Paludarium | Aquaterrarium question(s)

MattW3344 said:

Gravel vac??

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?? Not sure why you mentioned that. My question was, are you going to design a system where water can flow thru the gravel bed supporting emersed plants?

Just an idea. For my planned Mbuna tank, I wanted to create caves in the substrate for the mbunas. So what I did, filled a balloon with sand then poured foam (2 part urethane foam, 3# density) around it. After the foam cured, cut the balloon and vacuum the sand out. This method could be used to create planter boxes. Here are some prototype photo.

madmark285 said:

My question was, are you going to design a system where water can flow thru the gravel bed supporting emersed plants?

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I was either going to wedge plants in gaps that have access to water or use plant pots (in pic) with sphagnum moss. The pump I'm going to use is strong enough to pull water through hardscape (lava rock) so there's no stagnant water.

I'm mainly using ideas from SerpaDesign




edit - running water from the waterfall would be flowing through plant pots I forgot to mention.

One more idea I had. If I build a paludarium, I want to create a cascading river look, inspiration shown below:


Using PVC, build a water distribution box placed high in the paludarium. Connect the main water pump to the box. Using PVC fittings, build little control valves and glue them into the box.


So now I can run water to different locations with different elevation on the cascading river section. The box would have to have an overflow design. So for example, you want 3 waterfalls in your design. The main waterfall would be the overflow from the box. The 2 other waterfalls would be connected to the PVC valves. For my cascading river idea, there would be 1 stream at the top (supplied by the overflow) and would widen to 3 streams at the bottom (supplied from the valves).

For me, building complicated system is the fun part