Reply With Quotei have been rearing fishes since i was 7, and i have fell in love with the hobby ever since. i have kept virtually every single type of aquatic creature, from shrimps, crabs, lobsters and fishes to frogs and newts.
my tanks have gradually, and steadily grown in size, complexity, and price, and i have since ventured into aquascaping. have not been very good at this, with most of my scapes looking like a poorly cobbled together mess of wood and rocks.
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previously, i have been keeping shrimps (ranging from cherry to fire red) in a moss covered tank. it wasn't very difficult, partly owing to my reluctance to venture into the really serious aspect of shrimp keeping aka CRS, hence i could dispense with carefully calibrated water and a chiller.
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the above was the initial conception of the tank. but the end product looked nothing like the forest glade that i envisioned it to be. it made me realise just how difficult actualizing my ideas and ambitions was.
then again, i enjoyed growing plants, but i preferred mosses, ferns, and anubias to rooted plants in substrate. the plants i enjoyed do best anchored above the soil. which limited my scaping options, along with the fact that my determination to lower daily operating costs made me ill inclined to using a chiller and CO2. i experimented with the latter for awhile, though, but the need to periodically replace the tank, and the hastened plant growth made it too much for my wallet and schedule to handle.
Hence i figured, that unless i invested money and proper time into my hobby, i will not get anywhere significant with aquascaping. i am a student, and that means i have limited expenses and time.
moreover, i never liked tanks that are pure fishes. it seems like an unnatural way of keeping a pet, and i always thought that the beauty of keeping an aquarium is that we create an environment for our pets, as compared to other land pets which live in our world (dogs/cats/rabbits), and largely share the landscape we live in
hence, i thought of expanding into paludariums.
planting over ground allows me to dispense with CO2, and having a smaller body of water can only be beneficial to my schedule (easier to change). i planned to reduce the livestock accordingly as well.
it will also offer me an exciting challenge of constructing the land portion, such that it looks natural yet viable as a structure.
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i began this project with a nice empty tank by FishyBusiness. customized at 60cm (l) by 35cm (w) by 40cm (h), with the front panel half the height of the back at 20cm.
this is because i wanted the tank to be fully aerated, along with easy access and without the glass as a visual barrier.
the tank runs on a eheim 2232, with 2 LED tubes from Inwares LED
Land Areamany paludariums have their land areas occupy space on the base of the tank. i wanted to do this differently, and utilize the space under the land area by employing pieces of wood to prop up the structure.
i started off by getting egg crate from C328.
Hence, under this whole structure will be 3 pieces of wood to prop it up. frankly speaking, i am apprehensive about this whole support thing, as i had to saw/grind the pieces of wood to the correct height. i am not a craftsman, hence the work is very amateur and the support may be insufficient.
Supports
Support 1: a beautiful piece of wood that I regretfully grinded to the appropriate height. This was fitted under the right side of the soil basket
Support 2: half a hollowed log that I purchased from EPP. I grinded the log to get half a log. This, I elevated with a piece of eggcrate, to support under the left side back of the land area
Support 3: a piece of wood left over from my previous tank. Used under the front left of the land area.
I also used pvc pipes horizontally to reinforce between the basket and the background, to prevent sagging.
Soil Basket
As i did not want the area under the land to be occupied by soil, what i did was make a basket out of egg crate, and line it with a laundry bag. this allows me to still have some space below the soil basket, for fishes to swim around. In this soil basket, I put about a litre of New Amazonia, and planted the front with UG, and the back with Ammania Bonsai
Above Ground
i wanted a waterfall, yet at the same time, i wanted it to be different.
hence, with a hollowed log, i siliconed a plastic base to close up the bottom, and made it a pool. the water overflowed from this pool onto a stream, which was a groove cut into half of Hollow Log 2 (of which the other half is now Support 2)
the stream then spilled out at the front of the land area, and flows into the tank below
around these pieces of wood, i strew spiky moss and anubias petite, as well as anubias gold.
to the right of the waterfall fixture, i originally intended for there to be a bonsai (see the full tank video). however, though i made measurements, in reality, it overwhelmed the tank. although i disguised the pot by repotting the bonsai in a tupperwear with corkbark siliconed on, the color of the soil is starkly apparent. therefore, i decided to replace the bonsai with a tree like bog wood, and placed airplants on the tree. the overall effect looks good!
Under wateri plan to house a shoal of dwarf corydoras (probably habrosus). the bottom of the tank is mostly dark as it is overshadowed by the land area, as well as the 3 pieces of wood which support the land area. perhaps i will insert a small submersible light at the bank to illuminate. the substrate is sudo sand.
i have 2 pieces of driftwood. on one is my anubias 'collection'. stardust/petite/golden/coffeefolia.
on the second is my bucephalandra 'collection'
fake catherindae/belindae/lamandau green/lamandau purple/dark grey
i also have mini java fern windelov, mini bolbitis, mini java fern, philippine fern, and a big anubias hastafolia attached to black lava rock strewn around.
as the sand cannot be evened out manually owing to the support for the land area inhibiting me, i shall wait for the lifestock (when i do add them after cycling the tank) to slowly even out the substrate, before arranging the plants properly
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this project took me about a month of contemplation and a month of action.
it has been a beautiful journey, helped along with my best pal who sacrificed much time to help me construct and visit the many fish shops for supplies.
please post comments, which i will seriously consider, and if you have any questions, i will do my best to answer them
Thanks!
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