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Paludarium

Onoma1

Member
Joined
12 Aug 2018
Messages
570
Location
West Yorkshire
The experiment begins...

The tank design has been agreed with (the ever patient) Lucy @Aquariums4life, epiweb system II and Hygrolon bought from Marc at dartfrog.co.uk, pipework bought from (the highly recommended) Aquarium Plumbing.co.uk. Fogger bought from ebay, terrestrial plants sourced from a local garden centre and grown in , substrate bought from @Aquarium Gardens. Pump, external heater and co2 system ready.

All I need to do now is build the diy temporary cabinet, wait for the aquarium to be built and delivered...

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Me to this should be great and something i would love to try in future.

Dean

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk
 
This has been a 'learning experience' *. I am still developing this and haven't scaped it properly yet. I have plants arriving from ProShrimp (I tried AG however most of the plants I wanted were out of stock :eek:) so I took a punt on ProShrimp**. The ever helpful @Steve Buce has supplied some buce - which look amazing. I have had a Dusk Moss Mix growing in containers for four months, it's just starting to develop and should be ready to put on in a month or so.

The first picture is of siliconing the Epiweb II in. It looks and feels like very stiff coarse filter material. Despite the negative comments on social media it's fairly easy to cut and the drip system provided by Marc worked well. He also provided a few offcuts which were particularly useful in forming planters.

I couldn't buy any scaping materials, however, used an old beech root (from a hedge that was grubbed up) which was boiled and scaped for 3 hours, a bit of driftwood found in a stream and piece of beech root used in my last scape. The base was lava rock and I put a piece on top of some of the wood to hold it in place and then decided to keep it place and use it as a growing medium. My principle in this was that much of the hardscape will be (hopefully) covered with plants in the very near future.

The space at the back of the tank will be planted and has a grow light. The idea behind this is to start to cover the back and sides of the tank with plants and to provide white spaces which shine through when you look through the paludarium. I was more interested in the negative space between the pieces and the shadows cast by the hardscape. If this makes any sense?

The soil substrate is Velda Lelite water lilly aquatic compost (blue loam with peat) mixed with John Innes Number 3, topped off with AquaGrowth Soil.

I put the terrestrial plants where they looked ok and where I think they will be ok...any advice welcome! I bought some small ones a few months back (before lockdown) from my local garden centre and grew them on, however, couldn't locate any other suitable plants.

The right hand side isn't finished yet and will be filled with a carved polystyrien piece covered in hygrolon.

The outflow needs attention, however, the system that I need to fit the pipework comes from the US and is out of stock atm so I jury rigged up something...

*Any advice or comments are very, very welcome
**yes I do feel guilty
 

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Really like it, been planning something similar for a while now buts it's on the back burner for now, so very excited to see how this progresses.
 
A quick update.

After an initial crypt melt the immersed plants seem to be growing in. The low light combined with my choice of plants mean its going to be a slow process. The Green Neons seem to like the darker conditions with soft water and are settling in.

I have attached a couple of photos of sections from the tank.
 

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OK so an update. This hasn't been an easy process and keeping the humidity high enough on the planted wall has been problematic.

Epiweb does not retain water and indeed sheds it quite quickly. This has meant that some plants didn't get enough water. I will need to add a layer of hygrolon onto the epiweb.

More Silicone needs to be placed between the epiweb and the back of the tank. This is because water tends to flow towards the back of the epiweb rather than the front. So its dripping where the moss cannot get at it.


Any advice, comments or suggestions for plants are more than welcome.
 

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A brief update. The paludarium is developing slowly. A few pictures are attached.

The high has been that that the Dwarf Pencil Fish are breeding and seem to be doing quite well. I started with three and now have nine.

The low point was when the Buce were decimated by the shrimp when I added nettles. They seemed to go into a feeding frenzy and stripped the nettles and surrounding Buce almost overnight.

I have added a dwarf ficus and a few other plants and will spend the next few weeks adding more terrestrial moss to cover the bare patches.

Learning a great deal from this experience....⁰
 

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Really nice tank. The pencilfish are a great addition.
 
A house move in which the carefully packed plants were left outside in near freezing conditions didn't help the development of the paludarium much! I am, however, slowly rebuilding with a collection of moss forming the back wall, a thick layer of emergent/ floating plants across 3/4's of the surface and a base consisting almost entirely of epiphytes ( including the surviving bucephalandra). I am going for a primitive primordial feel to the paludarium. If anyone can provide any information on moss cultivation in open paludariums I would be very grateful. At the moment I have collected moss over the last month or so mainly from my garden walls and am not sure what I have or how to care for it.

I have included a few photos below. I think it will be at least a year before I get it into the condition that I want. I have some plants on order from Aquarium Gardens...

I will post a few pictures of the paludarium when it's in a more developed state!
 

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A few weeks in and the paluadarium is starting to develop. I have a new shoot on the Marcgravia sintensii. The Peperomia rotundifolia cuttings is hanging on ( quite literally) and the Marcgravia umbellata has grown (a small amount however it's still alive).

I still have no idea about how to care for the moss or the types of moss I have (any advice would be welcome).

The emersed element is developing quite well, however, slowly. Tomorrow I will start to add botanicals...


Comments, advice or help more than welcome.
 

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The Green Neons seem to love the acidic soft water, dark substrate and thick matt of floating plants.
 

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Last edited:
I wanted to share this picture of a fern which is just unfolding. It's an unamed small fern picked up from the bargain section of my local garden centre. It's base leaves are green, however, the new leaves are red. I assume the red colour is a response to too much light, however, it looks amazing.

On a more general note I am not sure whether or not to take the paludarium down, sterilise it and then replant (without the invasive duckweed which is now enmeshed in the paludarium walls) or wait to see if regular removal and further planting will eventually lead to it's demise.

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I wanted to share this picture of a fern which is just unfolding. It's an unamed small fern picked up from the bargain section of my local garden centre. It's base leaves are green, however, the new leaves are red. I assume the red colour is a response to too much light, however, it looks amazing.

On a more general note I am not sure whether or not to take the paludarium down, sterilise it and then replant (without the invasive duckweed which is now enmeshed in the paludarium walls) or wait to see if regular removal and further planting will eventually lead to it's demise.

View attachment 178672View attachment 178671
Stunning!
 
I'm not sure the fern is throwing up new red growth because the lights are too bright. I have a beautiful one in the garden which produces lovely coppery new growth that fades to the normal green over time and this seems quite common in the fern world.
 
Has anyone got any suggestions for additional plants or ways in which this can be developed?
Now, you probably know more than me with your beautiful collection of plants, but maybe I can provide some ideas at least. I like to use Ficus species, as the most common ones are cheap and tough as nails. F. pumila is great for quickly covering areas where other plants refuse to take hold, and can be "trained" to grow along power cords, hoses, or similar to make them blend in a bit more. It grows like wildfire once it has taken hold though, so you need to be prepared for a lot of pruning. I have also used F. benjamina and F. microcarpa which (again with a lot of pruning) can be kept small, and in high humidity will produce loads of aerial roots making them look like tiny mangrove trees.

As for more easily managed species, hybrid Pinguiculas is a favourite here, with their small size and cute flowers. I also tends to try any vaguely tropical orchid I can find in my paludarium, but that is probably just my obsession ;) Then there are loads of aquarium plants that don't mind growing above the surface (you probably know more species than me), so maybe browsing through them can give you some new inspiration? I have Hygrophila corymbosa (I think) for example, which looks a bit shabby emerged but develops lovely little purple flowers.
 
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