All my aquariums are heavily planted and absolutely exploding with life. I enjoy watching Mother Nature take over the tank with her beauty. And watching my community tanks make it their own little kingdom… but I’ve always liked the idea of dry land in the tank… So I thought why not make a paludarium, as I enjoyed the thought of land features as well. This one will have a water feature of 5.5 inches deep all around the land section. I’m so far enjoying the process of carving the stones, mapping out the river up top and the thought of potentially get a little salamander or geko for land! Any suggestions or pointers based off the photos would be much appreciated as this is my first one! I’ll be back for a future post!

My beta fish has died and fully decayed without my noticing (due to work). As guilty as I feel, I noticed that there’s a lot of cool moss, algae, etc. and I was curious if there’s a way to add plants/remove fake plants/etc. without killing the ecosystem.

I’ve always been curious about terrariums and paludariums, in fact I was actually gonna put my beta in a new appropriately sized tank and recycle the old one to use as a terrarium MONTHS ago but put it on the back burner due to moving.

If I’m posting on the wrong subreddit please let me know, but it’s my understanding that this post doesn’t break any rules and that this is relevant.

Edit: I just realized it might not be clear what kind of advice I’m looking for. I’m asking how to maintain this as a paludarium, I’m not planning on adding any more fish. Maybe micro organisms 🤔
Also, I assume people are downvoting this either because they find it irrelevant or they don’t like that I’ve neglected the fish. I wanted to give some background on how it got to this point. Around 3 years ago, my depressed friend gave me the fish because obviously, she was too depressed to take care of him. She told me she’d take him back. 3 years later, I still have him, and I was not under the impression I’d be taking care of him for 3 years. I’m a college student that works full time in healthcare, I do not have time or money to properly nurture the fish, and I was not planning on having him for more than 2 weeks. Had I known I’d keep him for years I would’ve said no to her. I tried giving him back, putting him on Facebook marketplace, etc. but eventually I got burned out from taking care of him when I never signed up for it on the first place on top of school and work.

The fish was around 4 years old when he died, which is the average age a pet store beta fish dies. I was working 2 16 hour shifts in a row when he died, so I didn’t even notice and just put food in his tank as normal.
I was hoping this post would be a good opportunity to talk about science and biology, of course I feel bad for him, but I did what I could. I wasn’t planning on sharing these things but I assume I won’t get any advice if I don’t give further context. The only reason I included that a fish died was because I assumed it was scientifically necessary and relevant.

I started my first build last year. 5 gallon tank, cut and reconfigured to be a paludarium. I didn't have a clue what I was doing. Lots of google, YouTube, and Chatgpt. It was ultimately a failed attempt. I built a couple aquariums from pane glass and they did quite well.

I have repurposed a 20 gallon long aquarium over the past couple months (busy life this year). Finally got some time to get it built up. I still have a ways to go. I plan to introduce a chunk of my cherry shrimp colony, my three neon tetras and possibly a vampire crab. Let me know your thoughts, good and bad are welcomed!

New tank just arrived & being delivered this week!

It is 7ft wide X 30in deep X 4ft tall!

The water line was set at 15.5in and will drain into the sump area.

Stay tuned for updates soon!

Hi everyone, I've built myself a nice little paludarium 35 x 35 x 30cm - 36 l

the first intention was to add 2 - 3 semi aquatic crabs, like Lepidothelphusa sp. or Metasesarma sp. "Green Emerald or Pseudosesarma moeshi.

the land area is around 55%, I have lots of stone and wood, but I have a rather small area where the crab could dig.

Would you say that this is good enough or should I add another stage in the paludarium?

I could also drop the semi aquatic crab idea (get a frog or full aquatic crab like Potamocypoda pugil)

The underwater part is not finished as you can see.

Curently the only residents are pillbugs and one cockroach ( beacuse my brother used to keep them but then he left them and only one survived so i put it here ) i am planning to add shrimp later.

It has a rain feature, its build around limestone and sponge,it has plenty of plants.

If anyone has anytips i would love to hear them i am new at this hobby thank you ( sorry my gramar is not good )

I play a lot of VR in my room and I dont have much space left in my room voor a paludarium. I put it on wheels so I can move it underneath my desk when Im gonna play VR.

The first photo is how the paludarium looked before, mostly healthy and thriving. Many of the plants were growing with their roots touching the water and we're thriving. Around a month ago, some plants randomly collapsed, stems and leaves turned brown and mushy. Many plants that were touching parts of the water just decayed including some Anubias, Pilea. An anubias not touching the water also just melted overnight with the stem completely becoming soft. Java fern leaves began to melt. Terrestrial Fern leaves began browning and rotting one by one and some of the selaginella turned yellow and collapsed. The only thing that seemed to be okay were the mosses- sheet moss and Christmas moss. Water tests showed ph 7, ammonia and nitrites 0. I've done water changes, installed a pc fan to circulate the air a few times a day, removed as much of the decaying plants as I could but the damage seems to continue progressing. The plants that I have removed also continue to deteriorate in their separate containers. Is there anything I can do to rescue what remains? Any help would be appreciated.

