Madagascar Mantella Paludarium

[deranged chipmunk]

Here are a few pics I took last night. Batteries were dead in the good camera, so you guys get phone pics

My plant order. A couple hundred bucks worth of rare cryptocoryne species and bucephalandra species.



Cryptocoryne bullosa 'barrio'


Now a good pic of it, but this is cryptocoryne Affinis 'metallic red'. I'll get better pics of this one in a few days when the leaves grow up towards the light



Bucephalandra species






Full tank shot






That is what it looks like as if this morning. Hope you like it

[NatureLady]

This looks so great!!! Awesome as always Bill

[deranged chipmunk]

Thank you darlin!

[eduardo75]

Amazing set up. Congrats from Spain.

[Sirjohn]

Bill, First thanks for such an amazing and detailed build. You have inspired me !!! You are very creative and resourceful, and yours are certainly amonst the best tanks I have seen. You knowledge and talent obvious, and your work subtle and detailed.. I have been working out a builld, and have a few questions. First Question or I guess Comment is about the Mushrooms..( I love the idea of using these and am going to as part of my build). Well being a huge fan of your Titbond 3 Method, Would'nt that work just as well as a clear coat on the rooms? I have hit mine with Clear Coat Krylon, but am thinking as an extra precaution to give a couple of coats of Titbond. What do you think? My next question has to do with your drip irrigation Rain system. I thought this was very clever by the way.. How large of a pump is needed to make it work?? I can go to the Hydroponics place and ask, but I want to hear from you after using it in this application. I do have more questions of course, but I'll start with these... Thanks again for a most creative and detailed build..

[deranged chipmunk]

Bill, First thanks for such an amazing and detailed build. You have inspired me !!! You are very creative and resourceful, and yours are certainly amonst the best tanks I have seen. You knowledge and talent obvious, and your work subtle and detailed.. I have been working out a builld, and have a few questions. First Question or I guess Comment is about the Mushrooms..( I love the idea of using these and am going to as part of my build). Well being a huge fan of your Titbond 3 Method, Would'nt that work just as well as a clear coat on the rooms? I have hit mine with Clear Coat Krylon, but am thinking as an extra precaution to give a couple of coats of Titbond. What do you think? My next question has to do with your drip irrigation Rain system. I thought this was very clever by the way.. How large of a pump is needed to make it work?? I can go to the Hydroponics place and ask, but I want to hear from you after using it in this application. I do have more questions of course, but I'll start with these... Thanks again for a most creative and detailed build..

You could coat them with titebond as an extra precaution, but keep in mind, titebond dries yellow. I went with clear acrylic nail polish because they were so small and a dollar for a bottle of nail polish was cheaper than a can of spray paint for the same purpose. If you cover them with krylon fusion clear, you'll be fine. I coated a couple dried shrooms with it in my white's tank.

My rain system ran (I disassembled it) off of a pond pump. When choosing a pump, I would recommend going bigger than you would expect. The more outlets you have, the more pressure. Try to figure out how many nozzles you will have, then talk to your hydro rep, they will set you straight. Expect to pay close to $60 or so for a pump.

Hope that helps!

[Sirjohn]

I ended up hitting the fungus and mushrooms with marine epoxy clear. They look good, just wanted to be sure as I wanted to use real ones, and didn't want nasties leeching out.. Why did you Dis Assemble the Rain system (Just curious), seemed like a good idea. But then again, simple is better I guess.. Like I said Bill, you have inpired me. I will post my build, and thanks again for a wonderful post, very well explained and detailed direction for an over the top vivarium build. Pointing out the importance of water flow underneath, filtration, and access to parts for repairs.. All very important.

[Bombina Bob]

Awesome tank Bill, Vivarium master! is there a list of aquatics that can
be planted in Vivs and paludariums? All i know is java moss and anubias.

[deranged chipmunk]

I ended up hitting the fungus and mushrooms with marine epoxy clear. They look good, just wanted to be sure as I wanted to use real ones, and didn't want nasties leeching out.. Why did you Dis Assemble the Rain system (Just curious), seemed like a good idea. But then again, simple is better I guess.. Like I said Bill, you have inpired me. I will post my build, and thanks again for a wonderful post, very well explained and detailed direction for an over the top vivarium build. Pointing out the importance of water flow underneath, filtration, and access to parts for repairs.. All very important.

You can't bear marine epoxy. I love the stuff.

I disassembled the rain system because I couldn't care for the tank for 6 months while my family and I looked for new housing and the person who cared for it kind of let it go the pump burned out and the covering was coming off of most of the tubing, so I decided to eliminate it since it's main purpose was to duplicate a rainy season and promote breeding. I have no room to raise tads for a year, so I eliminated it.

So glad you found the build to be inspiringly. Does a chipmunk good to hear that any other questions, feel free to ask.

[deranged chipmunk]

Awesome tank Bill, Vivarium master! is there a list of aquatics that can
be planted in Vivs and paludariums? All i know is java moss and anubias.

Ryan, there are tons of aquatics that can be used. Java ferns, cryptocorynes, ludwigia, hygrophilias, lagenandras, bucephelandra, ect. I could go on and on. Then there are semi aquatics like piptospatha and schismatoglottis that like to grow semi emersed. It all depends on the look you are going for or biotope you are trying to create. I think I started a thread over in the plant section that I need to update with some new bucephelandra pics.

[michael1846]

Great tank. MARRY CHRISTMAS ~Michael

[s6t6nic6l]

STUNNING natural scape, well done.

what lighting have you in there now for the plants and frogs and what species of and how many mantella live in this beautiful setup

[deranged chipmunk]

STUNNING natural scape, well done.

what lighting have you in there now for the plants and frogs and what species of and how many mantella live in this beautiful setup

Thank you

I'm running 4 t5ho bulbs over it, about 14" above the tank. And it houses 4 mantella betsileo

[deranged chipmunk]

An update on this tank. I nuked it yesterday. The tank is no longer. I will be rebuilding it soon. It was time these little ones got a change of scenery, so they are now in quarantine and I am designing them a new "theme park"

[flybyferns]

Oh boy !
I think you ( we ) are delirious !
You have that symptom that makes you want to rip it down and build........another one
Others just buy more tanks !

We can look forward to another great build thread
Lynn

[deranged chipmunk]

If only I had the room i used to!! There's a bit more to this, but I have 2 tanks to build. This one, and one for some imitators that one is going to be a super secret project and I won't do a thread on that one until it is complete

[DigitalPunk]

Bill,

What type of fogger do you recommend. I am thinking of getting on when I start on my Dart frog tank.

[deranged chipmunk]

Depends on your setup really. I like the little ultrasonics, but they require a water supply and make a small fountain. For my new build, I'm going to modify a home ultrasonic humidifier.