nano paludarium build

[Adastra808]

Decided to have a little fun with my 5 gallon tank I have lying around and attempt to make a paludarium.

A (very) rough outline of what I'm planning.


I decided to go with a shelf-like design in order to maximize water volume. I'm going to use this awesome piece of drift wood to support one end


and either a pvc pipe covered in foam or a rock if I can find a nice one to support the other side, and silicone the self to the sides of the aquarium.

I had to order the expanding foam offline because I couldn't find the right kind around here anywhere, so waiting on that to arrive while I figure out the exact shape I want and build a frame to spray the foam on.

I'm going to be attempting to make a small waterfall by directing the flow of the hob filter but we'll see how that pans out.

 

[Adastra808]

Ok then...after nearly a month of trying, I got my hands on the kind of expanding foam I wanted. Then I decided that expanding foam was too difficult to use in such a small tank good learning experience I guess.

So my amazing hubby brought me home a sheet of Styrofoam from his work, and I got the shape I want made and the first layer of concrete applied all in one night

 

[ecl]

looks like a fun little build cant wait to see how it turns out, good luck

 

[Adastra808]

After getting the first insert done, and in the tank with water, then the concrete started flaking off in large chunks until the styrofoam was exposed! I'm not sure why this happened, the only possibility I can think of is that maybe made the concrete mixture too thick? Anyway, I decided there were a couple things I didn't like about it anyway, and since I still had plenty of building materials (one of the advantages of such a small project) I scrapped it and made a new one. The new one is a lot better. I still want to add a couple layers of concrete to be safe, but I just tested it in the tank with water and I didn't have any flaking, so the thinner layers of concrete seem to be working.

I would appreciate some suggestions on terrestrial plants. I was planning on getting a pitcher plant, but I get any of the species I wanted without paying an arm and a leg for shipping. From where the plants are going to be, there 3 inches space to the lid. I could leave the lid off, but even then I'd like to keep something that stays under 5" or so.

 

[duanes]

I had the same problem with concrete flaking off the styrofoam when I 1st attempted a project like this. You need to roughen up the surface to enable it to stick. The styro is also very buoyant, even with a concrete coating, so be careful. I ended up making pockets in the styro to add weights such as stones, for large sunken pieces.

 

[ecl]

what i did instead of concrete was drylok masonry sealer. You can and the concrete coloring to it and its worked great and plan to make another for our 46 and 75 gallon tanks.