Paludarium Ideas

[viciousconvict]

I'm not sure if this is the right section, but...
I just bought a perfectly sound 55 gallon tank for 10 dollars at a garage sale. For ten dollars, what else was there to do? I would like to set it up as a paludarium (partly because I doubt that the dresser that it's sitting on can support 440 lbs of weight). I have one small 10g mudskipper paludarium, and some poison dart frog terrariums, but I am not terribly experienced, nor am I incompetent. So, I am open to your ideas, especially biotope schemes. If you are wondering about cost, I have 800 set aside to spend, but I could go substantially higher than that, especially for unusual animal ideas.

Sooooo... Ideas?

 

[BDawg364]

800 to spend??? Get a bigger tank and use your 55 as a sump lol.

 

[aquaking]

Yeah 800 bucks get a bigger tank... use the 55 gallon for livestock to feed to your big tank... heh..... I have my filter built into a chemical and biological filter that pours into a waterfall. pond pumps work really well for setting these up.

 

[viciousconvict]

I could consider buying a bigger tank, but this is an inside tank for my guest room, so it couldn't be much bigger.

 

[rottbo]

look into black jungle terrarium supply they can help you out with ideas... i love poison dart frog habitats do a big one of those... oooh wait it will be in a guest room guests wont get sleep with frogs chirpin try a dwarf chameleon habitat that would be awesome

 

[softturtle]

There is a number of different routes you could go here.

First- do you want the tank long or tall? You could turn it up on its side and silicon in a peice of glass at the bottom to hold water. Would be cool for some tree frogs, but it limits the species of animals you could put in the water. you would have to stick with small fish.

Second- do you want more animals in the water or on land. If you want animals on land you will most likely need a top to keep them in. If you want just animals in the water you could leave the top open(or front if you turn the tank on its side) and allow plants to grow out of the top. I love seeing plants growing out of the top of a paludarium. I have a few terrariums and paludarium with nothing but plants in them, thats another option.

Third- how to divide the land and water your paludarium. You could do it the black jungle way and use Great Stuff (foam) as your background structure. Its hard to explain but its on there website. Basically you cover the whole back of your tank with this foam, then you cover the foam with black silicon and then that is finally covered with coco husk. It creates a nice natural looking background. Or, you could just divide it with a peice of glass. This method is a lot easier and involves a lot less time. Just silicon in a peice of glass from one side to the other(front to back/ side to side- its up to you). One side gets filled with land and plants the other gets the water. If you really want to get tricky you could use a canister filer and make a water fall from the land to the water.

Well I've been typing to long. I hope this helps a little.

 

[pete620]

I once saw a picture of someone who used a 100 gallon reptarium sideways ontop of a 55 to make a great waterdragon habitat. It may not look as natural but it realy expands what you can do.

 

[rottbo]

i had one poison dart frog tank a long time ago and it was a 29 gallon with a ten gallon upside down sideways on top of the 29 in the ten there was the beginning of a waterfall it was sweet but the frogs are loud and kept everyone awake so i gave them to a local pumillio keeper

 

[lil_blue]

you could put a waterfall in the back corner, with a moat ( the thing around castles) going in front, so you could put small ADF or FBN in so the guests could see them on the bottom of the front, then put somekind of lizard like a leopard gecko on the land

 

[limz_777]

800 budget is a overkill, go for a bigger setup, more room for animals