55 Planted Paludarium Journal - Paludariums

ohcrapitsanewt · 01-08-2008, 06:21 PM

Hola Mi Amigos! (For those of that are spainish inept, that was Hello My Friends)

I am going to start work on my 55 gallon paludarium ASAP.

I recieved this aquarium free with a stand off of craigslist and there was one catch. The glass had calcium baked on so hard we had to resort to a razorblade. And I am not just talking a waterline, I am talking the whole glass so much that it was no longer transparent. Imagine if someone placed an off-white piece of paper behind the glass it was so bad. Also, after transporting it to my home I noticed that they had repaired a small fracture in the bottom pane with electrical tape. It was free, so what is a new pane.

Fortunately I had a piece of leftover glass from *cough* previous projects *cough* (and what's weird is that a piece of glass about the same size of the bottom of a 55 gallon tank mysteriously vanished from my inlaw's house recently... hmm. I wonder where it went? *shiftily looks around*)

So far it is mostly clean and I can start when I finish with the last of the calcium residue.

Unfortunately, no pics tonight as it is too dark to take any decent ones. I will definately have some tomorrow after school. (4:30ish central time) so until then.

Aloha,
John

ohcrapitsanewt · 01-08-2008, 07:44 PM

Also, Forgot to add above.

I am thinking using Expanding foam for the shelf style land portion. On the can it says "Paintable" but I read somewhere that spraypaint would dissolve the foam. Is this true or can it be painted. I was thinking of letting the foam cure and then silicon cleaned playsand to it. Is this a good Idea?

For substrate in the water portion I was thinking cleaned playsand. To clean the playsand I was going to add some to 5 gallon bucket and bubble a garden hose through it until the water runs clear. Is this an aquedate method. And of course, the sand (after being cleaned) owuld be baked to make sure that any hitchhiking critters are eliminated.

On the topic of filtration, I have a Penguin Biowheel that came with the 55. It looks similar to a 160 but I am not sure. I wanted to spray the land portion high enough that the intake tube can reach the water. Otherwise, I can remove the intake tube and use a submersible pump to hoist the water to the filter and just use it as a filter (not plug it in.

Now that I am thinking about it I think that is what I am going to do. That will prevent me from having to carve the foam out for an unsightly intake tube....

Well, Goodnight to you all.

John

ohcrapitsanewt · 01-08-2008, 07:49 PM

Wow. I am forgetful....

I would also like to add... welll. DARN! I forgot what I was going to add!!!

*Mumbles Non-Child Friendly Words Under His Breath*

ohcrapitsanewt · 01-08-2008, 07:50 PM

^^^^^ That post was worthless.

DARN! So was this one.

ohcrapitsanewt · 01-08-2008, 08:00 PM

Gosh. I keep making worthless posts without noticing until I post them.

This one has some actual content though!

I (being retarded) believed my filter to be a biowheel 160 (this was all because of a petco employee). I did about 2 secons of research and found it to be a 350. Now that's what you can call a difference. I was off by 190GPH and 45 gallons of aquarium size rating. Wow, it just goes to show how you should never ask the acne-faced teenager struggling to keep his pants up, working at petco anything that could affect the outcome (to succeed or not to succeed) or your paludarium. Lesson well learned.

By the way, I normally don't shop at petco, I just didn't have time to run to my favorite aquarium store (25 mins away) when petco is right across the street.

Goodnight for the last time (hopefully)
John

ohcrapitsanewt · 01-09-2008, 11:08 PM

Here are some pics of what the aquarium is in it's current state.

Just the aquarium outside still being cleaned...

This view made me realize how big this thing really is.

These next 2 pictures show some damage to the rim. They are not
as bad as they look in the picture.

This is the unidentified filter that came with the aquarium.

These next couple of pictures show hod bad the calcium buildup is in the filter
as I have just started cleaning it.

Now this is the thing that really ticks me off. I spend hours searching, calling, and
matching pictures like a police line-up to figure our wat model this filter is. Then
my cat knocks it over and I see the bottom.

Well, gotta go for now.
John

harrishawk · 01-10-2008, 06:36 PM

talk about calcium! aome retard drop a hundred tums in that sucker

ohcrapitsanewt · 01-11-2008, 05:07 AM

No kidding!

I think what happened was that theyhad it filled with water and let it evaporate. Then when they let it evaporate then because the water in San Antonio is rock hard, every time the water changed levels it left a new calcium line. That was after 10 hours of cleaning!

John

ohcrapitsanewt · 01-11-2008, 05:09 AM

And trust me, you could not see through the glass. I will use my computer to make an image of what it looked like before scrubbing.

But that will wait until after school.

Which happens to start now...

Be,
John

brandonttu · 05-05-2008, 06:32 PM

Any updates?