Looking for advice navigating my first paludarium project.

[deranged chipmunk]

I have built paludariums ranging from 8 gallons to 125 gallons and the best piece of advice I can offer is this: decide on what inhabitants you want to stock it with, then build to suit that species.

As far as your tank choices, you should decide how much terrestrial area and how much aquatic area you want. The 30” long tank, while it lacks in depth would give you space for more water and land, while the 20” long cans cut down on that. I am not saying that either is better, you can design both to work. Also remember, that by definition, a paludarium includes land as well as enough water to safely house aquatic life. Otherwise, you are just building a viv with a tiny water feature.

Now, a word about water features and frogs. I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes because Dan is very knowledgeable, but I can tell you from experience, that darts, mantellas, retf, and whites will not drown in water. Provided you give them exit points, they are safe. I could give numerous examples of watching my frogs jump into their water features for a swim and climbing back out. I do believe I have quite a few pics of deep water palus I built on my profile page here. I have never lost a frog to drowning.

Submersible pumps and heaters are very helpful when building palus, but even better options sometimes are drilling the tank above the water line so you can plumb a desktop canister into the tank, making sure the drilled hole is concealed so that you are not dealing with escapes. And believe me, it does not take much for a frog to escape.

As Dan stated, foggers can be hit and miss. The little ultrasonics have reliability issues, and using an external humidifier requires some creativity to plumb them.

A misting system is crucial. Unless of course, you prefer to mist by hand on a daily basis. One thing to keep in mind when adding a misting system to a paludarium is you are going to gain water in the tank, so plan ahead to be able to remove your excess water. Whether it be a drilled overflow, or just a piece of aquarium tubing with a valve coming out of the tank, you’ll need to remove excess water.

Research your plants well. Just because plants are labeled as aquatic in stores, does not mean they are true aquatics. Plants like mondo grass, for example, will grow very slowly submerged, however, it needs to be taken out periodically and grown emerged to survive.

I think that should get you started. I rambled long enough. Good luck with your build


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[DanDrobates]

Thank you bill for the supplemental information. My toes are not sore lol. In retrospect I realized that I should have worded my statement about darts drowning a little differently. I should have prefaced by mentioning, as you did, that if appropriate hall outs are provided it’s very unlikely. I’ve seen some novice builds though that that lack reasonable exit points and my concern may have been overly cautious but only for the sake of the OP. Thank you and regards