HX67

Hi y'all and welcome to check out my paludarium project.

Specs:
Aquarium is 240 cm (8 ft) x 40 cm (16 in) footprint and 30 cm (1 ft) tall. That adds up to 300 liters or 75 gallons. The background takes some of that.
On top of it is a box about 35 cm (14 in) high that will hold some dry planting.

Hardscaping is self-made, including the fake stone and tree trunks.




For filtering I'm using a 20 g sump




The "stream"-factor is made with a one-way flow accomplished by one Tunze Stream 6060 pump rigged to the end of the tank, pushing water through a channel in the background. It is pre-filtered with a foam matt:



(The above two pics taken when the tank was just an aquarium, not a paludarium)


A shot of the background in the aqua-part



Background above the waterline being made:



Tree trunks being made:






The front of the tank (above surface) is open and shall remain so. I dislike all kinds of frames and stuff blocking the view.

So this is where I'm at, going to start planting the tank. I joined APC to get some help with deciding how to go with it. I have a lot of confidence on you guys to be smarter than me on the trick.

My goal is to get the tank planted sparingly, or to leave at least some of the hardscaping to be seen. The lighting is going to be 6 x 54W T5 tubes and perhaps some 20W halogens to give a bit of shimmer with the surface agitation.

There's going to be a Nepenthes or two, Tillanzias and mosses. And some vines and whatever I come up with.
I'm undecisive on what's going to go in the water, vegetationwise.

The flow is strongish and the fishes are going to be hillstreams, other loaches and maybe some Loricariids.

So hi, everyone. Looking forward to using your imagination and expertice on this.
And thanks for a fine forum!

/Hx

Seattle_Aquarist

Hi HX67,

Nice job! Welcome to APC.

Zapins

Holy - crap. I am really impressed.

You have serious skill with creating realistic rocks/wood. Is your day job a special effects guy for Hollywood?!

Can you explain more about what materials you used to make the background and how you got them to look soooo damn realistic?

Welcome to APC

Tex Gal

This is so cool!! Even the commercial ones don't come close to what you have done! Incredible!

HX67

Thanks for your kind words and welcomes.


Heh, I have made a more Harrypotterian versions of treetrunks and rootings:

But Hollywood? No.
Not yet, anyways.


Materials used for the fake rock are very basic. Sheets of polystyrene glued together to form masses, carved with knives and heat and then coated with cementy stuffs.


And the tree is made by carving polyurethane, bending pvc-pipe and using vinyl string and stainless steel wire for the structure. Coating is the same, cementy stuffs such as grout and others.



And so on.

Thanks again for your words.

HX67

Started planting a bit:

bratyboy2

holy crap this is amazing!!!!! you should make tese trees for people on here and have them pay you for it!!!! i want o be first in line i need a few nice specific pieces lol

the tank looks really cool cant wait to c i done!!! subscribed

Natalia

The tank is fantastic. I have seen something like that done on the loach forum, but you took it to the next level.

HX67

Thanks a bunch.
I'm not so sure there's too much commercial potential in handcrafting these, they tend to be quite time-consuming. Equals expence.
Of course, if there was a market, I'd be happy if I never had to call anything else a job.




Thanks. I have a thread at loaches. The tank's evolving now...

deedle

I must agree with everyone else it's amazing!!
I have seen a lot of hand crafted hard scapes,but none
have come close to what you have created.Yes you could
manufacture and sell your pieces.Most likely you would get too many requests