38 Gal Paludarium Build - Page 3

yours · #21 (**permalink**) 03-06-2012, 04:46 AM

It's a marginal, so you can even put the roots in the water -- albeit shallow -- and it'll grow nicely! I have a few of them in my tanks

megamax42 · #22 (**permalink**) 03-30-2012, 06:20 AM

Thanks! I'll definitely be stocking the tank with that, now my goal is to find terrestrial plants that grow well in about 1.5-2 inches of substrate, any ideas are very appreciated.

I finally found a coating/sealant for the grout, Rust-Oleum Parks Super Glaze, although I placed the order on the 18th and still hasn't even shipped out yet

so I'm getting really antsy.

megamax42 · #23 (**permalink**) 03-30-2012, 05:01 PM

Apparently the glaze is back-ordered

, so I'm currently trying to see if I want to cancel the order and buy something else, I know I've said this many times before but any advice on sealant is very much appreciated, looking for a paint-on epoxy/sealer that will withstand constant submersion.

megamax42 · #24 (**permalink**) 04-03-2012, 01:29 AM

I finally found something (for the billionth time), and ordered a gallon of it:
Waterproof Sealer for wood,masonry,roofs,metal

megamax42 · #25 (**permalink**) 04-11-2012, 02:14 AM

The sealer I ordered finally came in! Also did some experimenting with coco fiber and grout last night.

Experimenting with Coco Fiber - YouTube

megamax42 · #26 (**permalink**) 05-09-2012, 07:34 PM

Here's some pictures of the tank after the first coat of sealer dried. Still haven't fully sealed the tank because there's more grouting and great stuff work to be done so there's no fts yet but here's some closeups of it

megamax42 · #27 (**permalink**) 05-12-2012, 07:04 PM

So far I'm really happy with the sealer though, easy to apply, easy to clean and comes out looking great. In quite a few spots it gathered on individual coco fibre strands and looks like droplets of water

Here's a couple pics but it was tough to get a good shot of it. I'm also still failing at taking a good fts with the current lighting so I'll probably take a video later and post that.

megamax42 · #28 (**permalink**) 05-15-2012, 11:14 PM

Just took a video of the paludarium after the new light arrived. Not sure how I feel about the color, they sent 4x 6500k bulbs so I might look into replacing a couple. Sorry for the really dirty glass, I'm waiting on razor blades to clean up the leftover mortar mix. I also added some G.S. to the waterfall for a more realistic look. The blue led's are near the end of the video.

New light for Paludarium - YouTube

megamax42 · #29 (**permalink**) 05-30-2012, 02:31 AM

Do you guys think I could get away without drainage holes? I was initially going to drill holes through the platform and planters however I was worried about what could get washed into the water, so I thought maybe I could bypass them with very careful waterings. What do you think?

megamax42 · #30 (**permalink**) 05-30-2012, 06:08 AM

As for the water substrate I was thinking Flourite original for the color.