So, I mentioned a while back a plan to build a huge...

So, I mentioned a while back a plan to build a huge paludarium… that never happened, at least not yet. Turns out i am going to be moving in a year or so, so setting up a massive tank like that right now would be very poor timing. Instead what i have decided to do is to do a small scale version of it. 10 gallons, at the end of my computer desk. You can see the supplies i have in the location the tank will be occupying and a craptastic 5 minute sketch of the plan. I have the gravel and potting soil, I have some of the plants in that bowl I set up (which got knocked over recently, so I need to tear it down anyway, and is part of what made me want to do this small pludarium, since though it looks like crap because everything got shaken around, the plants are ok) I have some driftwood, (also in the bowl) and I have this plastic oval pot left over from gardening this year. I checked and it’s Polypropylene which should be aquarium safe. So. the plan is, cut it in half, stack the resulting halves on top of each other with them siliconed to the tank, so it forms  a base on the bottom, and a pot on top, which i can then run some nylon rope into  the bottom half to wick water up from the tank to water the terrestrial plants. there will be a hole, about 2 inches across, in the lower half with a pipe  siliconed into it, stuffed with a fitting foam insert to handle the mechanical filtration, some bio beads in the lower half of the stacked pots will handle the bio filtration, (not that it will need a lot, but hey, do it right) while a pump (possibly just a HOB filter, which I will end up putting plants in if i end up with an aquarium kit) intake is fed into the lower half, pulling it through the pipe with the foam insert, and pumping the water into a  mini creek/waterfall on the terrestrial part (made waterproof of course, so it can flow back into the tank). I may have to build up the ‘bank’ around the pot up top with expanding foam. or glued together wood, or… I’ll mess with it, see what works.  It’s  the exact same plan as i had for the larger paludarium, just a whole lot smaller and slightly different shape. I’m thinking of this as a proof of concept. Since this tank will be viewable from both sides, having this oval shape in the middle works well for this, I’m thinking it could be quite pretty assuming I do a good job of covering up the pot with rocks/wood/foam.

i will be getting the tank on friday, so this one is definitely going ahead. Once it is set up and settled in, I will stock it with some freshwater shrimp (probably Cherry Shrimp, maybe Bumblebee) and a couple Dwarf African Frogs, MAYBE a Betta, we’ll see how much water area i end up with before deciding for sure on that.

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