# Construction Journal of my new Paludarium



## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

I have been reading the forums for the past couple of months and finally felt that I have learned enough to start my own tank. I'm new to the dart frog hobby, but I have been keeping fish tanks for a while now. I have a 10 gallon and a 72gallon bowfront planted tank that has been running for a while now. 

I have finally started building my paludarium to eventually hold a group of darts. It's going to be a paludarium and Im using the x-large exo-terra (18x18x24) for my project. I have just started not too long ago and have started taking pictures of the progress.

Since the tank is an akward shape, I couldn't find a decent stand to fit it so I had to make my own. I have never been too good working with wood but it came out alright. I used plans from this website to make the stand. http://www.fishandtips.com/index.php The stand is extremely stable, probably more than the one holding my 72gallon fishtank. Here are some pictures of the stand.

This is a picture of the front of the stand. I have already finished it and done 2 coats of primer along with most of the sanding. The only thing that is left is the final coat.


















Here ist he back of the stand. You can see the 2x2" frame and the 3/4" plywood sides.









There is one big problem with the plans from that website. When you put the dimension of the stand you want in, the sizes it gives you are for the frame. It doesn't calculate the 3/4" plywood you have on each side. So as you can see in the pictures, the stand in a bit bigger than the base of the tank. I feel pretty stupid for not catching that before I started building it.


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

Hmm it doesn't seem to want to work with linking my image and showing a thumbnail of it here, any suggestions?


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## jmcc000 (Apr 7, 2005)




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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

Care to share how you did that?  I have a lot more pictures of my progress to add. I can't get html to work either so if you could let me know what code you are using to do that it would be appreciated.

*edit* nm i figured it out. The links I copied had a space in them, not sure why. Thanks for the help.


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## jmcc000 (Apr 7, 2005)

Very nice looking stand. I dont know why it worked for me,


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

As you can see in first pictures, I have a 5 gallon sump underneath. I'm going to plumb a PVC overflow in the tank. This way the water lever in the exo-terra will always be the same and won't get to low. It also prevents the tank from draining if there is a power outage or the pump fails.

As you can see the shelf is too high and there is almost no room to do the plumbing to the tank. I didn't plan on a 5 gallon being so tall when I built the stand. So it was a lot of work lowering the shelf since the 2x2" supports were nailed/screwed in with 3" screws.

Here is the sump now lowered ~5" so I can fit my arms in to work on the plumbing.









I am going to have a canister filter (not sure which one yet, looking for a good deal) below the tank, so I couldn't lower it much more.


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## jmcc000 (Apr 7, 2005)

I really like that stand. Are you gonna put a door on the front of it. Thanks for the link to that site, i will try and make one here soon for the same Exo Terra. Keep the pics coming


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

In order for my idea for the overflow to work, I had to drill the tank. I ordered 1/2" bulkheads from http://www.marinedepot.com since they ship from anaheim and I recieved them the next day. The problem was they sent me 3/4" and didn't have any 1/2" in stock.......

The only diamond bit we had was 1 3/8" and 3/4" require a 1 1/2" hole. We checked with some calipers and found that the bit is just big enough for the bulkheads so I went ahead with the drilling.

Now neither me or my dad have ever drilled glass, and I wasn't about to test my skills on a 100$ tank. So I went to a local glass shop to ask if they could drill it. Aparently the drill press thye have was too big to fit in my tank, so they couldn't help me. He did however give me a nice size piece of scrap glass to practice on for free 

In the picture you can see the guide I have set up for the bit. This is a must have since it will walk all over the glass if you don't have something to prevent it from moving. I used a 1 3/8" wood hole saw and drilled the hole 1 1/2" from each corner (This would help me place the hole in the tank and prevent from getting too close to the edges). It also held water decently well.









Once you get a nice groove started, you can remove the template and keep drilling. I never had a problem with water moving away from the bit so I didn't bother setting up a barrier for it. The bit was always nice and cool to. I did constantly spray with water though and would periodically stop to wipe away all the bits of glass.









First try we did it wil no cracking or problems. It does take a while (Like 10-15 minutes for 1/4" glass) but It's better to go slow. You can also see the bulkhead fits perfect in a 1 3/8" hole 




























*edit* Yes the door is done already.....Well it's assembled. It's actually waiting in the sun right now getting ready for primer along with the canopy


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## Moe (Feb 15, 2004)

Nice journal. What return pump are you using?

Moe


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## Darks!de (Nov 16, 2004)

Very nice so far. When figuring out which return pump to buy, first measure how high it will travel from the pump to the top of the waterfall or other water feature. Then you'll need to figure out approximately what gph rate you will want flowing out of the feature. Then you have to find a pump that matches it. Yes, that is all pretty common sense, but what I didn't realize, is that the gph listed on the pumps is the gph at pump level. For each foot of height increase that gph drops dramatically...fortunately there are charts on the back of some pump boxes showing the decrease in gph with added height. Make certain you are picking the right pump, because lots of people get too high or too low of a gph and have problems. I recommend getting one of the pondmaster pumps. They have a large range in power, have adjustable flow intakes, have built in prefilters, are very reliable, and aren't too expensive. Of course if you want a lot of filtration as per paludarium you would probably want to go with a canister filter like you said.

Luke


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

I'm farther than the journal has led you guys to believe, i just have been working on it so I didn't get to post it all. I had a danner mag 3 which is 350gph. At a 2' head it says it pumps like 300gph (I think, going off memory). When used in the tank it actually pumped faster than a 3/4" pvc overflow could drain. We did a semi accurate test and came up with it was pumping aruond 275gph where it was. So I bought a pump that at 2' head is supposed to be ~130gph, so 2gpm. The overflow keeps up with it no problem, but the problem is now it's kind of noisy 

I have found some ideas online on how to reduce the noise of the water flowing that I'm giong to try, but any other ideas are welcome.


