# 5.5g nano paludarium



## mellowvision (Feb 6, 2009)

Hello,

I've really just started posting here recently, but have been reading dendroboard for a while now planning out a paludarium.... It's about time I took the plunge and posted up my most recent tank, an experiment really, to see how cork bark does wet, long term. I have no experience with terrariums at all, but have several planted fish tanks, and an older paludarium with a very small land area, so I wanted to try this out on a small scale before making something larger.

the goal was to use the cork to house a filter and act as a barrier for a planted land area. the filter is a 404 pump wrapped in foam. It's plumbed to loc-line fittings that create a drip wall around the cork and over the lower area on the left. I siliconed the cork bark to the tank walls about 1.5" above the bottom, and filled in below with plastic screen, creating an undergravel style intake for the filter. 

The land area is a layered substrate of flourite, medium size gravel, and ceramic filter media. the tank bottom is covered with flourite black. I dusted over that with 1/4" of plantation soil and layed mats of HC that had been grown emmersed over the land area and tucked it into crevices on the taller bark wall. I then added a petite anubias, some tiny bits of minipellia to the wall, and some floating plants.

It is home to a small ramshorn snail, 3 black bee shrimp and 7 Danionella Translucida, which are really tiny.

I'm curious for opinions of how I could have done this better, and how you think the cork will hold up over time.

thanks and enjoy!


----------



## stitchb (Jan 26, 2009)

Wow this is pretty cool! 

I like how large everthing looks in that small tank. I can't speak from experience but I think the cork should be fine as it is extremely rot and water resistant.

Should be a cool little experiment!


----------



## Geckoguy (Dec 10, 2008)

great work in such a small space looks alot bigger than it is.


----------



## Marinarawr (Jan 14, 2009)

This is SO phenomenal!! In all sincerity I absolutely adore it. Is that Hemianthus callitrichoides capping the cork bark? And an Anubias nana? I hope you're planning on planting below the surface as well and I'll be waiting on the edge of my seat for those pics . Seriously... Bravo!


----------



## Nate (Jan 5, 2009)

Thats a 5 gallon? Holy cow, that is the cutest darn thing I have every seen! It looks nothing like a 5 gallon.... 

As for the cork bark, I submerged a pretty big piece of mine completely in water for 5 weeks and saw no problems other then it being soggy.


----------



## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

Like the guy said to the woman walking the bulldog puppy.

"Too bad they can't stay small and cute forever"

Any aquarium looks great the day it's set up and then it grows.....


----------



## mellowvision (Feb 6, 2009)

Thanks everyone for all the comments!



Philsuma said:


> Like the guy said to the woman walking the bulldog puppy.
> 
> "Too bad they can't stay small and cute forever"
> 
> Any aquarium looks great the day it's set up and then it grows.....


this has been exactly my experience with aquariums, which is why I chose to limit my plant selection to the hc and petite nana. The HC will require trimming of the tops, but shouldn't really spread very fast considering the lack of substrate. I hope. It will be interesting to see how the minipellia fills in on the cork as well.


----------



## slowfoot (Sep 23, 2008)

Gorgeous  It looks really natural.


----------



## toxicterribilis (Mar 21, 2008)

That Is Awesome !


----------



## thong_monster (May 6, 2006)

Nice job! I especially like how the HC grows on that slope. 
How long has this paludarium been set up for?


----------



## mellowvision (Feb 6, 2009)

thanks! the pictures span 16 days.


----------



## Xphile1999 (Mar 26, 2009)

Can we ask how the cork has (or hasn't) heldup since initial planting?

Great work BTW!


----------



## maverick3x6 (Jul 31, 2008)

Excellent work with the HC, beautiful little carpet you have there. (sorry if you specified before, short on time), but how much did you put down initially?


----------



## mellowvision (Feb 6, 2009)

heya.

the cork is holding up fine, i see no signs of deterioration and it's become a favorite food spot for my snails, who climb the water falls and graze what they find at the top.

in terms of the HC, I put down a lot. I bought a 4"x8" rectangle mat of it, and broke that up over the surface. I didn't want to wait for it to grow in. I'm glad I did this too, because now the mats have rooted to the substrate and to the cork, and are thick and dense, like pressing on upholstery or broccoli almost. I've seen a ton of growth.


----------



## reptileink (May 1, 2005)

When I used cork bark in my Paludarium, it looked great for a couple weeks, then the tannin in the bark(brown color) started to really leach out into the water and turned it a very dark brown, almost making it impossible to see the fish. I guess I could have done multiple water changes all the time, but I just let nature take it's course. Ended up looking like strong tea.....lol


----------



## mellowvision (Feb 6, 2009)

I was worried about that, but haven't seen that much discoloration yet. I am building a larger tank like this, that is going to be completely submerged cork, not a paludarium, an aquarium... but part of doing it is to see how much leeches. Water changes and good filtration should keep the water clear enough to see, and tannins ought to subside over time.


----------



## chinoanoah (Mar 9, 2009)

Any updated pics?


----------



## dart_frog_junkie (Apr 9, 2009)

Looks great! I just have one question, what are the floating plants? They look like something I could use for another viv project


----------



## super7 (Oct 27, 2008)

dart_frog_junkie said:


> Looks great! I just have one question, what are the floating plants? They look like something I could use for another viv project


Im pretty sure the floating plants are a type of salvinia.
Super7


----------



## dart_frog_junkie (Apr 9, 2009)

super7 said:


> Im pretty sure the floating plants are a type of salvinia.
> Super7


Thanks Super7


----------



## daemondamian (Feb 3, 2008)

Sweet little tank! 

I was wondering in the 2nd photo there's another tank on the right hand side - a fishtank/paludarium type set up? 

Do my eyes deceive me or do you have a tree growing in there?

I once thought about swamp cypress being great to grow out of a fishtank and actually sowed seed but my seedlings died in the winter - oops :\ lol.


----------



## mellowvision (Feb 6, 2009)

thanks! 

you are correct, that is a tree growing in there. 2 really. One is just a red mangrove I got as a seed pod. I had it in the same tank until about a month ago when I took the tank down. They really don't like having their roots disturbed, and it never recovered. The other tree in the back corner is pretty cool, I started it from a branch trimmed from a Ming Aralia. (funny backstory, it was the only part of the tree, which I bought from Ikea, that survived the mossy pot catching on fire) 

I cut the branch back in 2008 or so, and planted it in about 4" of eco-complete hung in a windowscreen bowl/island in the corner of the tank. It quickly rooted and shot roots through the screen, and started taking pretty well. Since then, I've kept it growing, and even cut more trees from the original cutting. Right now, I have 4 main trunks with several smaller offshoots that all stand between 16-24" tall. They all have their roots completely soaked all the time. I currently have them growing in a 12"x12"x4" glass vase that I built some quick planters in to try out sculpey. It sort of looks like a grove stand type bonsai. The trees are doing great, but the banks haven't really had the amount of moss growth I was hoping for. 

There are some great pics on this page Have you used sculpey or another pvc clay? - Page 4 

I should probably post some updated pics too, haven't had the time to pretty it up for a shot.

One word of warning though, Ming Aralias are considered poisonous, so you need to be careful handling them, and don't want your dog to eat them or anything like that. I haven't had any problems with fish or inverts with them, even when they've fallen in the water, but I'm very careful with the trimmings.


----------



## daemondamian (Feb 3, 2008)

Thank you so much for the great information and link to your thread. 

That setup looks pretty awesome too! 

I'd definitely love to see how it's looking now.


----------



## Taron (Sep 23, 2009)

Sweet paludarium.....i like the anubias

dart frogs, fish, plants, and tons of other critters


----------

