# First paludarium built. Criticism welcome.



## Florian (Mar 30, 2017)

Hi all, 
I have 2 aquariums and I'm setting up my first paludarium. The dimensions will be 100cm x 50cm with a height of 30cm (39" x 20" x 12"), for a total of about 40 gallons. To give you an idea of the shape, these dimensions are usually seen in turtle tanks.

About ⅓ of the footprint space will be an *open-top paludarium* of emerged land, made of lava rocks, substrate, and mangrove wood covered in mosses. It will be very humid (mister and fogger) and very bright. This space will be home to ~20 species of plants and a "river" (with the outflow from the filter). However, all of this will be above the level of the enclosure, so it will be exposed to the climate of my living room.

The rest of the tank will be a 26 gallon mildly *planted aquarium*. It will be L-shaped, going around the paludarium 'island'. Heated at a minimum of 25°C (TBD based on stock), filtered by an Eheim 2213 canister. I will dose macro & micro if necessary, as well as add "liquid CO2" but my actual CO2 bottle won't be connected to this tank.

The intended stocking is as follow:

2 German blue rams
15 Chili rasboras (love the color) or 15 Ember tetras (for a tight school)
6-8 Dwarf cories
2 Vampire crabs
∞ Amanos / Red cherries
maybe a couple of Samurai Gouramis
Emersed plants (spreading across both land and water):

Anubia 'petite'
Hydrocotyle verticillata
Marsilea crenata
Vesicularia dubyana 'Christmas'
Water plants:

Ludwigia repens 'Rubin'
Alternanthera reineckii 'Rosanervig'
Rotala 'Bonsai'
Bolbitis heudelotii
Riccardia chamedryfolia
Land plants:

Soleirolia soleirolii
Ficus pumila 'White Sunny'
Peperomia angulata
Sedum makinoi var Kosmos
Fittonia verschaffeltii 'White'
Fittonia verschaffeltii 'Dark Red'
Tillandsia usneoïdes
Scaphosepalum swertiifolium
Mediocalcar decoratum
Pteris quadriaurita
Nephrolepsis Exaltata 'Fluffy Ruffle'
Microsorum diversifolium
Epidendrum porpax
Ludisia discolor
Pleurothallis grobyi
Coffea arabica
Here are my explicit questions:

Which bonsai could thrive somewhere in all this?
How can I make the paludarium part as tall as possible by piling up (aesthetically) roots and stones?
How can I fix up a 'river' solely from mangrove roots?
How do I prevent the 'land' from collapsing into the water over time? Banks need to be steep.
Do Chili Rasboras school well? I'd rather have those over the Embers...
Will the 'land' plants be hot since they'll be above warm water, misted with it, and with a river running? I need to know what kind of climate they'll be exposed to.
How strong of a heater do I need? Because of all the water being misted, it might cool down faster than normal.
*I also welcome ANY suggestion, advice, question, debate...*


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## thedudeabides (Mar 3, 2015)

What exactly do you mean by open top? It might be hard to hold in humidity even when fogging / misting if there is no lid.


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## Florian (Mar 30, 2017)

The tank will only be 30cm high, meaning only the aquarium part is enclosed by glass. But the paludarium part will only house plants, no frogs (very very sadly, because since I started looking into paludariums, I've kind of fallen in love with them). So I'm hoping it will be fine for the plants. 

What do you think?

Thanks for taking the time


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## hp192 (Feb 28, 2016)

I, also, am unsure what you mean by 'open top'. You won't be able to maintain humidity with an open top. I'll venture an answer to some of your other questions:

1) Most trees used for bonsai don't tolerate humid environments. Not sure why you would want a bonsai, unless you're a bonsai enthusiast...but I'm guessing that most wouldn't thrive in the humid paludarium environment.

2) With regards to making the paludarium tall and preventing it from falling into the 'river', I build my paludarium land out of stacked styrofoam. I cut the styrofoam to the shape I want...stack the pieces and silicone them together. Then I lay the finished piece on it's side and use foam or silicone to attach the stones/sand/wood. 

3) Not sure what you mean about 'fixing up the river from mangrove roots'

4) I'm a big fan of rasboras. I find that once you put 8 or more in a tank, they school well. That being said, I think your biologic footprint might be a bit high for the size of paludarium you're planning. I'm a big fan of the 1" of fish per gallon of water rule of thumb.

