Construction Journal of my new Paludarium - Page 5

wishIwereAnExpert · #41 (**permalink**) 12-07-2005, 03:38 PM

I have two strong reccommendations, though it's probably too late to execute either of them. First, it looks like the water level comes right up to the false bottom, and this encourages anerobic bacteria. Maybe lower the overflow a little? Some air space is good. Second, it looks like your rock wall only goes a tiny bit above the egg crate, and if you pile your substrate above it, it WILL fall into the water. Maybe make a wall addition with some foam?

-Solly

MJ · #42 (**permalink**) 12-07-2005, 04:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wishIwereAnExpert

I have two strong reccommendations, though it's probably too late to execute either of them. First, it looks like the water level comes right up to the false bottom, and this encourages anerobic bacteria. Maybe lower the overflow a little? Some air space is good. Second, it looks like your rock wall only goes a tiny bit above the egg crate, and if you pile your substrate above it, it WILL fall into the water. Maybe make a wall addition with some foam?

-Solly

lol it does have a foam wall on top of the stone work

Biznatch · #43 (**permalink**) 12-07-2005, 04:49 PM

Yup I sprayed foam around the top of the rock/the front of the egg crate to hold the soil in. I'm going to glue the soil the the foam on the front when i get it because I don't think the coco fiber would look good there. And the water level at full highth is about 3/4" away from the bottom of the eggcrate so I think I'm safe since most people I heard recomending 1/2" of air.

Edit here is the best/least blurry picture I could find of my finger. I highlighted exactly how big it was since you can only see about half in the picture. And the blister was a little over 1/8" tall also.

JoshKaptur · #44 (**permalink**) 12-07-2005, 10:34 PM

Ha! Thanks, I think.

themann42 · #45 (**permalink**) 12-10-2005, 05:16 PM

hey biznatch

great journal. i just read through the whole thing and have plenty of questions for you that i've been writing down as i read though it. hope you don't mind :lol: if it's too much i can just start a new thread if you want me to :wink:

1. the exoterra comes with a screen lid correct? what did you do about that, wouldn't that let out too much moisture? i assume it's best to cover it with all glass except for a little strip in the front, so that air comes in through the vent and up just the front glass, to keep the front glass less foggy.

2. your overflow system... the only thing i don't understand is how you'd prevent a film from forming on the water surface. wouldn't something like in the diagram below be ok? it's just a verticle pipe with a cap on the top. but right below the top you'd cut slits to let water drain in. this way it takes water right from the surface to drain, and would prevent a water film, at least i think so (i realize you have a waterfall so you prolly wouldn't have a water film problem in the first place though). and to drain the 5 gallon wouldn't you do the same thing instead of having to do a syphon? just have a pipe pipe right from the bottom so you just turn the valve and it pours out?

3. what is the backround that comes with the exoterra like? i wouldn't put a water feature in mine so i wouldn't need to sculpt the backround. is it cheap, fake, or plasticy looking? would plants like creeping fig be able to crawl up it? and could carve holes easily to mount plants in?

4. the fans, wouldn't they draw out all the moisture in the air?

5. the cage itself, where did you buy it? i haven't seen them in any stores around here. did you happen to buy it online?

sorry is that was a lot. great job on the tank and also the journal. i never really looked at the exoterra cage before. i've seen them but never really payed much attention to them. reading this made me realize how nice they are and i really want to get some. only problem then is i'd have an extra 29 and 55 laying around. i would love having front access instead of reaching down into a tank like i have to do now.

edit: forgot to mention your stand looks really nice too!

Biznatch · #46 (**permalink**) 12-10-2005, 09:24 PM

1- Yes it comes with a screen top. I already checked at a glass shop and it's going to be lik 13$ to have them cut a piece of 1/4" glas to fit there in it's place. It also has plastic connectors on the tank itself that need to be cut/filed off (They are used to hold the removable screen top). I will leave a gap in front of the glass to allow some air up so the doors don't fog up.

2. Yes that would work but it would be VERY loud. Plus the slits would have to equal the same as the full opening of the pipe (I used 3/4" and it is almost running as much as it can without starting a siphon.) But if a siphon starts it drains the tank like 4 times faster than the pump and refill it. So I went with this overflow design since most reef people use it because of how quiet it is. Since the tank is in my room that is a very good thing.

Also if you look at my return design, it comes out at the bottom of the background and is right up at the top of the water line. This allows the water to go in the portion of the tank with the fish so they get filtered water. It is also angled to disturb the surface a little, hopefully preventing surface film. And it also saved me 14$ because I don't need a check valve. If the pump stops working the return will siphon water untill it drops below the holes and suck air in then it stops. So this setup will never leak during a power outage

About the tank siphon, putting it on the bottom would require drilling a hole in the glass, buying another bulkhead and drilling a hole in the stand. Plus it would put stress on the tank each time you opened/closed the valve. And i'm lazy so the way I have will work since I only need to change a few gallons each week.