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

Ok another update, hopefully by tommorow I should be caught up to where I'm currently at (Maybe tonight before bed if I have time). So after testing drilling the practice piece of glass I moved on to the real tank. I also wasn't sure if this bit would work for cutting glass , but as you can see it did 

So I set up the template again to start the hole. That piece of metal is solid steel and ways something like 25lbs. It was to hold the template in place. The bottom of the tank is elevated from the ground with wood so the glass has some support on the back.









Here I am drilling away.


















And both holes were a success  Still a lot of water/glass bits all over though.










And here are some pictures of the bulkheads installed with the tank on the stand. Yes one of the holes in the stand is a bit off and yes those teeth marks in the paint are from the hole saw owning me  (Stuipd pilot bit wasn't in tight enough). The holes in the stand are 2 1/2" to give some room.


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## lacerta (Aug 27, 2004)

I appreciate the journal you have put together so far and find it very informative. I hope to set up a pair of 18x18 exo-terras soon. I do have a question for you. I see that when drilling the two holes in the tank bottom, you are reaching INTO the tank and drilling from the inside - out. Why couldn't you drill from the outside - in by flipping the tank upside down? Would that not allow you to use a drill press? I suppose you would still need to provide some support on the inside as you drill. This may require you to build up some sort of support to put the inverted tank over. Please keep us posted on your progress. Thanks.
George


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

In answer to your question, I supposed you could flip it but I wouldn't recomend that. There is no support above the 2 front doors. They go all the way to the top and there is a flimsy piece of plastic above it. Plus the tank (mine at least) is 24" tall. I have a large drill press at home and it can't even go that high. Then like you said there would be a lot of problems with supporting the glass ont he opposite side.

Drilling from the inside is better because you get a nice clean cut on the inside wheren the seal is going to be. The outside is kinda ragged/chipped because even the board I had underneath wasn't enough support.


Now for another update. The canopy is built completely except for the fan holes I'm giong to have to drill and I have to wait for my commision check to buy the 2- 36watt AH retrofit kit to install in it. It's already sanded/filled with wood putty and I put the first coat of primer on it last night. The design for the canopy was something I came up with so it could get some decent airflow without the need for ugly vents on the sides or front of it. 


This picture was extensively detailed with very expensive photo editing software to explain precisely how my canopy design will work









Here is the unedited one to make it easier to see.









And here are some pictures from the outside.


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## jmcc000 (Apr 7, 2005)

Nice work on the stand and canopy. I cant wait to see this when its done. Keep up the good work!!
Jason


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

Ok well I haven't had as much time to work on it as I would have liked to. I have gotten a little done so far, but I'm having a lot of problems with my overflow system. It's work fine.....if you like the sound of ***** falls constantly. This tank is going in my room so it really needs to be quiet so I can get some sleep  

I have been doing extensive reserch on the reef forums and their systems for quietting down the overflow/sump. On my fish tank I have 2 canisters filters that are both plumbed with PVC along with an inline heater, CO2 reactor and UV filter. So plumbing isn't new to me, but overflows are. My initial design was to just have a pipe going up with a 45degree elbow to allow water to flow in. 

Here you can see it filling with water. The output is not setup at all. I just made the pipe taller so no water went in the slipped a 1/2" tube right down the middle for the pump to return water to the tank from the sump. 









Here is the water flowing down the tube. It swirls/sucks in air and is really loud.









So after doing a lot of reserch on the reef forums, I found an overflow they use called the "Durso" overflow. If you want more information you can serch for it on the forums. A large number of people have it and recomend it. Here is what it looks like set up in my tank. The top cap has a hole in it so it is not a siphon. It almost completely silences the overflow.









So now the overflow is silent you'd think everything was great huh.....Not really. Now the sump is even louder. Water/bubbles come down the tube and make the sump sound exactly like a hot tub. I have found some ideas that I am trying to use/modify to work for my situation. I have found one that eliminates most of the noise, but it still douns like running water all the time.

Here the exit tube goes about halfway down the water line. The "T" has a tube going up to release the air and one going down to release the water. It is much quieter, but there is still some air being released into the water making noise. 









So I have come to the conclusion that my pump is a bit too much for my system. It does around 120-130gph at 2' head. I really don't need that much so I'm going to take it back to the LFS and get a smaller model. I really wished they caried something other than a RIO and that I had been patient enough to order one online. I have read lots of crappy reviews about them and am a bit worried. Oh well we'll see what happens.


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

Here are a few more pictures to post also.

This is my profesional painting studio all set up ready to start adding the primer to the canopy and the door for my stand. They are both drying and will probably get sanded/second coat tommorow. My dad was working on the brakes for his car and wanted to be in the shade, so I was kind of cramped lol. 









Now the rest of these are to show what happens when you are experimenting with a siphon overflow and don't pay attention to it. I turned the pump off and thought the siphon would die on it's own how I had it set up. Well apparently I had too much water in the sump and it overflowed. I lost a couple gallons before I got it to stop......stupid stupid stupid........

















I had to dry off the edges of the plywood since the water soaked in on the bottom/sides of the stand. Don't it to start swelling up or anything. So I elevated it and had a fan blowing full blast on it for an hour or so. That was like 2 days ago and the stand is still in perfect condition. I really need to seal the back/bottom/inside of it soon though.









Well now I'm currently up to date with everything. Time to go read up some more on the reef forums to see if I can come up with any more ideas for the overflow.


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

Well it's time for another update. I have been doing a lot of sanding/priming everything. I have also been doing some more testing on the overflow system. I am trying the 3rd pump out and it's just barely too much flow. It works great and is pretty quiet, but it's still too loud. The last one I had was almsot silent but the flow was too low and the pump was buzzing (Said 2' max head, but couldn't really handle 2').

But the canopy/stand/door are now fully sanded and ready to be painted. Tommorow I will do some final cleaning on them and paint them all black to match the rest of the furniture in my room.

