Walnut paludarium

[the_deeb]

Thought I'd start a journal for a new project.

It's a fairly small tank by MFK standards, so not really a "monster" build. The tank will going in this corner of our dining room, where it will be visible from the kitchen, dining and livingroom.

Unfortunately it doesn't offer much space - the footprint is only about enough room for a standard 20H, but I could bring myself to settle for that. So since I don't have room to build wide/long, I thought I'd build up and make a tall column paludarium.

Since it's located in a fairly prominent spot in our house, I'm really hoping to make it look like a piece of high end furniture when it's done.

 

[the_deeb]

One of the other motivations for this build was that I discovered that they had started selling walnut at my local home depot. It's beautiful wood and I really wanted to build something with it.

Here's a side view of the tank and you can see the pocket holes used to attach the walnut face frame leaving an unblemished front face:

Here's the other side. The cutoff indicates roughly where the water height will be. The part above that will have a hinged door opening for easy access the planting area above.

 

[the_deeb]

For the top piece of the door, I rip cut the walnut to get a seamless/grain matched opening. I drilled some holes and embedded 3 rare-earth magnets along the edge to help keep the door secure when closed:

Here's the door hinge installed. I used "lift-off" hinges, which will allow me to remove the door completely if needed for maintenance, and should also make it easier to eventually install the glass.

 

[the_deeb]

I cut some ventilation slots into the top braces to help with airflow and hopefully help to prevent the windows from fogging up.

 

[the_deeb]

And here's the whole assembly

And here you can see how the door will open:

 

[the_deeb]

Realized I messed up the link in the previous post

 

[Abyssalisk]

Haha if it fits then why not I've read through your other builds and I've gotta say I'm a fan. I'd definitely recommend clear pond shield for your diy scapes. Just a thin layer will make it bulletproof. Plus it waterproofs wood, preventing that tedious rot that always finds a way. Then you won't have loaches chewing into your drylock and polystyrene Haha good luck! I'll be following along.

 

[the_deeb]

Waterproofing the tank the same way I've done my larger plywood builds. Probably overkill, but better to do it right.

Sealed with West System Epoxy:

First I taped the seams. I used the trick of laying the tank on it's edge, which let's the epoxy pool into seam. Really helps to fill any gaps, clear out bubbles and ensure that you build up a nice amount of material in the corners. Easier to do on this build since it's smaller and bit more manageable to move around.

After the corners were done, I also fiberglassed the bottom and walls up to where the waterline will be. Above that, I just did plain epoxy.

Total of 3-4 coats of epoxy

 

[jsc]

Looking great !

 

[the_deeb]

Finished the stand. I tried to design it to be fairly sleek and mid century modern in style. I neglected to take many pictures of the stand construction, except for this one of the door handle that I cut and shaped out of some scrap walnut.

Tank on stand: