Paludarium Build In An Eco-terra Turtle Tank

Went down another rabbit hole. Water tested the tank July 28th. Started framing August 1st. Substrate and plants in today. I have plenty of filter media to start it quickly but that won’t get me the biofilm my shrimp need. So I used the vacuuming water from one of my other tanks to top it off today. I thought I rinsed the roots of the plants really well but my results in the paludarium tank were:
Ammonia .25
NitRITES 0
Nitrates between 10 and 20.

The tank I vacuumed is
Ammonia 0
NitRITES 0
Nitrates 10

I’ll test again Tuesday
I’m moving red cherry shrimp in here and once they have a strong colony I may add green neon tetras.
I measured the water when I added it and there is just over 9 gallons. More plants will be added submerged, emmersed and terrestrial
This was FUN!

 

I learned I didn’t need to use that much foam spray. Lol I ended up trimming so much of it away. I also learned give it more like 3 days before trying to fit it and trimming it down. It shrinks a little after it’s done expanding.

 

I used GE 1 100% silicone in black. I covered sections with silicone then with play sand waited about an hour turned it and repeated until all the areas were covered. I didn’t brush it off or vacuum it because want fully cured. In fact it took 10 days until I was sure I didn’t smell vinegar. When I put it in place and added water I learned something else. It wanted to float up. So I added another piece of diffuser panel to the bottom to set rocks on.

 

Planters are the water bottles in the earlier pictures. I filled them with clay pebbles.
Pump is an 80gph submersible that’s at the bottom of the 3” pipe. I drilled holes in the black pipe. 1/2” flexible tubing connects the pump to two 1/4” tubes that feed upper planters and pour down into lower ones

I wish I knew how to add a video

 

Tried to capture water flow

 

I love paludariums

 

I love paludariums

Me too so I had to try one

 

Looks awesome! I can't wait to see how it grows in.

 

I retested today:
0 Ammonia
0 NitRITES
5 nitrates

My water temp dropped over night from 80 to 74 so I added the heater this morning. Added fish food and tonight I’ll vacuum the other tank and add the waste from that. Retest in a day or two and keep feeding the bacteria until this weekend. If I’m still at 0/0/5+ I may add a couple of my guppies to make things easier. We shall see

Looks awesome! I can't wait to see how it grows in.

Thank you. It’s hard to be patient lol

 

Thank you. It’s hard to be patient lol

Totally understand that!

 

Excellent build. I too love paludariums. I'll certainly be following this one along.

Just a note on expanded clay balls, aka Hydroton or Leca. I used this stuff with great success growing veggies in a hydroponic setup back in the day. Recently though, I started a small orchid collection and also used leca for that. I'm unsure that I like it as much in this instance, as these plants are handled more often. The leca allows the plant to move around in the pot more than I'd like. I feel that having a stable anchor is best for orchids and maximizing their growth, and don't know if the same might be true of any of your plants. I'm not changing my setup just yet as I am only a few months in this time around. I'll see how it goes, but am already considering that I may change them over to lava rock, only because it's irregular shape makes pieces lock together, offering far more stability than round balls. Either option seems like a very good medium for plants that like a lot of air around their roots.

 

Excellent build. I too love paludariums. I'll certainly be following this one along.

Just a note on expanded clay balls, aka Hydroton or Leca. I used this stuff with great success growing veggies in a hydroponic setup back in the day. Recently though, I started a small orchid collection and also used leca for that. I'm unsure that I like it as much in this instance, as these plants are handled more often. The leca allows the plant to move around in the pot more than I'd like. I feel that having a stable anchor is best for orchids and maximizing their growth, and don't know if the same might be true of any of your plants. I'm not changing my setup just yet as I am only a few months in this time around. I'll see how it goes, but am already considering that I may change them over to lava rock, only because it's irregular shape makes pieces lock together, offering far more stability than round balls. Either option seems like a very good medium for plants that like a lot of air around their roots.

I noticed the movement when I was trying to get them planted :-/ it was a pain the get them right. Its better now that the balls are constantly getting water. But the lava rock is a great idea. I’ll remember that if I have troubles. Thank you for the great idea!

 

I ordered a stronger pump today. It currently has a 80 gph pump but after “feeding” the tank fish food today I noticed the flow is minimal. Like the food is laying on the sand where it dropped 10 hours ago so I ordered a 120gph. Hopefully it will be enough since I only have a 3” pipe to work with.

 

My tests have been
Ammonia 0
NitRITES 0
NitrAtes 5
So last night I added more plants and 6 of my red cherry shrimp to the 2 guppies that have been in there since Thursday.

 

Turtle?

 

Turtle?

Sadly, no turtles would be happy in a five gallon

Edit: sorry wrong thread

 

I thought it looked too small, the title says turtle though.

 

I thought it looked too small, the title says turtle though.

Lol sorry. The kind of tank I used to make the paludarium is an Exo-terra turtle tank. But nope no turtles in my tank

 

Ohh. That makes more sense. I have a 5 gallon “turtle” tank.