5) Heater: my paludariums don't have a lot of water....even my 55 gallon only has about 10 gallons of water. I use the small heaters that are automatic and don't have a setting dial. It automatically keeps the water at 75-78 degrees F. I was skeptical at first, but I'm now a huge fan. With that water at 78 degrees, I also don't mist very much...tank stays pretty humid.

Hope this helps.


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## AOA (Jan 19, 2017)

my open top pauladarium does not hold humidity very well at all. It is in a very dry environment however and i had to switch out many of the tropical plants in the upper sections because it is so dry. I run 4 misters on the 75 gal pauld. The river in this tank is only about 12 inches long and is made from polystyrene foam like mentioned before.


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## Florian (Mar 30, 2017)

Would using hygrolon or epiweb help with humidity? Or is it just the air humidity that's critical?

To clarify what I mean by open-top: it won't be enclosed by glass. It will just be above/inside a 77°F aquarium, be misted (8x a day) + fogged (8x a day) + having a waterfall run through it (and/or drip-wall) by 77°F water.


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## thedudeabides (Mar 3, 2015)

Still think you will have humidity issues also crabs will escape with an open top.


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## AOA (Jan 19, 2017)

Florian said:


> Would using hygrolon or epiweb help with humidity? Or is it just the air humidity that's critical?
> 
> To clarify what I mean by open-top: it won't be enclosed by glass. It will just be above/inside a 77°F aquarium, be misted (8x a day) + fogged (8x a day) + having a waterfall run through it (and/or drip-wall) by 77°F water.


Those materials would help I think and so would the drip wall. The tank I posted has both...the river is separate and the drip wall is in addition to it. It runs down almost the entire length of the back side and runs 24/7. I made 2 large pools in the BG that hold water near the top and its still only temperate humidity. What is the ambient temperature and humidity of the room you plan on having the tank? Mine is quite dry with forced air heat and stays at 69 degrees. I can almost watch the water level drop in the tank as it evaporates into the air.......the water vapor that evaporates is always going to quickly enter the room's main volume and want to leave the tank.

Thats an aggressive misting and fogging schedule depending on the length you will be spraying/fogging. It will help but I fear that you will still be unable to keep a sustained humidity in the *tropical range*. When I guide fishermen and hunters I am gone for extended periods of time (up to 12 days in the field). I tape plastic around the top of my tank and still have dry soil and air inside. Nothing can do what a glass top does. With that said, there are a bunch of beautiful plants that can be grown without tropical humidity....pothos, spider plants, wandering jew, etc. You may be able to still get the look you want despite humidity issues. As with so many of our builds, its trial and error...even the most experienced tank artists have to move plants around and deal with certain species that just won't grow in certain conditions. Great that you are researching.......I say give it a shot and then be flexible, you may need to adjust your sails once things play out......its all a part of it. Keep us all posted when you do, we all have something to learn. Check out some of hydrophytes plants and riparian builds...you may get some inspiration from his open top builds.

As far as inhabitants goes: its a bummer. everything that can, will climb out. I found a nerite snail dried to my floor just the other day. Mine holds a few fish and some shrimp.

Good Luck
JD


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## AOA (Jan 19, 2017)

Oh and I forgot about your bonsai question. I just built a 6' viv that has four ficus trees grown bonsai in it. Root rot is the main issue but they can be grown. I have one in my newt pauldarium that has been there for five years, submerged inside a leaky pot. Hardy little sucker as it just started growing aerial roots to find the environment it needed. My newest build with them in it is very new so only time will tell whether or not they will take. The ficus species are your only real option unless they are placed up top where they can dry out every now and again. I went with a much faster draining soil (bonsai jack's inorganic soil) in their potters inside my viv and they seem to be doing good thus far. I had them in highly organic soil inside a grow out tank during the building process and almost lost three of them do to high humidity and root rot. Are you planning on trying to train them to be bonsai...thats tough....you have to be able to remove them, trim their roots periodically and also prune them. My suggestion would be to let them grow the way they want and trim when they start to out grow the enclosure.

F.benjamina, salicifolia, and orientalis may work. 

my $.02


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