How to Build a Paludarium
 

What's a Paludarium? I'm not really sure but this thread will outline methods I used to construct one.

Step one, shut down your reef tank. Nothing in there will be useful for the remaining steps. This concludes step one.

A Swamp?
 

...in my living room? I think I'll stick to reefing.

There was a thread a few years back, poster named Raf. Or his wife. Think it had pics.

You haven't even seen step two yet :lol:

There's a few kicking around.

should not have looked at this thread . Now I want to build one after googeling . Will follow see how it turns out

Step Two: Background.

I wanted something 3 dimensional that would hold some plants and act as a water feature. Only option was to build one from scratch so I picked up some rigid foam and some spray foam and got to work.

Foam outline and pots all siliconed in place
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...m/IMG_2253.jpg

Spray foam going on
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...m/IMG_2254.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...IMG_2256_1.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...IMG_2257_1.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...m/IMG_2258.jpg

After burning through 2 cans of the expensive black pond foam rather quickly I just decided to continue with the standard great stuff.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...m/IMG_2260.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...IMG_2261_1.jpg

Then I curved out the exist to reveal a more rock like structure.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...IMG_2266_1.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...m/IMG_2267.jpg

After one coat of Quickwall Cement with Acrylic Fortifier
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...m/IMG_2268.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1.../IMG_2272.jpg.

Next layer had brown cement coloring added
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...m/IMG_2274.jpg

Final Layer has charcoal coloring
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...m/IMG_2276.jpg

Apologies in advance for poor picture quality, just snapped a few rather quickly with my phone as I worked through the process.

looks great so far but no concerns with the regular foam?

Another method used:

Rigid foam rough cut
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...m/IMG_2280.jpg

Followed buy some blow torch action
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...m/IMG_2281.jpg

First coat
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...m/IMG_2284.jpg

Finished product for the back wall
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...m/IMG_2287.jpg

Not really, at first I thought it would be worth while using the black for the price difference but $50 worth went rather quickly, the regular foam is a quarter of the price and actually goes further and works better. It's not as rigid but after being covered in concrete it makes no difference. Also pretty much all spray foam will be above the water level so no real concerns, but either way the regular is more commonly used.

Quick preview in tank
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...ound150302.jpg

That concludes my weekend, stay tuned for more in the next few days.

thats kinda cool i was looking on some google pic and some of those look pretty sick

you shut your reef down Steve ?? :cry:

You shut down your reef for a swamp Steve???

After looking up that word, [Paludariumcan] had to paste it can't spell it lol or not trying. Amazing tanks from what you have started with this should be a show piece, maybe look into making statues lol looks amazing I'm very impressed.

Lit by a mitras no less

You guys got to keep up, that was step one.

Thanks, so far it has turned out pretty good, hopefully I can keep it up.

Lit by 3, I removed 2 for access but eventually will go back up. The gimmick features of clouds and storms seem more appropriate for my "swamp" than my previous reef.

looks awesome. i did one of these 3d backgrounds before. using a sodering iron will give you a rock like appearance

Thanks, might try that on the sides.

Power outage, not much else to do...

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...65FFF7B2BA.jpg

That's the left side.

Step 3 relates to the plumbing, the rough in for the filtration has started. On one side is the intake which includes a surface skimmer, the two valves will control how much flow is skimmed from the surface vs a submerged strainer (still to be added). The skimmer box will also hold items like a float valve for level control. The output from the filter is roughed in on the other side of the tank.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...F10D6C05C1.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...33A50B7E6B.jpg

Where's the pump go ?

Backtracking to step 2 to finish the background, some addition foam is added to fill in the gaps and blend things together. Some vine work is also added at this time but will be completed in a later step when other rock and wood features are added. This virtually completes step 2, here's a full swamp pic to show the current result.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...ound150309.jpg

It's external, basically just a canister filter.

Guess I'll have to wait for pics as I can't imagine it plumbed

I thought it was looking good before, but WOW those vines and the rock coloring really bring it to life. And it makes it look huge

That really looks cool.

Nice job! :biggrin:

I had to look this up on the internet. Very cool ideas you have there. I might have to try one of these!

No kidding! I know how big the tank is, but that pic - it could be 15 feet long! Sweet looking Steve!

Thanks all. To me the tank looks small in the pictures so I guess it's all personal perspective. For an idea on size here's a pic my wife snapped on the weekend.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...BB3E91A6BE.jpg

This is starting to look really good. Great work on the foam rock work.

Will you be setting up plumbing for misters or rain type simulation?

Thanks. All plants will be hydroponic so each pot will have a drip line. I'm contemplating the idea of addition misters to work with the auto top off for rain simulation but I need to avoid getting the front glass wet so it might be tricky. It's something I can add anytime so I'll probably play around with the idea eventually.

nice, in for updates

Skipping ahead again to step 4, substrate.

First I installed 100W of heating cable for substrate heating.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...92ECA373D3.jpg

Followed buy 100lbs for black sand, 20lbs of Flourite and topped off with 80lbs of Caribsea Eco-Complete. I also added some 50lbs of lace rock, some driftwood and some mopani wood. Here's another FSS to show the result.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...rium150310.jpg

All three lights are up again as well :)

You are very creative (and patient).

looks amazing steve! is that heating coil a hobby product or something from the construction realm?

It's a hobby product, Hydor 50w Hydrokable Substrate Heater

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...jL._SX522_.jpg

This is a very cool build, learning a bunch here thanks for the photo steps and write up.... Tagging along!

Looks like it will be a blast Steve! Needed the sump room for beer keg storage? Wendy and I have been toying around with a mantella tank for sometime now. I have them before and have always wanted a properly built tank for them. Not quite a paludarium, but close :)