help needed planning a paludarium

Hi All

I'm seriously considering a new project with a tank i have to get repaired, so i'm thinking i can get a dry section built in while its being repaired, its a 48"x15"x18" tank and my thoughts are to modify it to become a paludarium... now i know this will be some undertaking and i havent really a clue but i am looking up some sites and planning to TRY to do this, so i'm thinking of maybe some splash tetras and for the land section some poison arrow frogs (Ian may need your help sourcing these)so my question is has anyone tried this, what plants could i use in it and looking for lots of input here... maybe if this goes to plan i can move this tank into the house rather than the fish house (missus rules that roost) so a lot of help and suggestions needed guys

it is not as difficult as you would think, in fact you will probably find it much easier to grow some of the more common aquarium plants this way, here are a couple of photos of mine, if you decide to go ahead with it let me know and i will take some cuttings and bring down a bag of as much wood as you need when i am heading to limerick

Now that's class !!! Congrats mate, that is so impressive. Please do a breakdown on how you achieved such a splendid set-up.

Kev.

have a look at this mate



Sean

Joe all i can say is BLOODY HELL THATS BEAUTIFUL and yes i meant that to be in caps, will definately take you up on an offer of cutting, now to get to my tank repaired the way i want it so i can do this joe that tank is an inspiration, and blueram great vid, but unfortunately my tank wont be big enough to support stingrays, but i can dream..... how much is the lotto this weekend

it was a good article last month on PFK and they were showing the good mix for fish/frog....
for another tips, perhaps check onthe AGA competition one of prize paludarium did have a full explanation of how he did his, and it was beautiful, i ll try to get the link for you
showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2011/show332.html

go on his blog, everything explain

hope that help
vince

That looks amazing Joe have you any vids of it, I'd love to do something like that.


Mark

vincemallow wrote:

it was a good article last month on PFK and they were showing the good mix for fish/frog....
for another tips, perhaps check onthe AGA competition one of prize paludarium did have a full explanation of how he did his, and it was beautiful, i ll try to get the link for you
showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2011/show332.html

go on his blog, everything explain

hope that help
vince

Nice one vince will look that up in pfk, great link as well and a good read, cheers, now really looking forward to attempting this, top of to do list is repair the tank i want to do it in, and start planning

i don't want to distract from the original thread so i will just give a brief run down on the tank and i will take a video later tonight and try upload it then
the tank is 72" long, 27-28" high and 18" from front to back
there is approx 80 gallons of water in the tank
light about 50-55 watts of light made up of some spots and some under kitchen counter lights from lidl, they were complete units and cost about 10 -12 euro each
the lights are on for 7 hours a day on a timer
some times i take off a light and stick it on one of the other tanks, or do a bit of a swap with the lights on different tanks, depending on what i am messing about with
but the wattage has never been over 60watts
temp is 24-25 degrees
ph is 4.5
kh under 2
nitrate registers about 10ppm, a bit low for plant growth
water changes 25 liters daily and an occasional 50 liter change
substrate is a bag and a half of silica sand (33kgs)
the tank was dosed daily last summer with 8mm of liquid plant food from Lidl, cost about €2.99 but i ran out and it has not been in stock since then, though it should reappear again soon, i intend to buy a couple of bottles this year and start to refeed the plants!! it is a complete feed, NPK and trace elements, all in one... (though is not sold to feed aquatic plants)
i also dosed the tank with 5mm of easi carbo for a couple of months last summer as there was a little bit of BBA on some of the plants, but i sort of got lazy and left it there and never dosed again after that
there is a wave maker hidden behind one of the pieces of wood to keep the water well circulated as this prevents any dead spots and resolved my problem of some of the crypts doing an occasional melt down
fish are
cardinal tetras
morpho tetras
zebra ottos
common ottos
bristlenose
couple of small L no's
Brochis splendens
checker boards cichlids
Apisto baenchi pair and a few juvies
and a few other small tetra species
all in about 90-100 fish
over the course of the tanks life i have removed most if not all of the fast growing plants from under the water, Crinum, swords, pennyworth etc as they were growing like weeds and it was a pain in the butt to keep hacking them back, so now most are slower growing species and easier to maintain
the decor in the tank is some boulders from my garden and some dead wood, mostly ivy branches the Anubais, mosses ricca and Cyptanthus are attached to these, some were just wedged in place, some were attached with cable ties until they rooted on themselves, the mosses were just draped over the branches and let do their thing
hope that helps

Thank you so much Joe for going into such detail, much appreciated.

Kev.

Wow every question answered cheers Joe, 25 liter water change a day Jees id say that becomes a pain after a while
I'm doing a water change every second day at the moment because of the ADA substrate and its killing me.. Old fashioned way "buckets "

That reminds me i need one of those water pumps!!