Well today I was doing some more reserch on fans for the canopy and found that compusa had some nice quiet 120mm ones for 10$. This was good news since it saved me the 7-10$ that most online places wanted to ship fans. So I bought them and brought them home to test them. Not a tremendous amount of flow, but man are they quiet. Here is the link for the info on the fans. http://www.compusa.com/products/product ... pfp=BROWSE

After doing some searching in my room I found a AC to DC coverter than has an output of 12v DC with 300mA. This is perfect since each fan needs .12amps (Which is 120mA in case you didn't know  ). I dont know what it was from but here is a pic of it.









Now the fans each have 3 wires. A red, a black and a yellow. The red is the +12v wire and the black is the ground wire. The yellow wire is the RPM sensor for fan controllers/motherboards. So basically you just ignore that wire and dont connect it to anything. Being the computer tech guy I am I had a spare male fan connector to use to hook up to the DC converter. Here is the pic of it just twisted on so I could test it to make sure it was wired correctly and that it worked.









This is the fan hooked up and running. I'm still amazed that the camera caught it so the fan doesn't looked blurred at all. I assure you the fan was spinning at full speed though. I used the receipt by the connector just to make sure the wires didn't touch during the test.









Now that I'm sure it works, I'm ready to solder the connector on. Don't forget to put the shrink tubing on the wires before you solder.









Here is it soldered together.









And now here is it finished  I tested it again and it works great. Wow these fans are quiet. Now I have to find a 4" hole saw to cut the holes in the canopy.









Well that's it for tonight, hopefully I'll get everything painted tommorow and have another update ready.


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

Well I finally finished painting the stand, the canopy and the back half of the door. Tommorow I'll paint the front, right after I drill the holes for the hinges. I have never enjoyed or been very good at painting anything. I can build stuff but I just can't paint worth a darn with spray paint or with a brush. With that in mind everything came out alright which means I can almost move on to more fun things (Like working on the actual tank). Anyway here are the pictures I just took.





































The stand is not 100% dry yet so I couldn't get a picture of the tank on the stand with the canopy yet, but it should be ok tommorow. Now I need to order the lights from http://www.ahsupply.com and try and find a 4 1/2" hole saw to cut the holes for the fans in the canopy. Then I have to get a differen't pump for my waterfeature/overflow sysetm.


*I'm also doing some research on using a windshield washer pump for a misting system but I'm not finding much information. I need to know the voltage/current the pump needs to run and the average PSI they normally run at, any information would be really helpfull.*


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

Well I have been busy working on finishing up the stand/door/canopy and I think I'm finally done. I really hate paiting so i'm glad that is over. I also borrowed a hole saw to cut the holes for a 120mm fans int he back of the canopy. 

The hole for the 120mm fan needed to be 4 1/2", but the only size hole saws I could get were 4" and 5". I decided to use the 5" one since it allowed full airflow and wasn't too overlap the screw holes. I put masking tape over the back so I didnt' mess up the paint and So I could mark the center of the holes.


















Here are the holes completely done and the screw holes drilled for the fans. It also has the fan grills sitting on it for testing.









Now for the fun paiting to begin :? I painted the canopy with a gloss white and primed the inside/back/bottom of the stand to seal the wood.









The next day I put the second coat on the canopy and then put the final coat on the stand and let it dry. So I'm finally done, here are the pictures of the tank on the stand witht he canopy and door on.









And here is the inside of the stand. You can see the horrible wopper in the wood I used to make the door. I was hoping it would straighten out as the wood dried out but I was wrong. I may have to make another door 









So for this week I have to order the 2x36 watt kitt from AHsupply.com, And also order 2 VIA AQUA pumps from marinedepot.com for the overflow/waterfeature. I'm taking back the RIO I bought cuz it's a noisy POS and I found that they are known to die quick.


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## lacerta (Aug 27, 2004)

I have been following your progress intently and so far it is looking good. I just picked up an XL Exo-terra at frog day and will eventually plumb it for a water feature so am particularly interested in your overflow system. Keep us posted on your progress.
George


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## Guest (Oct 21, 2005)

Great work, I wish I had half the craft skills (and tools....) you do!


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

Lol yes, the tools I do have (Well they are my dads), but skills I'm not so sure  This is the first stand I have ever made so I think it turned out alright.

I did finally get screws to mount the fans in the canopy and did so today. Tommorow I will solder the leads from the 2 fans together so they go to 1 connector and can both be powered by the single AC adapter. I have also ordered the 2x36watt kit from AHsupply and ordered the overflow/waterfeature pumps, foam and other misc. supplies from drfostersmith.com. So hopefully I can get everything up and running and do some work on the tank itself


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## Guest (Oct 21, 2005)

It is looking really good. Hows the fit on your exo terra doors?


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

Well I did a lot of searching online to find the cheapest price on the tank and it turns out that reptile depot had the x-large one for 100$. And it also turned out that they were located like 3 minute from my work. So I went to the store and actually had them open the box first to check the gap. The doors are basically touching so I'm not worried about escapeing FF's.


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## Guest (Oct 22, 2005)

Biznatch said:


> Well it's time for another update. I have been doing a lot of sanding/priming everything. I have also been doing some more testing on the overflow system. I am trying the 3rd pump out and it's just barely too much flow. It works great and is pretty quiet, but it's still too loud. The last one I had was almsot silent but the flow was too low and the pump was buzzing (Said 2' max head, but couldn't really handle 2').
> 
> But the canopy/stand/door are now fully sanded and ready to be painted. Tommorow I will do some final cleaning on them and paint them all black to match the rest of the furniture in my room.
> 
> ...




Is there anyway that someone, like me, can install one fan at the top of a 55 gallon viv, on a store bought hood? I read through this post, and most of it seems really complicated, maybe I just got wirephobia. What do you mean by soldered? Can you reexplain that part, where you put the wire together permanently to make everything work. Thanks. 
I wanted to put a fan becuase I didnt want the 55 gallon to have perpetually foggy glass. Thanks again.


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## Moe (Feb 15, 2004)

Wow thats a huge fan. Are you sure a fan of that size is necessary?

Keep up the great work anyhow.

