DIY bedside Paludarium

[Umbra]

I've been working on this for a while and it's finally finished! Already started planting it and cycling with rosy reds. The main focus will be the flora as the tank isn't that large and it's a coldwater setup so I'll likely be using native micropredators like sculpin and mudminnows.

Here's the frame I built to fit inside the tank:

Started foaming the base of the background:

Test fitting overflow filter and trickle system to water the mosses, added flowerpots for planting:

More driftwood added and foamed the base of the waterfall:

Started carving out the pathway for the waterfall:

Finished the stepped waterfall ladder and used black aquarium silicone to coat some of the foam in coconut fibres:

The almost finished product in the process of cycling:

I've already added a few species of local moss and some rosy reds, they seem to be doing fine. Once I get a more adequate lighting system I will be adding a few aquatic plants and some crystalwort to garnish the waterfall area. Terrestrial plants will be added to the sides of the waterfall to make it appear more natural. In person the foam looks a lot more rocky than in the pictures. Once the plants are added, the trickle system will be hidden according to the moisture dependence of the plants.

Any feedback would be appreciated! Suggestions for plants, fish etc. are always welcome!

 

[BayArea_510]

sweet

 

[GhostShrimpMan]

Nice!

 

[spirofucci]

Dude, you got some talent!!! That looks great! I'd like to see you do a 100 gal, I bet it would be incredible!

Keep posting pics!

 

[Umbra]

Thanks for the compliments! I will post some more tonight after I pick up my new lighting system and add a few more plants. The rosies I added are doing fine, so by next week I'm confident I can start adding the long term inhabitants (collecting trips hooray ).

I'm actually planning on doing a larger tank that won't be open top so I can actually add some amphibians. I'll post a build thread of that as well, hopefully I'll be starting that this summer. Tank will be built from plywood and fiberglass with a glass front, planning 4x3x2.

 

[5280critters]

Looks great I would like to try this at some point alas, not today

 

[TommyTank]

Very cool.

 

[Jake95]

very nice.

 

[verruckt]

Looks great. Incredible job. Id love to build one of these sometime. Makes a nice addition to any home imo

 

[Umbra]

Finally getting around to posting some new pics. It's been a little while and a whole bunch of new plants have sprouted up. I didn't plant these, they came in as contaminants in the moss and grew out of the moss.

I at one point had 6 small redfin shiners and a few sticklebacks in there, but I'm now down to just a few sticklebacks and one shiner, courtesy of this guy: