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