3- The background is like a 1" foam panel that looks like fake rock. It's not too bad, in fact my mom complained when I took it out because she liked it. But after seeing my new background done she agrees that it looks much better/more natural. Plants should be able to mount ok, at least light ones should.

4- The fans do pull a lot of air through them which is good to keep the lights cool. But the vent ont he front of the tank below the doors is pretty restrictive. So most of the air will come from right outside the hood and only a little air will actually travel through the tank. I'm going to have to adjust the hole on the top of the tank to see how big it needs to be. Then I'll test it with insence to see the airflow.

5-I bought it from http://www.reptiledepot.com since they have the cheapest price I could find online anywhere. Then I realize it's like 3 minutes from my work so I went and picked it up myself. They even let me open the box and check the gaps on the door to make sure it was not a gaping hole. First try we found one that the doors are pratically touching so I'm happy.

For a mini update I'm still having trouble with the waterfeater flowing wrong. It either goes straight from the top tier to the water or the flow is too low. I figured out a solution but I have to wait for the silicon to cure, so I should have an update shortly

Biznatch · #47 (**permalink**) 12-14-2005, 09:07 AM

Ok I finally got the waterfall to work. I was having a lot of trouble getting it to flow properly. When I got the flow to anything more than a dribble it was shoot off the first tier and land in water below, completely missing the second tier. So I made a wall in front of both of them so they are now more of a basin then a ledge. So the water fills up the top level, then falls to the second level which then falls into the water.

I was origionally planning on having just a screen over the bulkhead but that didnt work. The flow was coming out like a jet, so I had to create a baffle. I cut a 3/4" 90* elbow off and glued it to the bulkhead. This forces the water straight down so it fills up the basin.

Then I glued coco fiber to the front of that and tested the waterfall.

And I also bough some switches to add to the back of the canopy to control the lights and the fans. It was a real PITA to file the square holes for them. I basically had to drill 2 holes and file them to make a rectangle to fit the switches. Then cut the fan/light wires and solder them. Make sure to put the +12/+110v wire on the switch. Either wire will work, but if you switch the ground wire, the possitive one will still have curent going through it and you can get shocked.

Now I have to stop by the store to pick up the jungle mix to fill up the land area and glue to the foam around it. Then i need to find a place to order plants that is shipping now. I will probably move the fish/aquatic plants over within the next few days since the water area is pretty much done, just gotta clean out all the loose coco fiber. So the project is nearing completion

I also have a filstar xp1 on the way, got it for 40$ new on ebay.

And on a side note, here is a funny picture of one of my kuhli loaches that will be going in this tank soon. He decided he was tired and wanted to lounge on a java fern leaf right in the front of the glass and posed as a took a few pictures. Man I love kuhli loaches, they are just too funny :P

Biznatch · #48 (**permalink**) 12-23-2005, 02:04 AM

I'm finally done with this semester YAY

But I'm pretty much done with everything I can do on the tank for now

I need to find a place to order plants from. I would prefer to order it all in one place and the only place I know of that is shipping right now is blackjungle. But they are expensive and have no selection of broms. So any suggestions would be great.

I finally recieved my filstar xp1 and set that all up. The sump sure is getting crowded. The filter seems to be sucking air in from somewhere, I haven't gotten around to finding where and why. I need to get some vasoline to put on the seals to make sure it's not them.

The filter was missing the funnel thing that starts the siphon, so i just stuck the input in the water and sucked on the output to get it going. It also didn't have anything for the bacteria to colonize on it so I added some ceramic rings I had.

Now heres some pictures of the tank filled with water and both the sump pump and the waterfall pump running. It has been up for almost a week but I haven't gotten around to taking pictures untill now. My next thing is going to be to get like 5 or 6 colorfull male guppies to get some color there. Just waiting for the filter to cycle a bit for the existing load. It only has 3 kuklis, a betta and a bunch of cherry shrimp right now.

You can also see the wall around the land area is done to. I used silocone to stick jungle mix to it then filled it up. I had to search everywhere for that stuff, and finally found a local shop that had it in stock.

I really like how it turned out so far, I was getting kind of dissapointed at certain times while building it. But if anyone has suggestions where to order plants from please let me know, I really want to get it planted so I can get some frogs in there.

Grassypeak · #49 (**permalink**) 12-23-2005, 02:08 AM

Ya know, I was just wondering how this thing was coming. Lookin great! Are you going to add some more branch-work?

Biznatch · #50 (**permalink**) 12-23-2005, 02:13 AM

I can't say for sure yet, I need to get the broms/other plants in to see what I have to work with. The land area is about half the size of an 18gallon, maybe less (I would have to do some calcumulations lol). So I may run out of room real quick, but we'll see.