[Kalibata]

With the background done, plumbing done and false bottom done it was time to test the tank with water in there.

I bought some driftwood from amazon which I soaked for a week and changed the water every day.

5PCS Aquarium Driftwood Branches Reptiles Trunk Driftwood Natural Wood Fish Tank Decoration Plant Stump Ornament Decor Assorted
$16.99

Added the first moss onto the Rock ledge and let the driftwood sit in the water till it stopped floating.

Then i added the pebbles for my drainage layer.

For my water substrate i bought from Petsmart :

CaribSea Eco-Complete Planted Aquarium Substrate 20lbs
$20.99

You do have to wash it at least 20 times to get the water clear.

For my plant substrate i mixed dried Sphagnum Moss, Sphagnum Peat moss, Pine Bark Chips and activated Charcoal pellets.

432 cu. in. Sphagnum Moss
$5.38
Imagitarium Activated Carbon for Fresh or Salt Water Aquariums, 11 oz.
$4.31

 

[Kalibata]

I got a couple plants from Home Depot.

Costa Farms 3.8 in. Exotic Angel Plant
$4.98
Costa Farms 4.8 in. Exotic Angel Plant
$6.98 x 2 =$13.96
METROLINA GREENHOUSES Mondo Ground Cover Plant (1-Plant)
$2.98
Vigoro 1 pt. Moss Sagina Ground Cover Plant
$3.48

I shaked off and washed off all the soil.

Then i separated all the plants.

And then started to plant them into the tank.

 

[Kalibata]

Filled up the water.

Cycled the tank for 4 weeks with Api Quick start and checked the water parameters with the Freshwater Master test Kit.

API® Quick Start Aquarium Cycling Water Conditioner
$7.99
API® Freshwater Aquarium Master Test Kit
$24.59

As my first fish i got 2 Danios. I wanted to see if they will survive before i get more expensive fishes. They were $2.99 each.

While I was at PetSmart with my Son, the store clerk showed us the Red Claw Crabs. Of course my son was fascinated with them and we got 2 of them.
Little did i know that they require brackish water to survive, it was nowhere mentioned in the store nor did they told us. They were $3.99 each.

 

[Robru]

What a professional! Very nicely made!

 

[TeddytheFinger]

That setup looks great!! Do you think those red clawed crabs are going to pester your plants? Like digging them up or clipping leaves?

 

[Kalibata]

That setup looks great!! Do you think those red clawed crabs are going to pester your plants? Like digging them up or clipping leaves?

Only thing they clipped was brown leaves so that was a plus since they cleaned the tank. They ate leftover fish food decaying plant matter.

 

[Kalibata]

I noticed that my substrate was wet, not sure if that was too wet or normal for a Paludarium with high humidity, something must be wicking water up into the soil the I thought.

So I removed all of the plant and soil. I also removed all of the pebbles and washed them. I cut small walls from the corrugated plastic I had leftover and added them around the background to separate the substrate from the background.
My thought was that the background is wicking up water somehow into the soil.

I also cut the (Tree) shorter, maybe that was what wicked the water.

Then i replanted the Tank.

 

[Kalibata]

Next up was adding homemade CO2. I searched the internet and found a post of somebody using a syringe with cotton to make a diffuser. So I started to build this

I poked a couple of holes in there.

Tested it and found it working quiet well.

While picking up some supplies from Petsmart i also got 5 Ghost Shrimps. They were 39 cents each.

One of them had eggs but they never hatched.

 

[Kalibata]

The 2 little Danios i bought at the beginning went missing. Since I never saw the Crabs attacking any fish or shrimps, I suspected that they swam behind the cave and got chopped up by the wavemaker which is hidden inside the cave.

So i closed the gap with a stone. The crabs seem to love it. That was from now on their favorite spot to sit on.

 

[Kalibata]

After 4 failed attempts to create a water feature I decided to ditch the old one since the paint started to chip off.
So on to Water feature number 5.
I made some flat panels with Great Stuff foam and glued them together.

I bought a bag of Quikrete at Ace Hardwarestore and covered the panels with it.

Quikrete Mortar Mix - 10 lb bag
$2.99

I let it dry for a week and test fitted it in the tank.

It was a nice fit so i went ahead and did a second coat with Quickcrete.

I also added a second stone for the other Red Claw Crab, now they both could chill on the stones.

I removed the China Doll plants because i read somewhere that they don't belong in a Paludarium.

I noticed that the substrate is wet again. I rolled up some paper towels and stuck them into the soil. Changed them out everyday but it did not really helped with the issue.

 

[Harpspiel]

This is beautiful, but unfortunately in order to have dry substrate you would need a “wick break” - some kind of gap that does not allow water to travel from your pond area to your land area. I don’t think your setup is going to allow for that, so the easiest solution may be to just roll with the wicking and get plants that like wet feet, like Biophytums, Utricularias and some Selaginellas. An aquatic soil like Fluval Stratum would probably work best, but my ABG has held up really well to being very wet in my paludarium.

 

[Kalibata]

What i ended up doing was removing all the plants and substrate.

I cut the "Tree" even shorter.

Then I added another inch of pebbles to raise the substrate higher and raised the corrugated plastic walls. I did had half an inch of free space between water line and the false bottom but that might was not enough. Made new substrate and filled the land portion of the tank.

I left some space between the "tree" and the substrate. I separated it with cling film to make sure its not touching.

On to replanting the tank.

I left more space at the waterfall so no splashing onto the substrate, I also added some stones and cling film to separate the pebbles from the substrate.

Planting done.

I collected more moss to cover the ground.

 

[Kalibata]

Then added the moss.

Raising the pebbles and separating the substrate with cling film seem to have done the trick. Since then i never had issues with wet substrate again.
Plants and moss were growing in good.

 

[Harpspiel]

This may work long-term, but keep in mind that if anything drapes over the edge into the water (like you had the moss originally), it will wick water up into your land area. You’ll have to keep your foam rock ledge clear of moss and plants to avoid that.

 

[FloraLaura]

You have put so much work into this build and it looks great! Your plants look like they're doing well. Thanks for sharing your process.