Natural tank setup.

[Mistwalker]

Wasn't real sure where this should go, as it will contains things with and without spines, insects and spiders and other inverts as well, so I stuck it here. If any mods think it should be moved, that's fine.

Today I've been working on setting up a natural looking tank for some local wilflife. It's a wet/dry setup that's meant to be a bit like a creek bank.

I'm planning on including crawdads (crayfish), water striders, small fish, local species of water snails, fishing spiders, assorted insects, and a toad I caught a week or so ago. The tank is mostly complete, minus a water bubbler to keep the water oxygenated, and minus all the wildlife, except the toad and the plants.

Some pics (sorry about the crap quality, my camera sucks):

Half finished, with labels on important parts:

Finished, from the top:

The toad in his new settings:

From the side, so you can see the plexi barrier:

I'd love some feedback, ideas for improvements, etc.

 

[Thoth]

It is a great start at a paludarium a couple of concerns though.

Couple of things, with that toad I don't thing many of your insects will be around for more than a day or two. Also the crayfish is going to take of those small fish. So the animals you are housing aren't the most compatible. How big a tank is it (not knowing how big you feet are the toe doesn't help with a sense of scale)? Because it might not enough water for a crayfish to thrive.

You also need some sort of filtration (you probably knew that so sorry for restating it). Also, I can't tell from the pic do you have a layer of coarse gravel on the bottom of the soil for drainage. I'd recommend it if you don't otherwise the land side will become swampy (which isn't a bad thing, great if you want to grow canivorous plants).

Sorry if I sound critical, don't mean to be.

here's a link with a couple of ideas especially with plants and animals:
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/paludarium/paludarium.html
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/46g_construct.htm
http://www.geocities.com/~amazingaquaria/fiftyp.htm
http://home.earthlink.net/~kaydeejay/paludarium.html

 

[Galapoheros]

Cool. I've had ideas about a land/water setup but I've only sloppily done it in a 120 gal I had using gravel. I would use the coco fiber. Maybe you used that, I don't know. Dirt and potting soil has organic material in them that smells (sulfur) when it rots. I saw a nice set up in a store but it obviously took allot of work. The water area was separated by plexi but it had holes in it. The land area had a false bottom with holes in it. The water went underneath the land area but didn't come in contact with the substrate. So it got the moisture from humidity and the plant roots would grow through the holes and into the water.

 

[Mistwalker]

I thought about gravel underneath, but I've never bothered with it in any of my tarantula tanks, and I don't think it's going to make a huge difference, as the wet side is sealed quite well from the dry.

Also, I expect the different creatures to eat each other, that's part of the point. I wanted a bit of an ecosystem going. The only creature I'm terribly concerned about is the toad. I'll keep adding bugs and spiders and fish as time goes on.

It's a 20 gallon tank. I only put one small crawdad in, in the end, should be enough room for him until he gets larger. The fish are there primarily for him to eat. And if he gets too large for the tank, I'll either set him free or catch some more and have a crawdad boil.

 

[Thoth]

I only have gravel in my gecko enclosures where I have live plants. To reduce/eliminate odors I have a layer of charcoal on top of the gravel under the soil.

Though once those plants start to grow in it'll be sweet, definitely want pics then.

 

[Mistwalker]

We'll see how well they do. They were plants growing in and around the creek's edge, on the small side. The viny looking plants were spread out over rocks that were just barely out of the water, so I draped their roots in the gravel in the water, which is the same material they were rooted in in the creek.

 

[KennyGee]

Crawfish need moving water, get a filter and a bubble rock.

 

[Mistwalker]

There's a bubbler moving the water around.

And, I need a new crawdad anyway. The crawdad had crawled halfway on land, and the toad was at the edge of the water, and to make a long story short, now the crawdad is inside the toad.

Maybe I'll get a slightly larger crawdad next time.

 

[Arietans]

You have a fascinating experiment(for lack of a better word) going there.

If I may ask, is the ecosystem you are designing for a study of sorts or just for personal pleasure?

 

[Thoth]

You now you just have be careful with the bigger crawdad that the toad doesn't end up in it ;P

 

[Grim91Z]

You now you just have be careful with the bigger crawdad that the toad doesn't end up in it ;P

That's what I was thinking

That seems like a cool idea, only I'd do a much larger set up. If I did something like that it would probly be an outdoor set up with some sord of cage around it. Proper pumps and equipment, wouldn't worry about smell. Basically just like a fish fountain.

But good work with that one. Keep us updated.

 

[Mistwalker]

It's out of personal interest. If I had the equipment and money to do a large version, I would. I would absolutely love to get a huge tank like this going, but 20 gallons is the best I can do at the moment.

 

[Grim91Z]

Gotta start somewhere.