my weekend warrior project, 125G paludarium

[deranged chipmunk]

i hope i am posting this in the correct section, if not, i hope a mod will move it to the proper forum

i have definitely been bitten by the vivarium/paludarium bug. i have been planning this project for quite a while, so since i had a 4 day weekend this weekend, i figured i might as well get on it. it's a standard marineland 125g tank, 72"x18"x21". my intention is for it to be a stream side bed. dart frogs will live on the land and i am leaning towards cardinal tetras and abn's in the blackwater stream section. however, i keep flip flopping between that and shrimp and oto's. that will probably be decided upon at the very last minute. now for the pics:

this was my original footprint of my land section, the idea was to have 2 waterfalls, one on the left and a large one to the right, that would feed the beginning of the stream:


that may still be the plan, if i can figure out the design of the waterfall in my head. i want it to be a removable section so i can access equipment.

so while i am working on design for the right side, i decided to build the left side. basic structure built:





i built a "shaft" that will house the pump for the water feature on the left, and it will be removable to access equipment. the tank heater will be suctioned to the floor of the tank under this section, as well as a small powerhead to keep circulation up under the land section to avoid stagnant water. also, the pvc pipes are all drilled with extra holes to prevent stagnant water from building up inside of them and raising toxic levels. here's the left side, foamed in. you can see the shaft i built, now i just have to trim the background so it slides in and out easily.


that's all for this week on this one. i'll post another update on what i get accomplished this upcoming weekend.
__________________
-Bill

[deranged chipmunk]

oh, and i also started this little bitty this weekend, not sure if it going to be for another type dart frog, newts or just a versatile quarantine tank. it's a 20L with an ancient viquarium setup in it that i modified a bit.

[Adam R]

that is a heck ton of foam. im almost finished my paludarium as well. i hope all goes well with yours!

[deranged chipmunk]

thanks adam it's actually less than you would think. the 125 only has 2 16oz. cans into as it sits. the 20 is one 12oz. can. do you have pics or a thread on yours? i would love to see it.

[Tyson]

Its going to be awesome! cant wait to see it finished!

[deranged chipmunk]

thanks tyson.......i can't wait either. LOL hoping to get it running and seeded before the hamburg show in case i find any leucs. there.

[Adam R]

http://www.frogforum.net/vivarium-te...ank-setup.html

i need to get my nikon from work to take some better pics. i took them on the iphone. i get my broms shipped to me hopefully this week so ill post up more pics.

i only have 5in of water so i also havnt decided if it'll have tropical fish or not. what about yours?

[deranged chipmunk]

after substrate, i should have roughly 6" of water. so i am thinking either some cardinal tetras and bristlenose plecos, or (and this is probably the route i am going), shrimp and otocinclus. and all my pics are taken with my phone. it actually takes better pics than my ancient camera...LOL

[kmichael55]

Cool! also learned a new word... paludarium. I like it.
Can't wait to see it completed!!

[deranged chipmunk]

I might have an update tonight. All depends on whether or not i feel like inhaling silicone fumes after inhaling them at work all day. I'm only siliconing the submerged section, the land portion will be done with titebond III wood glue. I was going to do it this weekend, but i ran out of gloves, so i just waited until returning to work today to "appropriate " some.

[deranged chipmunk]

update: built the water feature for the left side of the tank. made it completely removable for maintenance reasons. learned a few things this past weekend as well. while water testing the water feature, i filled the tank to it's planned water level, and guess what i found out? the whole land area floats!! dumb me, should have figured it would, since it IS all polyurethane foam. like trying to sink a giant rice crispy....lol anyway, i added 4lbs of lead fishing sinkers to the inside of the land mass. i'm in the middle of covering it with coco coir, so i will hopefully test to see if this is enough weight over the upcoming weekend. now for the pics:
prep work: in order to keep the foam from sticking, i covered the area i was working in in plastic wrap, which worked brilliantly :-)


this is the top of my water feature, water enters through the tube and exits upon overflow. the reason for the cup is because the ultrasonic foggers work on vibration and they spout up some water, this is my attempt to curb having a fog volcano. LOL

water feature foamed up and ready for carving:


a couple of views if the water feature out of the tank:



here's a couple pics after carving and after a bit of coco coir on it:


i will try to update earlier next week, i just got caught up in my own little Doctor Who marathon this week....lol
oh, i also built the right section of land and another piece that i built to creat the effect of a stream (hopefully). i will post pics of those next week

[Adam R]

nice idea for the waterfall.

when you get a chance, i updated mine as well with some plants

[kmichael55]

Looking good!

[deranged chipmunk]

#13
Fishies_in_Philly Wannabe Guru (View User Tanks) PTrader: (7/100%) Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: phila., PA Posts: 1,529	ok, been a bit since i updated, actually got a lot accomplished. i'll just let the pics do the talking. current plant inventory.....adding more tomorrow. you can just see my grow out tank for my planted tanks.

[deranged chipmunk]

not a pic update tonight. i decided to scrap that carved water feature on the left. after numerous discussions between the architect (me) and the contractor (again,me) they decided on constructing a hill/water feature instead. what that means is a bit of a re-engineering to the water feature plan. it also meant that i finally had to krap or get off the pot so to speak and silicone the land sections down so i can start on the background well that meant i needed to build my filter intake and return spraybar, and cover the spraybar in coco before i could silicone section 2 in. man, it sucks to be labor, it was much easier being the architect. but i got what i needed to get done and i still had to hang a light over my newest frog's temporary abode and get some plants into it. i'm beat. thank you for reading my mini blog....lol

[Adam R]

wow thats a fern. you plan on splitting it a few times im guessing..

[deranged chipmunk]

Yes indeed, that rabbits foot fern is going in 3 enclosures.

[Aaron Boswell]

looking fwd to seeing your finished product tanks looks great.

I just built a 20 long with a waterfall and it was the hardest part I cut the foam out of that section 3 times and put dif bits in trying to get it right all worth it when u see it working though I'm just planning on going bigger next year now got most of the materials just need to decide on animals, tank size and features

one thing with only 6 inches of water you do know BN Plecos get quite big? I had one in a 3 ft long 1.5ft high tank and it still was too small he used to bump into the sides so moved him to the 400g in the living room and that just about does it lol he's a big boy

[deranged chipmunk]

Yeah, cutting the foam to get the right look is a pita. And bristle nose plecos only grow to about 4". Rubber lips also stay small. In fact, there are quite a few species that don't grow big.

[deranged chipmunk]

in the home stretch.......starting to see the finish line!!!

i completed foaming the background last night and this is where we stand.:

looking down from the left, you can see where the rocky hill will be. i won't be able to complete that section until i cover the background and do some touch ups on the land mass.:


center:


right:


left half from the front:


right half:


full length from above (kinda)


sorry the pics suck, but it's hard to take a good pic when the thing is laying on the floor (sort of)

i also made a spray bar for a water return/flow system. all holes are angled slightly up to clear the substrate. and there are also holes behind the land mass to provide flow under the land to avoid stagnant water.



the background will be covered in coco fiber as well as hydraulic cement. it should look pretty cool. ( i hope..lol)

that's all for now. i will try to post pics as i go along with the back ground.

oh....and btw....in case anyone is wondering, if some of the stuff i posted in this thread don't make sense it's because i copied and zapped it from another forum and i am WAY too lazy to edit it...lol