Mark

here is a video i took last night, i forgot i added a radicans sword last week to thetank too, hopefully it will rise up and out of the water in a couple of months

click in the pic, tks

looking great Joe, when you next planning on being in Limerick, will try to have my effort ready to start after you come up

joemc wrote:

i don't want to distract from the original thread so i will just give a brief run down on the tank and i will take a video later tonight and try upload it then
the tank is 72" long, 27-28" high and 18" from front to back
there is approx 80 gallons of water in the tank
light about 50-55 watts of light made up of some spots and some under kitchen counter lights from lidl, they were complete units and cost about 10 -12 euro each
the lights are on for 7 hours a day on a timer
some times i take off a light and stick it on one of the other tanks, or do a bit of a swap with the lights on different tanks, depending on what i am messing about with
but the wattage has never been over 60watts
temp is 24-25 degrees
ph is 4.5
kh under 2
nitrate registers about 10ppm, a bit low for plant growth
water changes 25 liters daily and an occasional 50 liter change
substrate is a bag and a half of silica sand (33kgs)
the tank was dosed daily last summer with 8mm of liquid plant food from Lidl, cost about €2.99 but i ran out and it has not been in stock since then, though it should reappear again soon, i intend to buy a couple of bottles this year and start to refeed the plants!! it is a complete feed, NPK and trace elements, all in one... (though is not sold to feed aquatic plants)
i also dosed the tank with 5mm of easi carbo for a couple of months last summer as there was a little bit of BBA on some of the plants, but i sort of got lazy and left it there and never dosed again after that
there is a wave maker hidden behind one of the pieces of wood to keep the water well circulated as this prevents any dead spots and resolved my problem of some of the crypts doing an occasional melt down
fish are
cardinal tetras
morpho tetras
zebra ottos
common ottos
bristlenose
couple of small L no's
Brochis splendens
checker boards cichlids
Apisto baenchi pair and a few juvies
and a few other small tetra species
all in about 90-100 fish
over the course of the tanks life i have removed most if not all of the fast growing plants from under the water, Crinum, swords, pennyworth etc as they were growing like weeds and it was a pain in the butt to keep hacking them back, so now most are slower growing species and easier to maintain
the decor in the tank is some boulders from my garden and some dead wood, mostly ivy branches the Anubais, mosses ricca and Cyptanthus are attached to these, some were just wedged in place, some were attached with cable ties until they rooted on themselves, the mosses were just draped over the branches and let do their thing
hope that helps

this more than helps Joe this isnt a distraction to the thread, its what i'm hoping for LOTS OF INPUT, now if only ian could pop on and let me know would poision arrow frogs be ok to put in this type of setup

i should be heading down the second sat in April, if that suits you?
i re-looked at my video, the tea bags in the water about a quarter the way across the tank are rooibos teabags,redbush, just in case you thought it was a bit strange, plus i forgot to mention that the tank is filtered by two externals, a small jbl crystal profi and a 1200 tetra tec filter.. (on another note, two of the best filter brands i have ever used)
the intakes are side by side on the back right corner of the tank and the two return spray bars are stuck on the back top brace of the tank aimed at the inner top back corner of the tank, this gets most of the water to run down the back wall but lets some drip down onto the plants raising the humidity

Brilliant vid Joe thanks for posting. Are the morpho tetras jumpers? Not a problem for you if they do but I would love to get some are they hard to come by?
Haven't seen them before in Lfs.


Mark

no they don't jump they only take food from the surface if they are hungry, so they would be fine in an open topped tank, they prefer to feed mid-water also they only eat from the floor of the tank if they are VERY hungry! the adult males have a very upturned predatoy type of mouth that makes it very difficult to eat from the bottom, they have to contort their body and head sideways to pick up food and they are awkward at this, i presume that it makes them nervous, exposing themselves to potential predators in the open like that too

@Joe: that is just beautiful. Good idea and very well executed!

@sheag35: I'm definitely looking forward to see the progress of this project, good luck!

Melander

joemc wrote:

i should be heading down the second sat in April, if that suits you?
i re-looked at my video, the tea bags in the water about a quarter the way across the tank are rooibos teabags,redbush, just in case you thought it was a bit strange, plus i forgot to mention that the tank is filtered by two externals, a small jbl crystal profi and a 1200 tetra tec filter.. (on another note, two of the best filter brands i have ever used)
the intakes are side by side on the back right corner of the tank and the two return spray bars are stuck on the back top brace of the tank aimed at the inner top back corner of the tank, this gets most of the water to run down the back wall but lets some drip down onto the plants raising the humidity

2nd Sat in april it is then mate, and yes way wondering about the teabags...what use is the rooibos teabags never heard of them being used before?

i picked up the rooibos tea one day as i had come across people using it once too often to not have a look at it, Killifish and betta breeders in particular, here is a pdf of a book by Tyrone Genade who mentions it,
tgenade.freeshell.org/killibook/keepingkillifish.pdf
another guy prof Dirk Bellstedt also mentioned it for killies and he is i fish keeper i would have a high regard for.
i have also seen it recommended as another spawning stimulant for difficult Apistos
i have not used the redbush tea for long enough in any one tank to form my own opinion as to the benefits of using it as i think it will take some time to see clearly a difference between tanks with and with out it , plus then to compare it to indian almond leaves (Terminalia catappa)also sold as Ketapang leaves, or our own native leaves such as oak beech, hawthorn or alder leaves / cones, the later i have used in all of my tanks with the exception of my Geophagine tank as they have a tendancy to sift the sand for food and bury the leaves in the process, sorry. waffeling a bit
back to the point what i have found is that the leaves give the water a nice amber glow and since adding them to the planted tank some of the more shy species are seen out and about a bit more, plus i have noticed some courtship behavior with some of the fish, though this could be seasonal behavior and related to the planted tank getting an increase in direct sunlight with the sun rising now that summer is coming but importantly ..... no negative effects to report to date
while rereading this post for a spell check i see it is all a bit vague re the uses / benefits of the rooibos tea. emmmm much like many aquarium miracle products you see on the shelves of shops!!
so i would say, give it a go in a tank you have set up a while, one with maybe something like some apistos or bettas that would just not take the step forward and spawn for you and see if it make a difference.

on another not very related note here is another link that might be of interest to betta gourami bircher etc etc keepers
joomla.igl-home.de/images/igl/mak_eng/MakEn%202_09.pdf