M.N


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## Guest (Oct 22, 2005)

Moe said:


> Wow thats a huge fan. Are you sure a fan of that size is necessary?
> 
> Keep up the great work anyhow.
> 
> M.N


I suppose I would use a smaller one, or are you talking to Biznatch?


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

It's 2 fans actually  With 120mm fans you can get higher airflow with less noise. So I got 2 that run at like 1500 RPM and flow a decent amount of air and they are almost silent. I'm going to be wiring it up so both fans go to a single connector in a few minutes so I can hear them both running at the same time. One of the fans does sound faster than the other so I'm going to have to use the multimeter to check and make sure it isn't drawing more current than the AC-DC converter can handle. I don't want it overheating and causing a fire now 

And to solder wire you need a soldering iron (like 15-30$) or soldering gun(about the same price but a tad higher). And then you need solder. If you search online about it you can find more details about it and ways to do it. Now I have done lots of work with electronics so soldering is something I can do quite well. I use an iron because it's a bit easier to handle/use but it takes like 3 minutes to heat up.


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

Well with midterms finally over I have been finally able to start working on my tank again. Over the past 2 weeks or so I have been doing a lot of searching for driftwood for the back of the tank and haven't had much luck. Nothing I find on ebay seems to be what i'm looking for so i'm still looking.

Anyway now for the update  I ordered and recieved my lights from AHsupply.com and they are great. Anyone who needs lights should order from them, they have an awesome product and the support is great. The stupid USPS took forever to deliver it (like 8 business days) so without even waiting to hear if the package was lost int he mail they shipped the order again and told me to open the first and decline the second box that arrived.

Here is what they send you in the 2x36 watt kit. I ordered the long reflector so I can cut it in half. I didn't even ask if they could send me 2 of the shorter ones but next time I will. 









Now I wasn't sure if I wanted to mount the ballast in the hood or under the tank so I just wired it all up without cutting anything to test how hot it got. After like 30 minutes it was warm to the touch and the bulbs were just about too hot to touch. Wiring it together is simple and they give you a wiring diagram along with everything you need besides tools.









Here is after I cut the reflector into 2 pieces. I used a hacksaw and went slow since the metal is kind of thin and bends easily.









Now to reduce heat from the lights and to bring them closer to the tank I made spacers that go between the top of the canopy and the reflectors. The larger hold is for the screw to hold the spacer to the canopy. I only had 3" screws and the blocks were 3 1/4" long so I had to indent the hole so the screw started farther down. The small hole is to mount the reflector to the block.









Now here is the first reflector mounded in the canopy.









Now here is everything cut to legnth and cleanly wired. Everything is done except for the wire from the ballast to the outlet. I want to put in a switch for the lights but the AH kit didn't come with one (The only thing I don't like about it, but it's an easy fix). So I need to go to homedepot and pick up a switch then I can complete the install.









And bam here is the lights in action. All I can say is wow, these lights are bright. After looking at them to take the pic I was temporarily blinded and saw spots for like 10 minutes. I have a 4x65watt light setup on my 72gallon and taht doesn't hurt my eyes like these lights do.









So I'm very impressed with this kit and highly doubt I could have spent the same money or even more and gotten anything better. I had an incident while testing the overflow again today and all I can say is I should have finished all the kind of testing in the garage. So I had to wet/dry vac my carpet and have a fan blowing on it to evap. the rest of the water. But I think I got it working perfect so I can hopefully start working on the land area this week =)


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

Well I haven't updated this in a while, mainly because my dad decided he better hurry and send the digital camera back before the waranty expired to get something fixed. At least I got to borrow my GFs really nice digital camera so i'm not too upset. Anyway, I have finally finished all the plumbing along the bottom of the tank, everything is glued up to the bulkheads. I'm still working on the design for the main tank so nothing is glued there yet. Also I got the overflow pretty quiet, almost to the point where if my room is dead silent, it sounds like someone is faintly filling a bathub in another room with the door closed. The pump humming is more annoying that it. In fact my 72 gallon tank has both an Eheim 2217 AND a Fluval 304 running right next to my head and the little Via pump is louder than both of them from across the room :/

Oh well, we had some extra 1/4" Cork panels from the addition we did last year that I decided would work great for sound deadening the sump. So I stapled those all along the walls/front/back of the stand where the sump is. I also put some pipe insulation around the tube going into the sump.....which doesn't really help at all but I had it around. Anyway here are the pictures.

Here is the plumbing to the sump. Also you can see the cork panels over everything.









Now I'm quite lazy and as you can see in the last picture there is some mysterious pip on the right that goes into the sump and then through the back of the stand. Well that comes out to the shelf below. I started a siphon the shut off the ball valve. Now every week when I do a water change I just put a bucket under there, open the valve and fill it up. I have never seen it done before, but man it's gonna make life easy for me 









Here is a full shot for those of you having trouble picturing it. Ignore the bags on the bottom, as you can tell I have made a lot of trips to home depot/the Do it Center.










And that's not everything I got done  I went to a local supply yard to pick up some flagstone to make the seperator between the land/water. 44lbs of stone cost me 9$. I then broke it into small pieces with a hammer/chisel then siliconed them together. It looks like stacked stone veneer. I wanted a dark stone so it would pull your eyes away from the main tank and could be hidden by moss/plants so it's not so unatural. I also slanted it inwards at the waterline so frogs will have no trouble getting out if they happen to fall in. In fact it worked out just perfectly so there is a ledge right at the water level; almost perfectly in line with it.

Here is the wall before I put it int he tank. I temporarily put cardboard under it untill I can decide what will really go between the rock/glass.









And here is a front shot of it in the water. I'm going to either attack java moss or xmas moss to the stone and hopefully it will grow across the face of it.









And here is a top view of it. The sketch on the back is of my design for a 3 tiered waterfall that I'm gonna form out of foam. I'll bet you won't believe that for work I do hand drawn conceptual plans for a landscape/pool company  Trust me it looks a little more proffesional there.









Well that it so far. I ordered driftwood last week from ebay so hopefully that should be in soon and i can finalize the bottom and get the backround done  Enough of this boring hard work/planning, I want to get to the fun stuff.


