Rainforest Paludarium

[velcroshaman]

Sure they do! That's what a paludarium is, a combo fish tank and terrarium. I've seen dozens of them across several forums, and there will be a shallow end for the frogs to get fresh water.

The whole purpose of this is to make a custom-built tank, with the environmental monitoring, controls, and lighting all inset within the frame of the tank, which will be mahogany.

[asid61]

It might be slightly safer just to put a screen between the two sections. Better safe than sorry.

[velcroshaman]

It might be slightly safer just to put a screen between the two sections. Better safe than sorry.

I'm thinking about it. Right now the plan calls for the waterfall to start at one end of the tank and flow through a wide, shallow stream into the pool, and about half the surface area of the pool will be taken up by driftwood and such, so I'm thinking this will be sufficient. The Red-Eyed Tree Frog display at the zoo here has a rather large body of water in it, so I'm trying to get in touch with the handler to see if he's ever had problems.

As for my first question, I've decided on the final dimensions of the tank as being 36x18x30 tall, which gives me an ~75 gal. tank to work with. Still not entirely sure this height is adequate since no one had any input, but I'm ordering the glass soon and need to make a decision.

[asid61]

Well, 30" is a little short, but just right for the frog.
Because, keep in mind that it will basically be a terrarium on top of an aquarium. A 12" tall aquarium, and a tree frog on top of that will be around 36" total.
But 30" is fine because you won't need to put the substrate above the aquarium.

[Nano]

Hey Velcro,

I love the idea of a Paludarium, I think the mix with water is just beautiful. I want to redesign it because I wanted to save some money and used a log I found on my backyard and it leeched the water with tannin.

I have 2 kinds of frogs, some tadpoles and some fishes as well:

- The first kind is a ground frog "Stripped Marsh frogs", so I have some of space in my tank for them to wander around and also lots of spaces for them to hide (in this photo below you don't see it well, but underneath all those plants there is an underground (shaded) area with gravel and access to the pond in the corner.

- Then I have some Litoria caerulea (Green Tree Frogs, or white's tree frogs).

For tree frogs, it is recommended to setup a tall tank. My tank is a "Reptile One" 60x60x90cm. It is great for what I could afford (would have loved to have maybe double the length in width so to have more room for ground decoration. The height is great for the Tree frogs as you can setup a nice waterfall and branches fror them to climb.

This was my first tank so I learned on the way. My next step is to build a proper waterfall.

Take a look at the tank and let me know what you think.



You can check more photos and how we build the tank here

https://picasaweb.google.com/110416584292969709788

We are thinking of building a better water area now, so we're planning on building a model like this one (Still very in the ideas world). Still haven't drawn the waterfall... but it will give you an idea on the basic setup for spaces... next step is planting and decorating

[velcroshaman]

Well, 30" is a little short, but just right for the frog.
Because, keep in mind that it will basically be a terrarium on top of an aquarium. A 12" tall aquarium, and a tree frog on top of that will be around 36" total.
But 30" is fine because you won't need to put the substrate above the aquarium.

Well, I did some calculating taking what you said into account, and I've changed my design slightly. I talked with the people at the place I'm ordering the glass from and worked out a deal, and I'm expanding the paludarium design to 36x18x36" for a 100gal. tank. The aquarium area will now consist of the leftmost part of the tank, a 12x18x10" area for approx. 10gal water area, which leaves me with 26" of vertical space. And then I'm looking at possibly making a slope down from the edge of the water to the other end of the tank, possibly modeling a volcano slope, so I might end up with 30-32" of vertical space at the far end. To cover up the 4-10" of soil at the front of the paludarium I'm going to install a glass barrier an inch or two behind the front glass and create an ant colony I believe. Still looking at what options I can manage within my budget. So I'm definitely going to manage this, just got to do some more planning.

[asid61]

Sounds good!
Plenty of space for frog(s), and enough space for a few fish.

[Jess]

As far as I know that sounds all good Velcro. I'm not all that knowledgable on the building of these but I'm sure there will be some awesome people to help you on here soon .