my weekend warrior project, 125G paludarium

[kmichael55]

Wow yours is complex and awesome!!
I just went with a water dish for the tomato frog and a part of the bottom glass and siliconed off for water for my Gray tree frog, filtration is way too advanced for me right now.

I'm definitely getting way too into this whole vivarium building thing but my bank account hopes I don't get to that size/difficulty level for a while haha!

Your plant options with so much more space make me jealous, it's going to look great once they're all planted!
(ps the architect/contractor bit was really funny and relatable!)

[deranged chipmunk]

Believe it or not, when you factor in the scale of the project, i don't have much $ into it. I limit my hobbies (both frogs and fish) to $60/week, no more. But so far i have into this: 4 eggcrates ($40), pvc pipe ($12), reptiflo 250 pump ($7), 2 blocks of coco fiber ($4), 1 bag peat moss ($3), 3 bottles titebond iii wood glue ($15), drylok hydraulic cement ($8), 2 tubes of silicone ($12, for gluing the land masses down), and finally 11 cans of right stuff ($55, i buy the 16 oz. cans).
So you see, if you just buy materials as you go, it's not too bad. And as far as filtration, after doing tanks for so long, this is a piece of cake.....lol
and the architect/contractor thing makes my wife laugh. She hears me yelling and arguing with myself (yes i do it out loud...lol) and just laughs away......lol

[Heatheranne]

Lol!!!! Sorry, had to chuckle at that one .

[deranged chipmunk]

It's ok. I'm used to it. I talk things out out loud. I also use a lot of whiteboards. I do it at work (i'm a mechanic) and home. Everyone thinks i'm nuts, but hey, whatever works, right. Although i'm sure it's comical hearing me yell at myself.......lol

[Heatheranne]

Ha ha! No worries, I'm a nurse so I'm constantly multitasking, at home and at work. Completely understand .

[deranged chipmunk]

And you're also used to dealing with crazies like me, i'm sure......lol

[Heatheranne]

Ha ha ha!!!!! Yep

[deranged chipmunk]

ok, got a little bit done this past weekend. added grout and siliconed/coc fibered the right side of the background. that parts is all but finished. just need to do some touch ups, a little bit of paint work on the grout and then seal it. the left side, is becoming another argument between the contractor and architect. the architect's original plan was to have a "rocky slope" on the left side. the contractor thinks this stump works better. the property owner is letting them duke it out....lol here's where we stand as of this evening.

[deranged chipmunk]

this should be my last "construction post". everything is now built, foamed, carved and fibered. i just have to do some touch ups, apply another coat of "clear" to my rockwork and then get it up on it's stand so i can water test everything. once i'm happy with the water test, i can start planting. My goal is to have plants in this sucker sunday night, but i'm not going to rush it. we'll just see how it goes.

there are no full tank shots yet, after she's on her stand i can take them. right now, a couple close ups

right side middle:


right side, above the water feature


right side middle, clear is still drying


left side middle:


left side:


left side land mass, look ma, no stump!!!


dat's all for now

[FriedrichsFrogs]

Holy mother of god on the cross savin us all jesus the merciful comin down from heaven, I had no idea what you were sayin on about 90% of this forum but these last few pics are incredible.

[FriedrichsFrogs]

your a madman Bill

[deranged chipmunk]

hahahaha....thanks. i hope that seeing it helps make sense of it all???

[FriedrichsFrogs]

not really lol im just glad i wont be putting several filters and water filtration in with my fbt tank. baby steps Bill u kno, baby steps with me, maybe ill add that later in the future (not that i exactly need to) but just in case i know who to go to

[Sunshine]

holy mother of god on the cross savin us all jesus the merciful comin down from heaven, i had no idea what you were sayin on about 90% of this forum but these last few pics are incredible.

lmfao!!!

[Disco]

Very cool! And very inspirational

[deranged chipmunk]

ok, so i had a bit of a productive evening. with a lot of help and a LOT of patience, my sons and i moved my stand into position, i installed the lighting and we got the tank on the stand and leveled it. then i did a quickie vacuum and filled it with water to the level it will be running at so i could test the water feature. i knew there would be tweaks and adjustments and quite a bit of touch up to do. still have to scrape some silicone from the glass and skim about 2 metric tons of excess coco fiber before i can add substrate to the aquarium section. i need to do that soon because my fish and shrimp should be here next week so without further ado, here are the pics.:










finally!! full tank shots!!!

[Sunshine]

I thought I told you your tank can't be better than mine? Just kidding Your tank looks awesome!!! I cant wait to see it planted!!! How much longer till it is finished do you think?

[deranged chipmunk]

Well, let's see. Your tank is what 13" wide? If you break mine up into 13" sections, your full 13" will look better than any of my incomplete sections and thank you i have to drain the tank and let it dry out. Then i can do touchups, and adjustments. Not keen on the right side water fall. And i still have a trick or two up my sleeve that needed to wait until now before they could be built. I figure planted not this weekend, but by the end of next weekend. <crossing wee wittle chipmunk paws>

[Sunshine]

Well, let's see. Your tank is what 13" wide? If you break mine up into 13" sections, your full 13" will look better than any of my incomplete sections

I guess I can deal with that LOL! crossing your little chipmunk paws

[FriedrichsFrogs]

that looks awesome man. the evolution is great, it had no idea how complex and how many steps there were to completing a plaudarium setup but u defintly take it to new heights. especially when plaudarium is a new word in my vocabulary. + its not even done yet, lookn forward to seein the next steps and the final result, congrats on the progress