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## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Nice work Biznatch,

What kind of frogs are you thinking of. I notice that your land area is quite small, so I assume you are thinking of some sort of arboreal thumb. Are you planning on keeping fish as well? I’m just wondering why you have such a big water section. I suppose it will be good for rearing tads in the tank, if you don’t add any fish, and the flow is not too strong.

Also, are you planning on running that waterfall 24/7? If you are sensitive to water noise I think that may drown out that air pump you are already complaining about. 

Hope I don’t seem overly negative. That really is quite a beautiful job that you have done. Oh, one more comment, if you are concerned with placing the stone wall on the glass bottom, you might try putting down a thick layer of silicone on the bottom. You could let this harden and it will act as cushion for your wall. As for securing the wall simply siliconing it to the sides of the viv should work.


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

For the waterfall I bought a second pump that I'm going to put on a timer to shut off at night, unless it's quiet. The highth of it might be changed a little bit, I haven't finalized the design yet. Also the the land area is actually bigger than it seems. It's almost 12"x12" on the longest parts. I calculated it at liek 110Sq. inches, which is a bit smaller than the 18 talls most people use.

As for frogs I'm most likely going with like 5 or 6 Imitators. I'm not sure yet how many, I need to find out what would be ok since I have no experience with thumbs.....Or any darts for that matter. The tank is a bit over 33 gallons total. As for fish I want some really nice colored guppies, and maybe some endlers. Also gonna have some khuli loaches cuz they are just the funniest fish ever. I don't know if any of them will be big enough to bother the tads, but that's could be because I'm not 100% sure how big the tads are. There will be a few broms though for them to lay also.


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

Lame somehow made a double post


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## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Biznatch,

Sounds pretty well though out. I would suggest not mixing guppies and Endler’s as my understanding is that they produce infertile hybrids. I could be wrong on this, which would mean that they produce fertile hybrids (Definitely frowned upon). The Endler’s may leave tads alone. The female guppies will eat them.

Please keep posting, this is really going to be a nice viv.


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

I will probably only have male guppies since the babies will have no real predators in the tank so the population will get too big too fast with the small amount of water I have. Plus the females don't look half as nice as some of the nice male guppies I have seen. And thanks for the info on the endlers, I had no idea that was possible. Especially since they are like 1/3 of the size of a guppie. I was thinking of some killies, but any tad that got into the water would be toast for sure, plus I have a feeling they would jump out of the water and get stranded on thel and portion. My male Fp. Garderi (sp?) dissapeared from my open top 72. I have a feeling he leaped out and I just haven't found him yet.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

If you give the imis places to raise their eggs away from the water, some nice water holding broms and film canisters, I think its not real likely they will drop tads in the water, especially with fish. The idea behind PDFs having so much parental care and what not was taught to me as a way for the frogs to move the delicate tadpole stage away from bodies of water with predators, aka fish. I don't know if they'd look at the water and go "oh crap, fish", or are just innately programed to go to broms or similar water holding containers, so I'm not really sure how it'd work in a tank.


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

Well it's been a while since I got some work done on the tank since it isn't my only hobby. I have been busy planning my new computer to build/watercool/overclock. Plus work and school don't help. But I have finally gotten around to getting some real work done on the tank.

I put a layer of silicon on the sides of the tank and under the land area to hide the PVC pipe for the overflow/return from the sump.









While breaking some of the rocks to fill the gap between the glass and the rock wall I smashed the tip of my finger with the point on the rock hammer. Left me a giant blood blister that was like 1/3 the size of a dime :evil: but I finished it all so I could get started with the foam. 

Here is a closeup of both the return and the overflow before I glued them to the tank.

















Now here's the supplies I needed to start foaming the back. Those gloves were ABSOLUTELY necesary. I can't imagine not having them, I couldn't find anything to remove the foam when it was wet. I tried denatured alcohol, paint thinner (worked better than anything else, but still really bad) and would have tried Acetone if we had any. This stuff sticks to everything.









Here it is half way done. The pvc coming from the back is to just prevent the foam from going in the bulkhead and messing it up. I'll finalize the output for the waterfall when it's dry.









And here it is done. This stuff does dry very quick. I sprayed it and it felt almost completely dry by the time I came back from dinner like 30 minutes later. It took 2 seperate sprays to fill the lower part of the waterfall enough. Now I have lots of carving to do tommorow lol.









I bought the coco bedding today and soaked that. It should be dry tommorow so I'll pick up another tube of silicone and hopefully get the backing on. It's unbelievable how much that stuff expands. I put 1 brick in a 5 gallon bucket with 4qts of hot water and the bucket is almost 1/3 full of the fiber and no water :shock:


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

I have kept busy over the last few days and even with finals here I still managed to find time to work on the tank. With the foam sprayed on very thick I had a lot of carving to do. One thing I noticed was that even though it comes out and instantly expands quite a bit, as it dries it expands a heck of a lot more so the background is a bit thicker than I expected. It goes past my black silicone sides in a few places but it's not very noticable. 

After spending around an hour carving, I found the absolute best tool to use in a hack saw blade. Its nice and long and flexible enough to do just about anything i needed. Here is what it looked like after heavy trimming. You can see the waterfall finally taking some shape.









And here are the supplies for the background. This is only like 1/20th of the coco fiber from the brick. If I had known they expand so much I would have only used a chunk of it. This silicone is aproved for food contact so I think it will be ok 









Now it's jsut about done, I have some patching up to do but I'm giong to wait untill I test the waterfall in case it needs to be changed.









And the tank is now finally back in my room. Here is some pictures of the back of the stand for the watefall/sump drain plumbing. You can also see my planted 72gallon in the background 


















Now for the sump shot. Lots of stuff going on in there and I don't even have my canister filter/heater yet. But it's in the cabinet so no one will see the mess 









And finally here is the tank on the stand with the 2x36watt AH kit on it.









