# My Fully Self-Sustaining Paludarium WITH App Is Finished!



## Bantam.Earth (Jul 20, 2018)

Hey guys, 

This is my first time posting here even though I have been an active peeper for quite some time.. I have taken so much away from this site in terms of knowledge, so today I would like to give back to anyone out there interested in trying something unique with there setup!

I started working on this paludarium around march and it has been an absolute challenge not to jump the gun and post about what I'm working on until it was 100% done.









The biggest reason I didn't wanna say anything about this project during the build was to keep from making a fool out of myself if I didn't commit to finishing it. I'm def one of those people that will come up with an idea and get bored with it after a week of curb stumping my head over some part I cant figure out..

so anyway, let's get to the build before you guys start curb stumping me for drifting off subject.. I would like to introduce you to "Edens.Bow"!










She is a full ecosystem harboring multiple species of life, aquatic AND terrestrial! She comes complete with an app that monitors her vitals (temperature & humidity) and can replicate a typical day in the amazon. It simulates morning, noon, evening, night and even different levels of rain (from tropical showers to full blown thunder storms! 









To keep this post from being extremely long, my girlfriend and I put a website together documenting every single stage of the build, I will make this post more of an overview and link to different parts of the build. I think there will be more people interested in particular parts of the build so this will allow them to go straight to that part instead of scrolling through this long post.

So, this project started with a 55 gallon aquarium I baught off someone who used it as a saltwater set up. It came with a working sump, stand and tank. 










*Constructing The Custom Tank*

Everything that is added on to the aquarium is pretty much styrofoam sheets. I made my own little plumbing extension that ran off the top of the return jets and extended it up to the terrarium part of the tank. everything is grouted, painted and sealed to look like real rock. 









**I go further into detail about how I built the paludarium here.

*Building The Arduino Based Controller*

I felt an Arduino Mega 2560 board would perfectly handle the task of monitoring the tanks statistics.. As well as allow me to toggle through a few settings whenever I wanted to do something.










I mapped out all of the things I wanted to be able to do to the vivarium from a joystick and in LCD monitor:
-Continuously monitor humidity, as well as air and water temperature
-Control things like a fan, basking light, rain irrigation system and toggle through various day/night settings using LED’s
-Enable Bluetooth compatibility for remote “app” control with any mobile device

**I go further into detail about how I built the paludarium controller with Arduino here.

*The Lighting System for the tank*

The lighting portion of the project had to be very strategic. I had to figure out a number of challenges.. How to properly light the terrarium plants as well as the aquatic plants.. How to pretty much mimic the sun with healthy measurements of heat as well as UV lighting for the animals that needed it like the reptiles & amphibians.. Most importantly I wanted to still portray the natural look of the sky in a safe and inaccessible way to the inhabitants!










I broke this bit of the project into two easy to develop parts. The LEDs would supply the needed lighting to the plants and act as the “sky”… The All-In-One reptile lamp would supply the day time heating and necessary UVB/UVA light while simultaneously acting as the sun!

**I go further into detail about how to naturally light a paludarium here.

*Adding sound FX to the tank*

Even though this is a minor and in no way a necessary part to this build.. I really wanted to have nature sounds in this paludarium. It was a nice touch of realism that truly sets this tank a part if you ever got to see it in person.

As the day progresses, the sounds within the environment change. From distant birds singing in the morning, to random howling or chirping crickets to compliment the synthetic starry night.. You can’t truly portray a stormy afternoon without the introduction of rolling thunder and random crackling when lightning strikes!










Working through different types of mini sub-woofers and amplifiers, I was finally able to make the perfect set up that easily coded into the Mega 2560 board.

**I go further into detail about how I added nature sounds to the paludarium here. The sound bits I’m currently using for Edens.Bow will be available for download soon..

*Building the App that remote controls everything*

After tying it all together and making sure the tank ran on it’s own without complications, we move on to the mobile application. This was a very important feature for me to have on this tank. I wanted to build it with an app maker that offered an easy learning curve.

I decided to try out MIT App Inventor and was very pleased with the amount of time it took to fully get this concept up and running.










