[xavierj123]

I want to set up an old 55 gallon tank that measures 48 X 21 X 13. I saw a paludarium in a pet store many years ago and fell in love with it. It had a soft cascading water fall with teeny tiny fish in not much water in the bottom. The plants were absolutely beautiful. I don't know if the light and filter requirements would be the same for an aquarium versus a paludarium. I just don't know what lighting and external filtration system to use so I will take your expert advice. I have reviewed the HQI systems and Eheim filters but is that overkill? I would really like to learn from your mistakes---if you don't mind.

 

[El Exorcisto]

Paludaria, I would imagine, would require just as much lighting as a flooded aquarium since you can literally never have too much light. I believe the issue would come from the heat generated by the HQIs causing the humidity to drop in the atmosphere of the paludarium. As for filtration, I think it's the same as any other planted tank. They're not really "required" so much as highly preferred. You definitely need flow to power a waterfall type feature, so you might as well filter the water while it's on the move.

 

[xavierj123]

Thank you for your reply. I hope others will share their opinions.

 

[El Exorcisto]

You could always send a PM to jsenske, since he kind of invented the concept. Or drop a post in ADG's forum, maybe he'll chime in.

 

[irish]

If I was you, I would look at forums dealing in paludariums. Dendroboard.com is a dart frog website, but as they are kept in paludariums/vivariums, you would get a good idea of what is required to setup and maintain something like that. Hope that helps -

Irish

 

[xavierj123]

Now all I have to do is figure out how to send a private message to "jsenske's" and that's not an easy thing for this old gezzer to do. I think I can locate "dendroboard.com" okay. I am still researching a lot. It seems my old 55 gallon is not the most desirable size because of it's lack of depth. It must have some advantages otherwise I don't think the pet stores would sell so many. Thanks for all the advice.