I have to get 1 more piece of PVC for the waterfall and do a little modifying to the 2 tiers so it will flow right then I'll get some pics of it running. That's on my list of things to do tommorow, then I'll patch up that background and be done. 

Now I need to order my plants, I have most of the ones I want in mind already, but epiphyte jungle isn't shipping till Feb. What are some good places to get them online that are shipping right now. I want to get them in and start growing.


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## JoshKaptur (Feb 17, 2004)

coming along great... thanks for the detailed pictorial. I was hoping you'd post a pic of the smashed finger, though.


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## wishIwereAnExpert (Jul 18, 2005)

I have two strong reccommendations, though it's probably too late to execute either of them. First, it looks like the water level comes right up to the false bottom, and this encourages anerobic bacteria. Maybe lower the overflow a little? Some air space is good. Second, it looks like your rock wall only goes a tiny bit above the egg crate, and if you pile your substrate above it, it WILL fall into the water. Maybe make a wall addition with some foam?

-Solly


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## MJ (Jun 16, 2005)

wishIwereAnExpert said:


> I have two strong reccommendations, though it's probably too late to execute either of them. First, it looks like the water level comes right up to the false bottom, and this encourages anerobic bacteria. Maybe lower the overflow a little? Some air space is good. Second, it looks like your rock wall only goes a tiny bit above the egg crate, and if you pile your substrate above it, it WILL fall into the water. Maybe make a wall addition with some foam?
> 
> -Solly


lol it does have a foam wall on top of the stone work


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

Yup I sprayed foam around the top of the rock/the front of the egg crate to hold the soil in. I'm going to glue the soil the the foam on the front when i get it because I don't think the coco fiber would look good there. And the water level at full highth is about 3/4" away from the bottom of the eggcrate so I think I'm safe since most people I heard recomending 1/2" of air.

Edit here is the best/least blurry picture I could find of my finger. I highlighted exactly how big it was since you can only see about half in the picture. And the blister was a little over 1/8" tall also.


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## JoshKaptur (Feb 17, 2004)

Ha! Thanks, I think.


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## themann42 (Apr 12, 2005)

hey biznatch

great journal. i just read through the whole thing and have plenty of questions for you that i've been writing down as i read though it. hope you don't mind :lol: if it's too much i can just start a new thread if you want me to :wink: 

1. the exoterra comes with a screen lid correct? what did you do about that, wouldn't that let out too much moisture? i assume it's best to cover it with all glass except for a little strip in the front, so that air comes in through the vent and up just the front glass, to keep the front glass less foggy.

2. your overflow system... the only thing i don't understand is how you'd prevent a film from forming on the water surface. wouldn't something like in the diagram below be ok? it's just a verticle pipe with a cap on the top. but right below the top you'd cut slits to let water drain in. this way it takes water right from the surface to drain, and would prevent a water film, at least i think so (i realize you have a waterfall so you prolly wouldn't have a water film problem in the first place though). and to drain the 5 gallon wouldn't you do the same thing instead of having to do a syphon? just have a pipe pipe right from the bottom so you just turn the valve and it pours out?









3. what is the backround that comes with the exoterra like? i wouldn't put a water feature in mine so i wouldn't need to sculpt the backround. is it cheap, fake, or plasticy looking? would plants like creeping fig be able to crawl up it? and could carve holes easily to mount plants in?

4. the fans, wouldn't they draw out all the moisture in the air?

5. the cage itself, where did you buy it? i haven't seen them in any stores around here. did you happen to buy it online?

sorry is that was a lot. great job on the tank and also the journal. i never really looked at the exoterra cage before. i've seen them but never really payed much attention to them. reading this made me realize how nice they are and i really want to get some. only problem then is i'd have an extra 29 and 55 laying around. i would love having front access instead of reaching down into a tank like i have to do now.

edit: forgot to mention your stand looks really nice too!


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

1- Yes it comes with a screen top. I already checked at a glass shop and it's going to be lik 13$ to have them cut a piece of 1/4" glas to fit there in it's place. It also has plastic connectors on the tank itself that need to be cut/filed off (They are used to hold the removable screen top). I will leave a gap in front of the glass to allow some air up so the doors don't fog up.

2. Yes that would work but it would be VERY loud. Plus the slits would have to equal the same as the full opening of the pipe (I used 3/4" and it is almost running as much as it can without starting a siphon.) But if a siphon starts it drains the tank like 4 times faster than the pump and refill it. So I went with this overflow design since most reef people use it because of how quiet it is. Since the tank is in my room that is a very good thing.

Also if you look at my return design, it comes out at the bottom of the background and is right up at the top of the water line. This allows the water to go in the portion of the tank with the fish so they get filtered water. It is also angled to disturb the surface a little, hopefully preventing surface film. And it also saved me 14$ because I don't need a check valve. If the pump stops working the return will siphon water untill it drops below the holes and suck air in then it stops. So this setup will never leak during a power outage 

About the tank siphon, putting it on the bottom would require drilling a hole in the glass, buying another bulkhead and drilling a hole in the stand. Plus it would put stress on the tank each time you opened/closed the valve. And i'm lazy so the way I have will work since I only need to change a few gallons each week.

3- The background is like a 1" foam panel that looks like fake rock. It's not too bad, in fact my mom complained when I took it out because she liked it. But after seeing my new background done she agrees that it looks much better/more natural. Plants should be able to mount ok, at least light ones should.

4- The fans do pull a lot of air through them which is good to keep the lights cool. But the vent ont he front of the tank below the doors is pretty restrictive. So most of the air will come from right outside the hood and only a little air will actually travel through the tank. I'm going to have to adjust the hole on the top of the tank to see how big it needs to be. Then I'll test it with insence to see the airflow.

5-I bought it from http://www.reptiledepot.com since they have the cheapest price I could find online anywhere. Then I realize it's like 3 minutes from my work so I went and picked it up myself. They even let me open the box and check the gaps on the door to make sure it was not a gaping hole. First try we found one that the doors are pratically touching so I'm happy.