The main functionality would be the exact same as the main hub on the paludarium with the additional ability to set up a schedule so the tank could cycle through various settings on its own. I think later updates to this app will come with features like:

-Remote feature accessing from anywhere in the world.
-Data logging for compared statistics
-Monitoring water parameters like ammonia levels and PH

**I go further into detail about the remote controlled paludarium app here.

*Scaping The Paludarium With Plants*

Scaping this tank was extremely fun!! keeping the plants alive though... I'm working on that lol.. aquarium plants aren't too hard to manage if you are giving them a decent amount of light and dont have animals ripping away at them daily. the real challenge for me was the terrarium plants at first. I took the long road on figuring out things like transplant shock and what plants like more water & humidity than others.

I put a list together of the paludarium plants that worked best for me here.










*Adding the animals to the tank*

I finally added life here! I started with the clean up crew and worked my way to the main attraction.

Springtails, Isopods and shrimp are the micro inhabitants that work to keep the tank clean.. Fiddler crabs do a pretty good job in the terrarium too and actually enjoy being above water more than I first imagined. Catfish help out with the cleaning as well down under.










We originally had two baby chameleons in the terrarium portion but had to separate them as they got older.. The males become a bit too much once sexually active lol..

Adding the right assortment of fish is an on going task as most of you may know. So we rotated around with various other tanks in our home until we got a good community beginning to coexist.

**I go further into detail about my choice of paludarium animals here.

even though I'm "done" with the this build, I will continue to update this tank with little tweaks here and there and keep this thread updated with new add ons and touch ups as I go.

Hope you guys like the build, I'm nervous and excited about the feedback at the same time :hihi::hihi::help: but feel free to AMA.. I'll try to be as much help as I can!


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## LeftyGinger (Sep 28, 2016)

This is awesome! Thanks for sharing your going to reap the rewards of your work for a long long time.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk


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## Bantam.Earth (Jul 20, 2018)

LeftyGinger said:


> This is awesome! Thanks for sharing your going to reap the rewards of your work for a long long time.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk


no problem and thank you for the kind words!!


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## glenn49 (Jan 27, 2017)

Bantam.Earth said:


> no problem and thank you for the kind words!!


Very very nice I need one of those to replace my biopod.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

How is this a self sustaining enclosure or a complete ecosystem? 

While not a bunny hugger, I have to question the usage of fiddler crabs which are a group of crabs that require salt water for long-term health. 

In addition, i would suggest that using turtles in an enclosure like that isn't the best idea since they are vectors for Amebiasis which is a serious risk for non-aquatic herps like the chameleons. 

A final consideration for your enclosure is that you have housed multiple non-zoogeographic correct animals in the same cages all of which have the potential to cross infect with pathogens that are novel to the other species. As an example, Iridoviridae viruses infect all of those as hosts and the Iridoviridae can jump hosts from invertebrate to vertebrate (see for example Weinmann, Nadine, et al. "Experimental infection of crickets (Gryllus bimaculatus) with an invertebrate iridovirus isolated from a high-casqued chameleon (Chamaeleo hoehnelii)." Journal of veterinary diagnostic investigation 19.6 (2007): 674-679.). 

As a final potential pathogen/parasite consideration is that chelonians like the turtle are also potential vectors of Cryptosporidium ssp as they can be asymptomatic carriers. 

I would suggest testing the animals for the relevant pathogens before mixing them together... 

and again, how is the cage self sustaining??

some comments 

Ed


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## Bantam.Earth (Jul 20, 2018)

Ed said:


> How is this a self sustaining enclosure or a complete ecosystem?
> 
> While not a bunny hugger, I have to question the usage of fiddler crabs which are a group of crabs that require salt water for long-term health.
> 
> ...


wow.. let me start by saying thank you for the highly detailed feedback on my build. I greatly appreciate any opportunity to hear it straight and you have brought a number of things to my attention. 

All of these animals have independent enclosures to themselves that are still currently here for emergencies. I closely observe the animals and quickly remove them if i notice problems. The turtles for example was eventually moved to their own enclosure because I noticed they really enjoyed their solitary. the chameleons got separated once the male started stressing the female out over sex. 

