nice big tank and no paludarium.

Luckily for me, while over here in oz, I had a nice 1200 x 300 x 300 tank given to me back in NZ. This has got me thinking and planning again and after going to my fair share of aquarium shops over here and seeing lots of reptiles and amphibians and such i am keen to get back on to this project when i return.

I have sketch up at work over here to so as above i will try and create a new model with my intentions for the setup. The tank is obviously significantly smaller than the original plan and not very much height at all so what im thinkign is having as much of the tank as possible full with water and building it into a stand unit that is enclosed. This way i can include the lights and hopefully mister into the hood and have the back and sides in timber with ventilation holes meshed over and a glass panel across the front, perhaps as a door.

Im thinking of terracing up behind the tank which will increase the area of the land space and allow a slope to create the streams etc. I was thinkign i could then put things llike the external cannister filter under the terrace and put in an access panel on the side to get into this. Other option was to put a sump in there but havent really sorted out that idea yet, still want to minimise CO2 lost aswell.

Lighting will probably end up beign a series of the power svaing bulbs as i haev them on my planted nano's at the moment and they are doing really well so that will make that easy.

So the main thing now is what to put in it. I still like my newts but after seeing all the stuff over here i wouldnt mind something a little bigger and faster. Water dragons and beardies are out due to the environment I'd be creating and their size.

Anyone got any other ideas?

Where do you get the requirement for keeping the new zealand natives? as i thought this may be another possibility.

Otherwise frogs maybe, but Im a bit bored of the same old looking frogs so may have to be something different.

Anyway that was yet another epic post so better stop it there.

thanks

[Navarre]

Hi there,

You could still use the sump Idea.

could use it for your heaters and filtration then pump back up to top of plants/landscping and flow could be your waterfall.

You could divert some of this to your plants and back to tank for current.

That way plants help filtration and you have a larger body of water so that has to be better.

U could also look and various swords an deven good old fashioned Peace lily as Paladial plants.

Maybe Iris and heaps of native plants are also paladial as well.

Just a thought

Navarre

[jamestothemax]

thanks for that I definately need to look into the land based plants a little more. Ill look into water plants once i know how much space i wil have for them and what will work best for what i am keeping.

I was a bit catious about have to much tank water running over the land plants as i didnt want excess nutrients to get into the water. had thought about lining the terrace with pond liner and perhaps having this collect water from the plant areas i carve out of the poly ( by placing small holes in the poly) and then collecting this in a gully at the bottom of teh terace so it doesnt make it into the tank. This would also avoid excess water building up in the plant areas causing flooding of the roots.

Since posting i have been doing a bit of reading on the NZ herpetological society website so may look at trying to develop something to meet the requirements to keep native geckos, quite keen on the auckland green (elegans elegans) but dont know how easy they are to get hold of. I realise itll probably take me a while but i figure i'll be happy with just the paludarium even if i cant keep anything in it for a bit.

So this might lead me to looking at a cold water setup with native plants. I would liek to keep it a tropical water area though so this will take a bit mor research. Will have to look at getting some adequate ventalation on it, perhaps incorporate some fans to draw air out, and adding some full spectrum lights.