For a mini update I'm still having trouble with the waterfeater flowing wrong. It either goes straight from the top tier to the water or the flow is too low. I figured out a solution but I have to wait for the silicon to cure, so I should have an update shortly


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

Ok I finally got the waterfall to work. I was having a lot of trouble getting it to flow properly. When I got the flow to anything more than a dribble it was shoot off the first tier and land in water below, completely missing the second tier. So I made a wall in front of both of them so they are now more of a basin then a ledge. So the water fills up the top level, then falls to the second level which then falls into the water.

I was origionally planning on having just a screen over the bulkhead but that didnt work. The flow was coming out like a jet, so I had to create a baffle. I cut a 3/4" 90* elbow off and glued it to the bulkhead. This forces the water straight down so it fills up the basin.









Then I glued coco fiber to the front of that and tested the waterfall.

















And I also bough some switches to add to the back of the canopy to control the lights and the fans. It was a real PITA to file the square holes for them. I basically had to drill 2 holes and file them to make a rectangle to fit the switches. Then cut the fan/light wires and solder them. Make sure to put the +12/+110v wire on the switch. Either wire will work, but if you switch the ground wire, the possitive one will still have curent going through it and you can get shocked.









Now I have to stop by the store to pick up the jungle mix to fill up the land area and glue to the foam around it. Then i need to find a place to order plants that is shipping now. I will probably move the fish/aquatic plants over within the next few days since the water area is pretty much done, just gotta clean out all the loose coco fiber. So the project is nearing completion  I also have a filstar xp1 on the way, got it for 40$ new on ebay.


And on a side note, here is a funny picture of one of my kuhli loaches that will be going in this tank soon. He decided he was tired and wanted to lounge on a java fern leaf right in the front of the glass and posed as a took a few pictures. Man I love kuhli loaches, they are just too funny


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

I'm finally done with this semester YAY  But I'm pretty much done with everything I can do on the tank for now  I need to find a place to order plants from. I would prefer to order it all in one place and the only place I know of that is shipping right now is blackjungle. But they are expensive and have no selection of broms. So any suggestions would be great.

I finally recieved my filstar xp1 and set that all up. The sump sure is getting crowded. The filter seems to be sucking air in from somewhere, I haven't gotten around to finding where and why. I need to get some vasoline to put on the seals to make sure it's not them.









The filter was missing the funnel thing that starts the siphon, so i just stuck the input in the water and sucked on the output to get it going. It also didn't have anything for the bacteria to colonize on it so I added some ceramic rings I had.









Now heres some pictures of the tank filled with water and both the sump pump and the waterfall pump running. It has been up for almost a week but I haven't gotten around to taking pictures untill now. My next thing is going to be to get like 5 or 6 colorfull male guppies to get some color there. Just waiting for the filter to cycle a bit for the existing load. It only has 3 kuklis, a betta and a bunch of cherry shrimp right now.









You can also see the wall around the land area is done to. I used silocone to stick jungle mix to it then filled it up. I had to search everywhere for that stuff, and finally found a local shop that had it in stock.









I really like how it turned out so far, I was getting kind of dissapointed at certain times while building it. But if anyone has suggestions where to order plants from please let me know, I really want to get it planted so I can get some frogs in there.


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## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Ya know, I was just wondering how this thing was coming. Lookin great! Are you going to add some more branch-work?


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

I can't say for sure yet, I need to get the broms/other plants in to see what I have to work with. The land area is about half the size of an 18gallon, maybe less (I would have to do some calcumulations lol). So I may run out of room real quick, but we'll see.


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## Darks!de (Nov 16, 2004)

Looks fantastic. What plants are in the water? Java fern and wendetti? I think if you did some branch work so that plants could grow hanging above the water area it would look super, and additionally add some more climbing room for a small thumb colony 

Luke


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## neilr (Oct 9, 2004)

Looking good! I would like to suggest getting plants from tropiflora. There is a link to them in the dendroboard links section. They have a good selection of plants. 

Neil


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## Guest (Dec 24, 2005)

Wow biznatch, some complex ingenuity going on in the sump area. I've been watching your progress closely as I'm in the planning stage of a 36wx32hx22d viv. I can see that you are experienced in aquaria. I would like to ask your opinion on my idea of the filtration system.
I was thinking along the lines of combining the sump/filtration together. Basically a trickle or wet/dry system. A sponge pre-filter, carbon chamber and bio-balls, then direct return back "upstairs". A heater would also be incorporated in the sump. Any pro's or con's you could think of is welcome.
Keep up the great work. Looking forward the "finished" pics!


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

Actually this is the first sump I have ever used. My main tank is a planted freshwater so it's just filtered by an eheim 2217 and a fluval 304. But I did do a loooot of reading on reef forums to get ideas/solutions to the noise problems. So I don't know much about the trickle filters except they are usually used by saltwater. 

Although I I don't know exactly how much water you are going to have but I think a trickle filter would probably be overkill and a lot more work than it's worth. Take a look at the eheim classic filters, I know my 2217 says it can support up to like 150gallons alone, so if you are only going to have like a 20 gallon sump and maybe 20 more in the actual tank, you would only need a 2215. And that would be more than adequate. The xp1 I have is made for around 40gallons and I have a total of like 10 in the tank and sump combined.


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## Guest (Dec 25, 2005)

yes, but heres the beauty of the trickle system. The entire filter would be say a 5g tank. I wouldn't have to run 2 pumps. The sump/filter is combined and I could put a heater in it as well. I have a 75g mini reef from where the idea derived. These filter systems are real easy to DIY if you can work with plexiglass.


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## porkchop (Aug 29, 2005)

great work, thanks for doin all the research and hard work for us, i hope to emulate this project myself !


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

Well its been a very long time since I made an update. I lagged for a few weeks ordering my plants since I spent like 2k on my new computer. But thats all done now and I finally ordered the plants. I also ordered one of those 110 volt shurflo pumps for the misting system. My mistking nozzles will hopefully be here tommorow so I can install it all by this weekend.