For the most part the tank has progressed well with these animals together under close observation. 

As far as the self sustaining part. They idea is the tank monitors it's vitals.. if things get too hot, it shuts down the heat.. too dry, the fog turns on.
The ecosystem is based on an aquaponic method, the fish feed the plants.. the plants clean the water.. the clean up crew aid in breaking down the waste and the bacteria aid with breaking down the waste further more. now that the tank is complete and running, the idea is too grow the livestock within the tank until it can sustain its self. 

The fiddler crabs that have been living in here have been doing fine in the freshwater they currently live in.. in fact, They did just fine in the freshwater the store I baught them from kept them in as well. I'm aware that fiddler crabs do breed in salt water and prefer more brackish waters than I currently have them in. My honest thoughts are considering a brackish water set up some time soon for puffer fish my girlfriend really want to get, I would eventually move them in there.

hopefully that explains a bit more in detail what my idea of this build was suppose to be.. My ultimate goal with this tank is for it to feed and maintain itself in the long run as I add more gadgets to it


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## Bantam.Earth (Jul 20, 2018)

glenn49 said:


> Very very nice I need one of those to replace my biopod.



haha! you got my vote. it will require a bit of time but i'm here if you need me!!


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## Dr. Manhattan (Oct 28, 2016)

Very nice. I love multi-species terraria myself and it's something I've been doing since reading Dr. Robert Spracklands Animals and Plants in Aqua-terrariums some 23 years ago. Why should zoos and aquariums have all the fun ?


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## Dr. Manhattan (Oct 28, 2016)

Oops. Sorry, the book is Animals and Fishes in Aqua-terrariums. Been awhile since I've looked at it.


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## Bantam.Earth (Jul 20, 2018)

Dr. Manhattan said:


> Very nice. I love multi-species terraria myself and it's something I've been doing since reading Dr. Robert Spracklands Animals and Plants in Aqua-terrariums some 23 years ago. Why should zoos and aquariums have all the fun ?


I couldn't agree more! I would love to see more set ups with multi-species in them but I know there are just a lot of risk and maintenance involved with this type of tank. Thank you for the share I'm going to check amazon today to see if I can order a copy!!


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## Deltagraphic (Sep 29, 2017)

Wow, this is exactly the sort of build i’d love to do if I was handy with arduinos and code. Admittedly, the choice of livestock was a bit alarming to me at first glace, but if thats what youre set on doing, having seperate single species tanks to return them to seems like the way to do it. Having kept fiddler crabs myself before I consolidated my aquarium hobby down to two tanks, I think shifting them to a brackish setup is a good idea although im not sure how they’d fair with puffers. Have you considered trying those vampire crabs? If I recall those are truly freshwater. 

Ed, thanks for sharing the info about novel pathogens from inverts. Ive been operating under the assumption that housing my frogs with a whole host of invertebrates didnt pose much risk as long as they got along peacefully. Its a bit late now and I certainly couldnt separate them all out if I tried but good to know for future tanks.


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## jkdub (Jul 11, 2017)

I think what ED means by self sustaining is that if you left it alone for a year you could come back and all of the animals would still be in prime condition. I think you have most of this except for one detail that I could think of. The food supply is not sustainable. I dont believe there would be a way to keep a food supply sustainable in there for chameleons. 

I still love what you have done. It’s an awesome project!


Enviado desde mi iPad utilizando Tapatalk


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## Ravage (Feb 5, 2016)

jkdub said:


> I think what ED means by self sustaining is that if you left it alone for a year you could come back and all of the animals would still be in prime condition.


I think that's the definition of "self sustaining".

But let's put the terminology behind us. It is very cool. I would, however take Ed's info on the tank mates seriously. That aside as well, this is a very ambitious build and I will check out your website on the full build. This type of automation is a pretty desirable innovation that has a place in the keeping of exotics. The thing about technology is we always need one of us monkeys to make sure it really is working. We will always be the keepers.
Two thumbs up!


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## viper69 (Dec 28, 2013)

This is a great write up. I def agree with Ed on this for sure. He said it accurately.


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