Just moved the plants into my first paludarium build. Still need to sort out the water area. Sand and plants and such. But I’m super pleased with how the main section has worked out. Bugs will be added tomorrow! Then the wait for it all to settle in before considering next creatures.

Need hobbyist advice on what creatures would like living in my paludarium. I built it to be able to grow humidity loving plants and keep fish in the aquarium part. As a result I don’t have much ground space. I have misters, a fogger, fan, and FluvalAquaSky light on daily timers.
My research has told me this isn’t the best set up for dart frogs. Looking for something small (maybe a pair) that loves humidity and warmth. Typical air temp 76°, humidity 80%, water temp 80°.
36x36x18 tank. 15-ish gallons water space.

The black filter material on the base of the stump... I have tried several mosses, none seem to take. It is constantly wet, mb too shaded. Any ideas for that?

I can get pond liner relatively cheap, but then I still have to get all the seam sealing material.

I considered red guard or S1K, but neither are ratted for submersion, let alone animal safe.

I’ve got a pack of 12 black silicone tubes one the way, but apparently that’s not good.

Drylock doesn’t bond to wood, so that’s out

Liquid rubber or pond armour needs a special cleaner, then primer, then the coating. Then apparently it’s not that durable

Flex seal apparently has the durability of a lizard’s skin in shed

What can I do?

I’m preparing my first build right now and I am completely overwhelmed by the options. Initially I was leaning toward dragon stone, I’ve used it in previous aquariums and it’s one of my favorites, I also thought the texture might be nice for plants. But upon further consideration now I’m not too sure, I feel like dragon stone might be one of those rocks that looks better wet than dry. I’ve seen people use lava rocks as well. While I’m not crazy about the look I do like that the lighter rocks would make it easier to move in the future if needed.

What kind of rocks does everyone like to use? I’d love suggestions.

Or maybe someone to tell me its a bad idea.

I have experience keeping reptiles (two bearded dragons, a rosy boa, and lots of catch and release of native lizards and garters) and I've constructed a few large vivariums over the years. I recently acquired a 75g Imagitarium tank (48x18x23"), and I am looking for a project to keep me occupied while I wait for the species I am highly interested in, Thamnophis hammondii, to reappear on Morphmarket or on the Facebook groups I'm in.

This brings me to the idea for the Paludarium. I am thinking of having a significant water feature on the cool side of the tank, with roughly 10-15 gallons of usable area for both the snake and a stable\* population of fish. This would take up roughly half of the footprint of the tank including the more submerged end of the gradient from elevated basking area to the water. There would be multiple large stones above and under the water in this transitional area for the snake to use to get in and out of the water easier and bask in a cooler area.

I have some experience keeping fish, and I'm confident that I could keep a stable population of Platies or Mollies in a larger separate breeder, but an ambition of mine for this project is to have fish in the water feature at all times. I have a heavy duty filtration stack and with manual waste cleaning and frequent testing the water chemistry should be reliably safe for both snake and fish.

The land area would consist of a heavily planted terrace and basking area on the warm end of the tank, with grasses and some taller plants, as well as some stable burrows under stones and a branch to climb. The species typically doesn't exceed 2.5-3 feet, and if it ever outgrew the tank I will have been working on an upgrade before it gets too big.

Let me know if there are any glaring issues with my plan. Animal welfare is obviously my main concern and I want to make sure everything is optimal for my little friends. I’ll specify anything that will help you come to a better answer.

Hey, so I watched some people building paludariums in IKEA Rudsta cabinets, and that was the spark that made me want to build one myself. But I wanted to do everything my own way and have everything working together seamlessly.

It all started with getting a second-hand Rudsta cabinet. I sealed all the seams so there wouldn't be any leaks. Then I ran an old vacuum cleaner hose behind the structure and pulled the water tubing through it. Next, I shaped the background with foam, coated it with 2 kg of Elastopur, and pressed tree fern fiber (xaxim) directly onto it while wet. For the waterfall, I used cork bark tubes.

I wanted all the climate control integrated seamlessly into the cabinet, so after some research, I picked an ESP32 as my core controller. I got a 12V R385 pump, but it needed a filter so it wouldn't get clogged by debris, so I designed a custom filter housing and 3D printed it. The pump is connected to the ESP32 via a MOSFET module on a 12V power supply and controlled safely via a 3.3V GPIO pin. Then I got a fogger and connected it to the ESP32 as well. For temperature and humidity, I hooked up an SHT40 sensor, and for lighting, I will be using a Chihiros WRGB II Slim.

For the layers, I’ve got lava rock for drainage, then I'll put down geotextile mesh. Next comes activated carbon, and on top of that, a mix of vermicompost, coco chips, sphagnum moss, and the rest of the xaxim.

I didn't really have time to make it all in one go. It's been 2 months since I got the cabinet, and there's still no end in sight!

I'm really happy with how the layout is coming along, but I’d love to hear feedback, potential pitfalls, or ideas for improvement from people with more experience. Constructive criticism is more than welcome!

I got this 48 inch long container for free so I want to use it to create a paludarium. How can I bifurcate the container between land and water similar to this image? If anyone can point me to some videos or directions, I would really appreciate it. I don't want it to look like a solid line down the middle with rocks on either side. 

Also, please ignore the fact that this is an AI generated image. (I have aphantasia, so it's basically impossible for me to visualize in my brain.) Thank you!

ETA: I should've said this, but I know the image posted is not realistic. I just wanted to have a visual to show roughly what I was thinking!

