Making paludarium substrate and vines

Once the land area is ready you'll need a good clean and moisture retaining substrate. There are plenty of recipes on internet but the most common one is the so called jungle substrate.


Jungle Substrate Recipe:

- 1 part Coco fibre
- 1 part Fine bark
- 1 part Play sand
- 2 parts Sphagnum moss

Coco fibre for Jungle Substrate

Play sand Jungle Substrate

Sphagnum moss Jungle substrate

Instead of coco fibre you could also use potting mix but I don't like it because there all kind of unwanted micro organism in t which will give you alot of fungus growth, especially during the first couple of months.

Put all the ingredients in a bucket and mix it. Also add some water to make it smooth.
Don't mix any fertilizers in because they can harm your paludarium inhabitants.

Paludarium Jungle substrate

 Jungle Vines Recipe:

Before you put  in your substrate it's a good idea to add some vines to give your paludarium an even more tropical rainforest look.

Vines are really easy to make from different pieces of rope. All you need is pieces of rope with a different thickness, silicone and coco fibre.

Put on some rubber gloves, cover the ropes in silicone and dip 'm in a bucket of coco fibre. Try to push the fibre into the silicone to prevent it from falling of when dry.

Making vines for Paludarium

Natural looking jungle vines Paludarium

When the silicone is cured shake of the excess of fibre and use some waterproof super glue or stainless steel staples to attach them to your driftwood, background wall or Pur blobs and retaining walls. Twist the different thicknesses around each other to give it an even more natural look ...This is gonna look awesome. 
Below you can see how it looks in my finished Paludarium today.

Natural looking jungle vines in Paludarium

Natural looking jungle vines and driftwood in Paludarium

Natural looking jungle vines in Paludarium

Building a Paludarium land area

When you look up "Paludarium" in a dictionary you'll find something like; A paludarium is a type of vivarium that incorporates both terrestrial and aquatic elements.
In fact it's an aquarium with some islands in it.
The term paludarium comes from the Latin words for marshes (paludal), and receptacle (arium). In other words, a paludarium is a receptacle (a container that's used for holding or storing things) that is patterned after a marsh habitat, with part water and part land.

Before I started with the islands I bought a piece of coco fibre mat and glued it with aquarium safe silecone against the back of the tank. I put the tank on it's side and in order to create a good bond I used some fitness weights. The curing silicone really smelled bad so best to do this in a different room or outside.

Coco fibre mat

Coco fibre mat covered in silicone

Curing silicone

After the silicone had cured it was time to start building the land area. Before you start you have to ask yourself what waterlevel you want in your paludarium. I went for ca 15 cm. That way it was deep enough for white clouds and it gave me enough room/(ca 30 cm) to put some nice plants on my island.

I used eggcrate for the base of the islands. Cut the eggcrate with a plier and use zip ties to connect all the pieces. You can go for a simple rectangular island but it looks better when you add some coves. The way I did it was 2 islands added together with a deep cove in the middle. This way it will look like the entrance of a creek when it's all finished and it will create a sense of  mysterious depth. I also wanted to integrate a waterfall in the  terrestrial landscape so I left an opening for the waterfall pump at the back of the left island.

Building paludarium islands with eggcrate

Building paludarium islands from eggcrate

Paludarium islands build from eggcrate

Paludarium islands build from eggcrate

On top of the islands I used some garden weed mat that will prevent substrate from falling into the water. On the sides I used flywire so nothing can go inside the islands except water.Use zip ties to attach the flywire and weed mat.

To cover the front and sides of the islands I used some leftover coco mat which was glued on the islands with silicone.. Now give it time to dry.

Paludarium islands covered with coco fibre liner

 When the silicone was cured the islands were placed in the tank and secured with a bead of silicone at the bottom. All ready for the next step..

Paludarium islands covered with coco fibre liner

Paludarium islands in tank

Paludarium islands from eggcrate in tan

Oww I almost forgot to tell you about the waterfall. I found a cheap 300L/h waterfall pump on ebay. With some minor mods  (like covering the outlet with fly wire and some coco peat on top) it was perfect for my paludarium. For the waterfall I used styrofoam and some feft over pond plastic.

Building a paludarium waterfall from styrofoam

Building a paludarium waterfall from styrofoam

Curing silicone paludarium waterfall

Pond plastic liner on top of styrofoam  paludarium waterfall

To prevent the substrate from falling into the water you need some sort of retaining wall around the islands. A nice way to do this is with the help of expanding foam. Make sure it's foam that's aqua safe and won't poison your fish and or frogs. You can also use this stuff to firmly attach driftwood or rocks to your tank or islands. It's best to start in a corner and wait a couple of minutes to see how much the foam will expand before you start doing the whole lot and find out it's way to much. 
Let it cure overnight and start carving the desired shape. make sure all the gloss is gone which is important to create a firmer bond between the carved foam and later applied black silicone.

Shaping the paludarium Waterfall

Curing expanding foam Paludarium

Shaved expanding foam Paludarium

Shaved expanding foam Paludarium

After you've finished the time consuming carving of the foam you can begin to put black silicone all over it. Best to do this in a couple of steps. Now put on some plastic gloves , sprinkle coco peat on top of the silicone and press/rub it into the fresh silicone and let it cure. If you don't press it in it will come of too easily. 
After it's cured you can remove the loose leftover coco particles with a vacuum cleaner. 

Expanding foam covered in silicone and coco peat

Spotted Marsh Frog Tadpoles

 A couple of months ago I built a waterstream with a small pond in my backyard. As soon as I spotted mosquito larvea I got 3 small goldfish to get rid of 'm.. and luckily the fish did their job. 

Backyard Waterstream with pond

Backyard Waterstream with pond

Bluetongue enjoying Waterstream with pond

Bluetongue enjoying Waterstream with pond

When I went to the petshop to buy some fishfood I spotted a fishtank with spotted marsh frog tadpoles a frog that's native to Australia.  Hmm they would make a good addition to the pond in the backyard. But as they were still very tiny there was a risk of the tadpoles turing into a nice snack for the goldfish or birds. 

Spotted Marsh FrogTadpoles

Then I remembered  I had a fish tank somewhere in the shed that I found along the side of the road a while back.  With some gravel, rocks, Spathiphyllum (Peace Lily), Parlour Palm and a couple of pond plants a save tadpole home was setup during a sunday afternoon. 

Tadpole fish tank

Searching internet how to take care of tadpoles and frogs I got facinated by the paludariums I saw and before I knew I started building my own paludarium from scratch. 

A 122(L)x38(W)x45(H) cm Aquarium with glass lid became the base of this project 

200 L fish tank Paludarium

122(L)x38(W)x45(H) cm Paludarium

122(L)x38(W)x45(H) cm Aquarium Paludarium