Here are all the plants I ordered from blackjungle.com. I didnt get any bromeliads because i wanted to pick them myself, not have them picked for me.









Heres a close up of the best looking plant in the tank. In the past week the leaves have grown quite a bit.









Here is the shurflo pump I got for 30$ on ebay. I soldered a power connector I had left over from my mag3 pump in my computer watercooling. I tested the pump and it works perfect, not very loud at all.









I have more pictures that Ill post a bit later showing my bromeliads from cloud jungle and the tank with all the plants in and growing  Almost time to get my group of 6 imitators. Time to start looking for a good deal on them.


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

So I finally moved everything to its final location and its now ready to be left alone to grow while waiting for frogs. 

Here is the whole top half of the tank. You can see the selaginella already starting to send out new growth. The waterfeature is not as ugly as it apears in the picture, but I dont have my gf's nice camera so this is the best I can do atm.









This shot has the plants in the water also. You can seem my crowntail beta and the hillstream loach on the glass.









And here is a farther shot showing my stand with the tank and everything. When I get the camera back Ill clean everything up and take some nice clean pictures lol.









Well thats it for now, just gotta let everything get established and grow in a bit while saving money for frogs. My birthday is next sat. so hopefully that will give me that extra boost I need money wise.


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## Frogtofall (Feb 16, 2006)

You Paludarium looks nice. But I kinda noticed something that you might wanna keep an eye on...

Your water level is kinda high and it looks like its keeping your bedding/jungle mix extremely wet. From my past experience, this is asking for a rot fest for your plants.

If you lowered your water level another 2 inches or so, it might help. Cryptocoryne can grow emersed in a humid environment just fine if you're worried about that.


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## Darks!de (Nov 16, 2004)

Exactly what I noticed too. Make sure that the substrate does not become too wet. Moist is what you want, but not soggy.

Luke


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## Viv (Mar 5, 2006)

UPDATE!!!! (im dieing for an update w/ some pics)


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

Time for some new pics. Aparently you guys were right about the soil looking wet. I pulled it all out and it was very soggy. So I made a plastic barrier to prevent any excess water from the waterfall from spreading through the land area. I also raised the soil up with some gravel so it could drain better. So far it has worked great and the soil stays moist but not soggy.

I also got some more plants in from cloud jungle. Just planted them yesterday. So heres some new pics of the tank now. The existing broms have grown alot and started putting out lots of roots. Also the variegated ficus is starting to take off. I cant wait till it covers the whole back wall.

I know the waterfall is wet but soon the moss will spread over all the wet areas and that will look cool. Its already spread quite a bit. You can also see the misters from mist king set up.









Here is the sump area all cleaned up. The net is to catch the cherry shrimp that somehow manage to get in there. There is also an 18" flourecent light mounted up top so I can see when Im working in there.









Here is the lower half with the shurflo pump mounted. It can self prime up to like 8' so I just stick the intake tube in a gallon jug of RO water and when that is gone I have extras to just put in. Much easier than using a bulkhead/container and having to refill it.


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

And now for the best part. I finally got my frogs in  I ordered a group of Imitators from Mike and Shelley at SNMReptiles. They are both great and shipped me some awesome looking frogs. They were even nice enough to send me a culture of fruit flys to get me started  I got the frogs Tuesday and they are always out exploring and starting eating right away. I have them each in their own container to monitor their eating and let them get a little bigger before putting them in the large tank. Plus this gives the plants more time to grow in a bit.

I try not to disturb them except to mist a tad and feed them but I just had to take a picture of one when I had the container open. He didnt even try and run for cover, he just sat there eyeballing me.









And finally here is a picture of under the tank now. Each frog from the group has their own numbered container so I can make sure they are all eating. Also I started two new cultures of flys since its my first time. Better to have too many than not enough. Plus Im sure my fish would love any extra I have 









And here is one more shot of the tank I thought looked nice.


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## Frogtofall (Feb 16, 2006)

You're gonna keep them in the stand in the dark 24/7?? Get them out into some light, they'll appreciate it.


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

There is a light in the stand that I leave on durning the day


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## Guest (Apr 14, 2006)

that is awesome! really came out great. Also, the fish in water section, will they disturb the frogs or the frogs disturb them when they are in the water? I know that pdf's dont go in the water often because most are not the best swimmers, but when they do, will anything happen between the frogs and fish? JW


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## Nuggular (Apr 8, 2005)

That is just awesome. Gives me good ideas for the paladrium I will be building for my office. Good job!!!


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

The betta in there is a big grouch so when the frogs go in Ill probably have to take him out just to avoid any problems. Then Ill get some fancy looking male gupies to go in there.


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## Frogtofall (Feb 16, 2006)

Nothing beats a school of Cardinal Tetras _Paracheirodon axelrodi_ IMO.


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

I've got 15 in my 72 gallon  No guppies though and Ive always liked the really nice colors on them. And my grouchy betta would tear them up if I put them in now.


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## Guest (May 22, 2006)

Beautiful job! I really like this contemporary look.


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## Biznatch (Aug 30, 2005)

Thanks, and since the thread was revived I have some updated pictures.

Heres one of the tillandsias that bloomed for a short time.









And here are some more pictures of the imitators









If you look on the lower left you can see a 4th Imi eyeing me from behind the bromeliad.


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## Guest (May 23, 2006)

OMG! They are sooooooo small!! Very nice tank. IT looks fantastic!


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## chelskisw6 (Nov 27, 2008)

super old thread i know, but i was wondering if this paludarium is still up and running, and if so do you have any updates?


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## jdogfunk99 (Oct 16, 2007)

Outstanding job of documentation, thanks for all the details!!


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## clwatkins10 (Nov 15, 2008)

Oh wow! Very awesome build. Definitely an inspiration for my future exo


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

sweet job!! tank looks great, love the filtration system.


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## carbonetc (Oct 13, 2008)

I'm amazed you got a betta and cherry shrimp to co-exist. All of my attempts to keep shrimp with bettas resulted in shrimp with no eyeballs.


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