Hello!
As the title states, this is my first attempt at a paludarium/vivarium build... Previously I've kept both freshwater and reef aquariums, but recently I've been enamored with some of the builds I've seen here and elsewhere around the web. My goal for the pal was to eventually house either darts or anoles, and a few very small fish and shrimp as well as plenty of tropical terrestrial/aquatic/emergent and epiphytic plants and mosses. I decided to go with an 18x18x24 exo terra, both because it will be easier to move when I leave in a couple years and just to try to keep the budget from getting too far out of hand. (Didn't work). Feel free to ask any questions, or throw some advice my way!
So I wanted the fish to have as much area to swim as possible, while still maintaining a natural look from the front of the pal. I went with PVC supports under the drainage plate, instead of hydroballs for this reason. I couldn't find the eggcrate that everyone uses at any of my local Home Depot or Lowes, so I bought a sheet of Lexan and drilled a bunch of holes through it after cutting it down to size.
For the gravel barrier, I used a flexible plastic canvas from the craft store. This was a small error on my part, as I would have preferred something more rigid which would have allowed me to create a gradual land-water transition with far less gravel than I ended up using. On both the left and right of the tank, I wanted entrances into the sub-platform area of the water so that the fish could do a complete lap and better utilize the whole area. I left a section on the left without a barrier, eventually to be covered up by moss and plants. On the right, I cut a cork bark round in half and cut out a section in the barrier where I wanted it to go. Off the the very left would be the water return from the filter in the form of a waterfall.