I can think of a million things to put in there. Honestly i think there really isnt a turtle that would really work. MAYBE a musk turtle but i would ask around in the reptile part of the threads first. They stay small and if i remember right only need a UVB light which can only benefit the other creatures in your tank. A fly river turtle will get much too big for this set up. Love the tank and it looks awesome. When you gonna start the foam background?
300gal plywood paludarium project
- Thread starter the_deeb
- Start date
as far as turtle. from my knowledge depending on the fish you a putting in there look at smaller muds and musk. I have a razorback, the only fish he likes to eat are plecos. He didnt attack a groumi or convict i had in there. Then again he is still a young turtle only 2 yrs old. You will need the UVB in there but and a place they can bask although i have never really seen my get more then his head out of the water.
Hmm... not sure if I like this new DIY forum format. Considering that this build involves a DIY tank, stand, background, plumbing and lighting I don't know if the thread just fits into the tanks section. Maybe I should post separate threads in the other forums for relevant parts of the build and link back to this main thread?
Anyways, progress is slowly being made. I've got most of my plumbing sorted out and am almost done with my DIY background. I'm really happy with how the background is turning out. I think you guys are going to be pretty excited when you see the next round of photo updates
Anyways, progress is slowly being made. I've got most of my plumbing sorted out and am almost done with my DIY background. I'm really happy with how the background is turning out. I think you guys are going to be pretty excited when you see the next round of photo updates
I think you guys are going to be excited with this update - I know I am 
I've gotten a lot of the hardscape finished. As I mentioned earlier, the plan for this paludarium is to have the entire lower portion of the tank filled with water with no defined "land" area. So my goal with the hardscape was to create some three dimensional structure to provide planting areas and help visually fill the large open space in the top of the tank, while not taking up too much swimming room in the submerged portion. Based on this, I ruled out the traditional buttress design because it would take up a lot of space at the bottom, rather than the top. Instead, I tried to emulate "flying" buttress roots that would leave open space at the bottom.
Here's one of my sources of inspiration:
Like many builds, I began with a pile of foam. I used one 8'X4' sheet of 3/4" blue foam (Dow, from Lowes) and one sheet of 2" pink foam (Owens Corning, from HD). The blue stuff is a little denser, but both are easily carvable.
Here's a rough mockup of my "tree". I cut out the rough shapes using a kitchen knife and glued them together with a mix of silicone and Titebond glue (whatever I had on hand at the time). I also stuck in some cocktail skewers as additional fasteners. As you can see, I used many layers of foam to allow me to create nice depth.
Now for the messy part! I used a keyhole saw, rasp and file to shape the foam. Good thing my wife was out of town that weekend
After I had shaped the foam to my liking I attached it to the tank. I know a lot of people prefer to finish the background outside the tank and then attach it, but since mine was composed of multiple parts I thought it would be easier to stick them in first. It would probably have been easier to do the painting outside the tank, but it wasn't too bad (it helps that my tank is large enough for me to fit inside easily. Here's the left side siliconed into the tank. I used a full tube of silicone.
Another root added. I glued this to the tank bottom and to the first piece with Gorilla glue and added a bunch more skewers for additional structural support. The rope at the bottom was serving as a ghetto clamp.
Then I used GS foam to help hide the seams and add more structure. I also added GS around the bottom to hopefully provide better adherence to the bottom.
After carving down the GS, here's an overall shot of the background.
I've gotten a lot of the hardscape finished. As I mentioned earlier, the plan for this paludarium is to have the entire lower portion of the tank filled with water with no defined "land" area. So my goal with the hardscape was to create some three dimensional structure to provide planting areas and help visually fill the large open space in the top of the tank, while not taking up too much swimming room in the submerged portion. Based on this, I ruled out the traditional buttress design because it would take up a lot of space at the bottom, rather than the top. Instead, I tried to emulate "flying" buttress roots that would leave open space at the bottom.
Here's one of my sources of inspiration:
Like many builds, I began with a pile of foam. I used one 8'X4' sheet of 3/4" blue foam (Dow, from Lowes) and one sheet of 2" pink foam (Owens Corning, from HD). The blue stuff is a little denser, but both are easily carvable.
