mikaila31

I picked up a 5gal bow tank at a garage sale for $2, it came with a crappy HOB that doesn't work. I plan to make my first paludarium. I've gone through and read a few build threads on small tanks, most seemed to use a foam molded base for the land area. I don't like the idea of that, So this is my attempt a making a base out of rocks I found (its shale/flint or something similar). I will be using silicon to attempt to make a water tight barrier. There is also a tentative plan to make a waterfall. I have a elite mini internal filter, the plan is to have this little filter pump water up a section of airline tubing to make the waterfall.

Here is what I'm starting with.

mikaila31

Here is my rock wall so far. Also a drawing of my plans, the big box is the top view the little box is the side view.

northtexasfossilguy

Be sure that you seal off the land portion or you will end up with mud, dead plants, and unhappy times. I've had it happen... ( You could also do immersed crypts if you wanted or anubias, in more of a riparium style than a paludarium, so you might consider that avenue also. I think it might be a bit easier to manage and grow things in such a small space if you tried a riparium method, but anyway I'm interested to see how this little guy turns out!

mikaila31

I'm sealing it off the best I can. I've already gone through one little tube of silicon and am about half way through another. The wall is almost finished, once it is I will water test it and reseal any leaks until I feel it is water tight. It will probably contain a lot of the same plants from my 2.5gal terrarium, some emersed petite anubis a some other emersed aquatic plant. As well as some local species like purple violets.




I also spent an hour modifying the hood. I noticed it has a double sided socket, but the socket was too far to one side of the hood to fit another bulb in it. I simply moved the socket to the center so now it has room for a bulb on both sides. It runs 2 13watt CF bulbs, it is only rated for 25watts. So I did go a watt over the rating, but I think it will be fine.

crimsonbull57

looking good, got an update for us anytime soon?

mikaila31

Yeah update: Its basically done. These pics are a week old, I've planted the water area. Still trying to get things established. Dealing with a lot of evaporation, also lots of dirt is still getting washed into the water area. It makes the surface scum up. Got a half dozen ramshorn snails to clean it. The stream is more of a trickle than anything. Total cost= $12 I already had the bulbs and filter, if you count them probably close to $30. I still need to buy some better bulbs, the ones I have are 2,700k.

All include some pics of my trickle stream build. Took a couple days to get right as all my dirt kept turning to mud.





Finished product

user367

very good idea!
And what about kind of rocks?
I mad silicon between rock and bambook cteam(((Only 2 month it was good

mikaila31

The slate wall, did not end up being water tight. I used a lot of silicon and got close to being water tight, but I figured it would eventually fail so I gave up on it being water tight. The majority of the substrate is sand, then just capped with dirt.

All the land plants are currently Wisconsin native's. I may add a few emersed anubais in there, but for the most part I like a lot of our native plants. I like the look of the mosses, and any plant that is not a moss flowers. There is a purple violet, and too plants IDK the name's of. Purple, yellow, and blue flowers in all. Majority of them are still growing in, the flowers don't mean much to me right now. But come December spring flowers are really really appreciated. I love winter as much as the next sane person up here, but those below zero mornings are still tough.

tranr

Are you planning to keep any critters in it? My boyfriend and I have a 55 gal paludarium with a similar setup (half land/half water with stream and rocks), and we originally kept tadpoles in there. As they grew, they migrated from the planted water half to the planted land area. We are now feeding them wingless fruitflies and are hoping for some spawning!

LuisVillalobos

Wow that looks nice, what do you plan to keep in there.
Full paladarium pictues perhaps?