# Dutch guy's first Paludarium



## VPardoel (Apr 2, 2010)

Hi there.

Its time to show you all my paludarium, build from an old aquarium.

Sizes: 106x107x35 (yeah its not to deep.)

Behold.

The aquarium at the beginning.










I've build a nice place for it to stand on









Taken care of the aquarium.










The lightsource and the false bottom with the viv in between.









Total shot, after the paint + epoxy










Building of the background.










More isolation foam










And after a couple of day's 










Coated with peatdust and tile adhesive (roughly translated from dutch to english, i really don't know if you guys know these products by these names)

And for further information:

I'm using an falsebottom, all the water from the bottom is filterd and pumped up again to the waterfall.
There are 2 PL lights in the lightsource, and i'm gonna need to attach something to keep the fruitfly's out of my room and the frogs frog climbing to the lights.

This is my first viv i've ever build, i've been reading these forums for the past years to gather information and now its my turn to build one.
When the front windows are in place, i'm gonna check the humidity etc. for a couple of weeks.

And then decide what frogs to pick.

Hope you'll enjoy these photo's, because there will be more in the future 

(Btw the last 2 pics are huge... is there an code to shrink them?)


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## goku (Nov 11, 2009)

cool backround! in holland you have the sense of building vivariums on your genes keep updated!

greetings!


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## SamsonsFrogs (Mar 4, 2009)

Looks great! I like the roots you made. Keep us posted!

Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using Tapatalk


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## varanoid (Jan 21, 2011)

looking good.


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## VPardoel (Apr 2, 2010)

Hang on... its update time 


First off is my first inhabitant in the tank.
It looks like some sort of ichneumon wasp... never saw one though... but there's no room for you mister wasp.. down the drain with you 
Must make place for the frogs 











Second my Philodendron micans spurs




















And last but not least.. the total view.
(don't mind the white spots... those are exposed after raining the tank).
I've been growing moss to cover them 










And i've also planted small pieces of Ficus on the background, so thats gonna be a nice covering after some time 

I'm trying to make an perfect tank for the epipedobates tricolor highland.
But first some weeks (if not months) of creating an well cycled tank for the little guys.

Hope you'll like it.


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## zzpop102 (Apr 24, 2010)

I love the background. Great job.


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## VPardoel (Apr 2, 2010)

Tnx Mike !


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## Tex22seg (Dec 3, 2010)

it looks like it is going to be a nice viv build!!hehem exuse me Plaudarium build.


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## VPardoel (Apr 2, 2010)

Tex22seg said:


> it looks like it is going to be a nice viv build!!hehem exuse me Plaudarium build.


 its all the same..

Just some awesome looking tanks with frogs in it.


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## dragon25 (Nov 10, 2010)

i love this background, especially the roots,

Adam


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## VPardoel (Apr 2, 2010)

hhmmm photobucket is trippin balls...

I'm just gonna upload the pictures were you can see the transformation.
(i cant edit my previous messeges right? )


It started with the aquarium









Made the background









And ended with this.









And now it look like this.


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## VPardoel (Apr 2, 2010)

A lot has happend the last time i've posted here.

But in about 2 hours i'm gonna pick up my Epipedobates anthonyi *highland*

To be continued


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## 19jeffro83 (Sep 5, 2011)

All pics say deleted? You should put some new obes of the frogs when you get them.


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## EntoCraig (May 17, 2011)

Is that commander Keen?!

Yeah hopefully you can get the pics working because I want to see how this is going.


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## VPardoel (Apr 2, 2010)

Yes the pictures are deleted because photobucket was acting weird.

Here are some pictures of my tank on my own site:

Gallery

And yes sir that is the one and only commander keen 


And after my frogs have arrived i will be posting an huge photo post.


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## EntoCraig (May 17, 2011)

VPardoel said:


> And yes sir that is the one and only commander keen


AWESOME.

Tank looks great.


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## VPardoel (Apr 2, 2010)

First some pictures to warm you guys up.

The echeveria black prince 









The Hypoestes is blooming










Tank shot (blurry image  )









De Highlanders have arrived 

Epipedobates Anthonyi *Highland* x4 (sex unknown)

































Thats it for now.

I'm giving my frogs some time to discover the tank etc.
Hope you've enjoyed the pics


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## VPardoel (Apr 2, 2010)

I find the lack of comments disturbing 

Therefore 






Enjoy


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## Okapi (Oct 12, 2007)

cant wait to see it grown in


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## gnod (Sep 12, 2011)

very nice tank! what kind of plants are those on the higher backgroudn wall? look like pennyworts to me..


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## VPardoel (Apr 2, 2010)

gnod said:


> very nice tank! what kind of plants are those on the higher backgroudn wall? look like pennyworts to me..


Do you mean the plants attached to the wall? or on top of it.

On the top i've got some moss lying there.
And i'm going to check the name of the background plants 

And some macro shots of my frogs.


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## VPardoel (Apr 2, 2010)

Time for some new pics.

I made the pictures with my videocam i cant get up close to get some shots.

Here goes.

Water drop










So much for the flora  time for the frogs























































Frog with a fly on its chin 









And some tongue photo's


















I'm not proud of them because of the noise in the photo's but i feel like sharing them with you


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## VPardoel (Apr 2, 2010)

Today i got my macro lense.

Some first shots.



















And some good and bad news.

First the bad news.
My current viv has an massive crack and the viv is losing alot of heat.
The frogs are currently staying at a friend of mine.
If they would stay in the tank they would surely freeze to death.
But now the good news.

I've bough a new vivarium, this one was an DIY aquarium build.
It worked as an viv, but the tank failed at some points.

If the viv has arrived i will be posting some pics.


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## VPardoel (Apr 2, 2010)

Damn 5 months and no comments?

Don't know if i'm gonna post some more pictures, without comments its no fun at all.

Maybe i'll open an new thread for my new tank and close this one.


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## eos (Dec 6, 2008)

VPardoel said:


> Damn 5 months and no comments?
> 
> Don't know if i'm gonna post some more pictures, without comments its no fun at all.
> 
> Maybe i'll open an new thread for my new tank and close this one.


Just because noone comments, doesn't mean we don't appreciate the pics.... plus sometimes an influx of posts tend to push some threads further down the bottom of the page where it can get missed sometimes.... don't stop posting pictures... we all love pics here


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## VPardoel (Apr 2, 2010)

Haha cant argue with that  you're right


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## eos (Dec 6, 2008)

With that said.... you got any recent full tank shots?


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## VPardoel (Apr 2, 2010)

eos said:


> With that said.... you got any recent full tank shots?


Nope as you can see in the last update my tank had some damage with the crack.
The heat is escaping real fast.
Some of the plants have died but i've managed to rescue about 60% of them.

The hard part now is to wait till the new tank is done.
And then the real fun can begin.
This tank was pure to introduce myself in the dart frog world.
But the tank failed at so many points after i've experienced some issue's.

The new tank will be an 80x40x50 (lxdxh) (don't know how many gallons that is)
I'm going to make an false bottom ofcourse and a drain in the bottom of the tank.
Also the old lights (2x PL 55 watt) will be used on the new tank.
(don't know if it will be to bright, don't think so)
And the 2 fans will be used aswell.

And for the tank decoration... i'm thinking about lots of wood and background broms.
And on the foreground some small plants and moss.

But thats stage 2 of the process 
If the tank arrives i'm making an update here


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