Here's a rough mockup of my "tree". I cut out the rough shapes using a kitchen knife and glued them together with a mix of silicone and Titebond glue (whatever I had on hand at the time). I also stuck in some cocktail skewers as additional fasteners. As you can see, I used many layers of foam to allow me to create nice depth.
Now for the messy part! I used a keyhole saw, rasp and file to shape the foam. Good thing my wife was out of town that weekend
After I had shaped the foam to my liking I attached it to the tank. I know a lot of people prefer to finish the background outside the tank and then attach it, but since mine was composed of multiple parts I thought it would be easier to stick them in first. It would probably have been easier to do the painting outside the tank, but it wasn't too bad (it helps that my tank is large enough for me to fit inside easily. Here's the left side siliconed into the tank. I used a full tube of silicone.
Another root added. I glued this to the tank bottom and to the first piece with Gorilla glue and added a bunch more skewers for additional structural support. The rope at the bottom was serving as a ghetto clamp.
Then I used GS foam to help hide the seams and add more structure. I also added GS around the bottom to hopefully provide better adherence to the bottom.
After carving down the GS, here's an overall shot of the background.
Next step was to paint the thing. I decided to use tinted Drylok, since I found that it's been used successfully for aquarium backgrounds. I decided to tint it with a blend of "charcoal" and "terra cotta" cement pigments. I was hoping to get brown but unfortunately the best I could get was sort of a grayish/purple instead.
Here's the background after the first coat of Drylok.
I unfortunately don't have photos of the next few steps. The color after the first coating was too flat and uniform. I mixed up a darker batch of drylok and used a dry brush method to feather and shade the background. This helped a lot but I still thought it artificial and rock-like.
I had hoped to create a realistic bark texture but it was beyond my artistic abilities, so I decided to add some fake vines to try to make it look more organic. For the vines I used some lengths of cotton and vinyl rope in various thickness. First a draped/wrapped them around the background and held them in place with staples or nails. I then covered them with a coat of tinted Drylok but because the Drylok really preserves the underlying texture I thought they still looked too artificial and rope like. So I mixed up another batch of Drylok and added in a bunch of long-fibered Exo Terra "Forest Moss" and then applied that to the vines. I thought this was a huge improvement. Here's the end result:
and some closer views to show more of the details. You can see how well the Drylok preserves the texture of the underlying foam.
Overall, I'm really happy with how it turned out except I'm still not completely satisfied with the color. I think it still looks too purple and not very wood like. I think I'm going to buy some "tan" cement pigment to mix with my current colors to see if I can get it a little browner. I may also try to finish it with some ground moss mixed in epoxy.
Here's the background after the first coat of Drylok.
I unfortunately don't have photos of the next few steps. The color after the first coating was too flat and uniform. I mixed up a darker batch of drylok and used a dry brush method to feather and shade the background. This helped a lot but I still thought it artificial and rock-like.
I had hoped to create a realistic bark texture but it was beyond my artistic abilities, so I decided to add some fake vines to try to make it look more organic. For the vines I used some lengths of cotton and vinyl rope in various thickness. First a draped/wrapped them around the background and held them in place with staples or nails. I then covered them with a coat of tinted Drylok but because the Drylok really preserves the underlying texture I thought they still looked too artificial and rope like. So I mixed up another batch of Drylok and added in a bunch of long-fibered Exo Terra "Forest Moss" and then applied that to the vines. I thought this was a huge improvement. Here's the end result:
and some closer views to show more of the details. You can see how well the Drylok preserves the texture of the underlying foam.
Overall, I'm really happy with how it turned out except I'm still not completely satisfied with the color. I think it still looks too purple and not very wood like. I think I'm going to buy some "tan" cement pigment to mix with my current colors to see if I can get it a little browner. I may also try to finish it with some ground moss mixed in epoxy.
I am floored. AMAZING. Are you happy that you went the drylock method rather then the grout method? I am doing a similar project and i was wanting to do the grout method as i thought it would be more durable and give it a rock texture. What you think? I just dont know if i would need to seal the grout or not.
