# Paludarium



## DJMartinez (Jul 5, 2012)

So two weeks ago My Uncle got rid of his salt water aquarium for some weird reason and gave it to me. It was an all of the sudden thing so I took it in and was rushed into doing something with it.

Now I already had an aquarium that I had biuld previously and I can only describe it as a 75 gal flat or cube thing. it was made of four jewelry case counter top sheets and some wood and pvc showpan liner that had worked well in a 120gal tank I made last year. the dimensions were 2 1/2 feet by 2 1/2 feet by 11 inches with 3/8th inch thickness. it was awsome. I have a very small room and so was itching to replace it with something smaller.

Anyways, this new tank stood at 2 feet tall, 18 inches from front to back and 4 feet long, 1/2 inch glass. I removed the trim which was a bigger pain then I thought it would be and also removed the right side sheet of glass with a razor blade and about twenty feet of fishing line (It broke a lot). I "re-glued" it to the top just over the left side. (When I say glued I really mean silicone but glue is just easier to type). 

Next I rotated the whole tank to the left so that the original left side was now the bottem and that right sheet that was glued to the top became the new left. this took up a very small foot print and I am very happy with it. so the new dimensions are 2 feet long, 18 inches f/b and 4 feet tall.

I made a simple bottem out of 2x4s and some laminated pine that I stained red mohogany(we had alot of it left over from a jockey box project i did for my brother). Moving on! I glued some pine strips to the new top that were later screwed into eachother to prevent the top from bowing out. that too was stained. I cut out some sheets of wood that were sealed with an acrilic weather proofing and then proceeded to cut out a hole in the middle. I re-sealed it and glued it to the inside of the new top. this was the lid which was meant and is permanent.

Next I placed a sheet of 1/4 inch glass over the hole that I got from the bottem of a 29 gal tank and siliconed it in place. after that I did some woodwork with a hood and later a door that would fit snugly in that wide open hole just above the left side. the hood got a hole in the back for the power cord of the lamp and the door too got a hole in it for the cored of the pump. the door got a hole cut out of it and a piece of glass I had laying around was siliconed to inside facing... side. everything was sealed and stained and sealed again in many coats. 

After that I tackled the filtration and circulation system. I had seen a picture of a living wall and decided to do that. I made a ridget skeleton out of pvc pipe and fitted sprinkler heads to it that would be below the water line. this would get the water spinning. at the top I drilled hole facing down so that water would trickle out. I took some green shade mesh we had and got some quilt stuffing thats made of plastic and sewed some fluffy pillows. that was wire tide to the frame and it was placed inside. I ran it once and then put it in place.
I cut small slits in the mesh and stuffed java ferns, crypts and numerous house and aquatic plants in it in a hydro-culture concept. its been running for about a day now with a 50/50 water mix of fresh ground water and old yellow water from my old tank. It has no, nor should it ever have ventilation because of room ventilation issues and health concerns. it is very humid inside.

I guess my concerns or better yet, my question to anyone out there, is can you put rain-x on the glass to prevent fogging. the only inhabitent that I think would have issues with rain-x is the fiddler crab and the two rabbit snails. the fish are pretty tolerant to most things anyways. I'm kind of stuck on this, and am not sure what to do. any suggestions would be helpful and I'll try to monitor responses as best I can. thanks. 

Just as a side note, this thing cost a wopping ten cents!
Sorry about the paragraphs thing, I've never posted on a forums before and wasn't sure if the enter key would post it or create a paragraph.


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## jackgood (Feb 9, 2007)

Please please please go back and re-edit your post and include some paragraph breaks. I'd love to read your post but I can't get past the big wall of text. Nice pictures though.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Agreed!


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## Apaa (Jul 21, 2006)

Thats a pretty good idea. I never thought of that. I have some tanks laying around that I would really like to set up like this.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Neat set-up! I'd like to see some pictures of the trickle wall when it grows in.

In my (much smaller!) paludarium, I can't get enough light into the water portion to grow anything.

I don't think the Rain-X is a good idea. I find that if I increase the ventilation just slightly, the glass will clear up.


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## mudboots (Jun 24, 2009)

I used to do my best to keep up with the humidity and temperature, adjusting the ventilation to keep the glass clear, but since I've moved the Wetland-n-a-Box to my office I leave it sealed off and everyone who stops by the office likes the rain-forest effect on the glass. You might give it a think to just leave it wet. You'll have to get in there once in a while for trims anyway, which will give you a chance to clean it up...just a thought.


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## wacky (May 21, 2012)

Wow .... I love the concept .... and the tank is beautiful!!!


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