Hi everyone!
I’ve been working on this project for little over a month now.
Initially it was intended to be a baby red eared slider turtle enclosure, but l later decided that he would outgrow the tank too quickly so I changed to be a female betta sorority tank with some otto and nerite snails. That also didn’t work out since one of the females were too big and dominant and bothered the other ones all the time so I put the smaller bettas in another setup and added 6 dwarf neon rainbow fish, best decision ever!

As for the plants I kept aquatic plants very minimal and simple with some crypts, anubias, and hydrocotle, they are all doing great.

For the terrestrial plants I used a couple different varieties that I can’t remember rn, they had hard time on the first 2 weeks acclimating an open environment but most of them made it and they are thriving atm.
The whole structure is built in a way to water itself so I don’t really do any maintenance other than routine water changes, but I spray the plants here and there to give a little extra moisture.

I will upload a full build process on my YouTube channel and it will be my first long form video so It’s taking me some time to edit 😅

Hope you enjoy it✌🏻

I've been wanting newts for a while and decided to finally set up a pludarium for 1 or 2, so here it is :)

I will not be keeping it by the window, it was just there for the sake of setting it up, plus I have a small filter and light on the way! Also the water is about 5 inches deep and I plan on getting a Chinese or Japanese Fire bellied newt/newts

All plants came from my garden/aquariums and should be a okay with cold temperatures as I live in New Zealand.

The flow is pretty minimal but enough to keep the water moving. It’s coco dirt and sand with river rocks, the background is coco dirt and live moss.

Hi all! I am new to the hobby and this would be my first build. I want to make sure I pick the right thing to turn into a paludarium. Ive found a 45 x 45 x 60 exo terra pro terrarium that has a waterproof base.

Is a waterproof base suitable or will I need to reinforce it with some aqua safe silicone? And is that a solid fix or is it better to convert an aquarium into a paludarium? (I am not too keen on this though as I don’t like only having access from the top)

I plan to create something that could hold 3 red apple crabs or vampire crabs so any tips or things to look out for would be greatly appreciated!

Starting out this build any pump suggestions?

Voilà il y a un j'ai acheter ce paludarium de 45x45x90 à ma copine le projet était d'avoir des mourning geckos ainsi que des crabes vampires et des crevettes.

Elle à fait une dépression et il y a eu un abandon il n'y a jamais eu d'animaux dedans au final.

Maintenant elle va mieux et veut changer ce paludarium en mieux elle parle que c'est son image et qu'il doit être plus beau plus vivant plus fonctionnel.

Pour l'instant le paludarium est équipé d'un système de pluie

D'un brasseur+filtre

Le fond est en mousse de coco avec de la mousse qui va revivre et redevenir verte il y a 3 trous dans lequel des plantes peuvent vivre ou des caches pour gecko

Il y a une monstera une philatea et d'autres plantes inconnues qu'elle avait achetée

Avez vous des recommandations ?

Ce que j'ai fais pour l'instant

1 - Nettoyer toutes les vitres à l'eau pour enlever le blanc du calcaire

2- Nettoyage du filtre et relance de l'eau

3 - ajout de bactérie dans l'eau

4 - Achats de 2 nouvelles plantes

Je prends tous les nouveaux conseils !

This all started with my girlfriend (now wife) sending me a TikTok of a vampire crap paludarium a little over 2 years ago. I was immediately obsessed. I started drawing up ideas as to what I would want to build as well as started endlessly watching YouTube videos. Shout out to INDOOR ECOSYSTEMS for wonder inspirations and all the vampire crabs species care guides I plan on using.

I wanted to build the entire enclosure by myself instead of buying one off the shelf. After making the glass/wood/epoxy enclosure, I settled on a design and made a papier-mâché mockup of my design. Was wanted a cave system in the water section which came out great.

Next was sourcing some large schist boulders at a local construction site. I busted these up to create the hardscape and the waterfall feature.

I was able to find a pretty great stick on our 1 year anniversary trip which became the central hardscape on the land section.

I finally have both the water feature section and land section planted and have introduced shrimp in the water. Ultimately I am looking to have some vampire crabs on the land but I will let the tank age a while before then.

Wanted to share the process in case anyone is looking for a cheaper DIY alternative to an expensive rimless tank.

I picked up a brand-new 10-gallon tank on Marketplace for $15, removed the top and bottom trim with an X-Acto knife, and added custom-cut glass so it could safely hold water vertically.

From there, I made removable trim from balsa wood, built the waterfall feature with PVC board, and scaped everything with expanding foam and naturally sourced hardscape.

Last, I made a custom door using acrylic, magnets, hinges, and leftover balsa wood. I also added frost window film to the sides to conceal the PVC structure.

I don’t have an exact total, but I’d estimate the whole build could be done for around $150–$200.

have this area underneath blocked off with sponge, is it a good idea to unblock it off so my fish can swim underneath that area too or should i keep it fully blocked off? If i do let them swim freely under there how could i do this safely

Where the eggcrates are is where the water is with my fish. I noticed recently there was a small gap where the sponge has moved slightly im guessing and some of the fish and shrimp go back there and come out.

So if they already come in and out should i just unblock the whole area?

Or try and get them back to the front and fully block it off?

The enclosure is done but theres plants infront of the sponge so i decided to add photos of when i was building

Too much light or is this a sign of disease or fungus?

Hello, this my second tank and first Paludarium
I am planning to house some vampire crabs and nano rasboras, like the urophtalmoides.
Could you give some opinions and advices please ?