# Beginning Paludarium...best Substrate?



## Guest (May 14, 2006)

So I've got a 20 gallon that's going to be free after I get some stuff done(moving Mudskipper into a 55g to get a few mates and sand substrate) and I'm planning on building a Paludarium.
My plan so far is to have about 1/4ish water, the rest land with plants. 
Stocking I'd like to get a couple Fire-belly newts maybe some other types of frogs(I need more research before dart frogs) and some Neon Tetras/Guppies.
My question is obviously...what is the best substrate to accomodate this? I was thinking some type of soil to allow for the plants, which would also be cheap to get from pretty much any store.


----------



## JoshKaptur (Feb 17, 2004)

I assume your land/water sections are completely separated. You will need this to ensure that your substrate has adequate drainage... you do not want it to be saturated for growing most plants... plus it will almost certainly leech into the water if they are not separated.

An commercial orchid mix (no fertilizers) comprised of bits of bark, charcoal, etc... combined with some milled spagnum and peat moss makes a nice substrate, in my opinion, for growing almost any plant in a vivarium. Search these forums for "ABG mix" to get more information. It's not an exact science, and you'll see many variations, but you'll get the idea quickly.


----------



## rattler_mt (Apr 15, 2005)

my favorite mix for a high moisture substrate is:

about 50% sorta fine milled cypress mulch, coconut husk chips and fine orchid bark(fir usually), for good drainage and to create a decent amount of air pockets in the soil that arent going to collapse easily

about 30% coco fiber(sold in bricks at pet stores), does not rot or go bas as easily as peat moss. lasts much longer. only problem is it seems to leach lots of tannins in the water. should be rinsed really well cause of the slight risk it might have come from a coastal area and have salts.

about 20% mix of long fibered sphagnum moss and peat moss(rinsed really well, in a cubic foot bale you can have areas of really good and really bad peat and its near impossible to tell the difference, rinsing helps bad peat alot) 

this rough mix has proved to work quite well for long periods in high saturation conditions for me though there are generally lots of tannins put into the water so i do partial water changes every other month and it works fine.


----------



## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

From what ive read from your post, the type of substrate is the least of your worries. WIth a 20 gallon you are going to be very limited on floor space so you are going to have small land and water area. It will work but severely limit the number of inhabitants you can have. You will probably have 1-2 gallons of water in the water section which is enough to maybe cram 4 guppies or tetras in there.

Also with that small of a tank and being new and the fact that mixing species is looked down apon, you wont be able to have everything you want. If you want newts then you shouldnt have frogs. If you want frogs you need to decide which ones you like and get 2 or 3 at most in there. You also need to make sure you have about 1 to 1 1/2" of air between the bottom of the land and the top of the water level to make sure it drains properly. I had this problem and the soil was too soggy. Also you have to make sure that its possible/easy for the frogs to get back in on the land if they happen to fall in the water area.

Other than that, Im using Jungle Mix substrate in my paludarium and once I raised the land area higher above the water it seems to be doing good and all the plants are doing great in it.


----------



## Guest (May 16, 2006)

I doubt I'm going to be putting any fish in there, upon further thought actually. 
And thanks for the info, I actually thought the newts and frogs would be good together. I've never really seen any info that says otherwise. I do see how, though, since you're not supposed to mix any species of Reptiles etc. 
I'll probably stick with frogs, then. Start off with something easy-ish and build from there while doing research. 

Thanks for the replies.


----------