I woke up this morning to these little guys in my paludarium. They are cute and are the first signs of terrestrial life that I’ve seen in my enclosure. I was excited at first until I looked around and saw some of my begonia flowers had fallen.

I bought my plants from Lowe’s flower garden. I suspect they may be hitchhikers.

Would it be okay to keep them in there or should I remove them?

I’m in Indonesia I’m making a self sustaining bioactive paludarium that is outdoor ish it’s kind of covered and basically I want to put a reptile or amphibian that can survive there even though it’s very hot here, what animals?

I’m trading an aquarium for a reptile enclosure but my options are not big enough for the pet I want and It can’t live in a paludarium . What can ?

This is my first ever paludarium/vivarium and I’m wondering how I can remove the debris from the water. I’ve already removed it and filled it back up two times. Should I just get a mesh net to clean out large chunks and wait for the smaller stuff to settle? Also I want to put some floating plants in the water because all I have in there is some baby tears and peacock moss does anyone have any suggestions?

Hello everyone!

After watching lots of Biotope Gallery videos, I was wondering where I could actually get carbonized cork bark chunks in the EU.

I'm not talking about the carbonized cork sheets, but rather the "Carbonized Charcoal Cork" you can get from Geckopia in the US. They combine both textured and flat sides, which looks like a cool feature for filling in the voids of a hardscape.

Since I live in the EU, I don't want to purchase it from the US and have it shipped all the way here. So, do you know of any alternative suppliers in the EU?

Thank you !

Hey guys I have been working on this tank for about a month and I think it’s finally ready and comfortable for these guys. Temps are always under 70 (and if I blast the Repti cooler sometimes down to 62). Plants are in and established along with a colony of spring tails and isopods. My misting system and water filter have been up and running with no hiccups
Water parameters:
My PH is 6.3-6.4
KH is 2
GH is around 6-6.5 (currently lowering it with water changes)
Chlorine, ammonia, iron, nitrate and nitrite all at 0.

Some final touches I had the idea of doing were adding some aquarium starter bacteria into my filter as a back up to spot cleaning/random plant decay. I have been adding some fish food to test if I ever get an ammonia spike and never did, even when adding 8-10 pellets. Adding some frogbit to the tank(or other surface plant) I really like the aesthetic and it adds an area where they can hide and chill out. And maybe crickets won’t all drop into the water….. Lastly, I have thought about so many different options as a water clean up crew… snails, shrimp, aquatic isopods…. Are any of these helpful, and if so what works?? My top option right now is ramshorn snails, but I’m not sure how safe they would be if accidentally eaten.

Thank you guys for any help!

Hey everyone. Planning out a paludarium. However I’ve had lots of mixed suggestions based on my research. Unsure if I should drill a hole in the bottom, drill a hole on the side, or have no hole at all.

My tank I’m using is a exoterra 18x18x24

Ideally I’d have half of it water at the bottom, and the other half to be land.

If you guys could help me out. I’m even considering no hole. I don’t mind just siphoning water like a regular tank.

My other tank I’m considering is a 36x 18 x 24.

More land use. But less height.

Feel free to drop and animal suggestions for either tanks.

A piece of stone rolled off my hand while I was trying to find a good position for it and it made a crack on the bottom of the tank. any idea how I could fix it? It will hold a lot of weight and water too

It's my little slice of nature to get me through the day

The goal is to turn this 65 gallon aquarium into a front opening paludarium, do you think it’s worth the risk removing the cross brace or nah?

Just finished the terrestrial area, but really happy with how everything is coming together!

Hello. I’m still working on my first ever paludarium (35in X 24in X 20in). I am finally at the final stages of the build and am looking for a good light. My local pet store sells Fluval Plant 4.0 lights and I thought that may be a good pick. But I do have a few questions.

Question 1: with my tank being 35 inches long I bought the “23-35 in” model and after opening I see the actual light is only about 17 inches long. Would those provide enough light for my setup?

Question 2: would it be best to have the light sitting once the glass lids of the paludarium or should I have it suspended under the lids? Does this even matter?

Question 3: I see that these Fluval lights seem to get a lot of mixed opinion online. Some people seem to love them, others seem to hate them. For my wants, the app was someone important. The ability to set dynamic cycles with different light intensities and colors was also important. I spent $180 (USD) on this light. Is there a different light I should have looked into?

Thank you!

I'm converting this exo terra pro terrarium into a paludarium and I'm starting to get second thoughts about the structural integrity of it, I used about 14kg of dragon stone, 8kg of wood and the bottom will hold around 32 litres. So all together that's about 54kg plus a kg for miscellaneous stuff, substrate is light filter foam across the whole egg crate structure and the background is also incredibly light with eco expanded cork panels. Really there's only just the weight of this hardscape, does anyone have any knowledge about this? or experience with converting terrariums to paludariums and can help me? Thanks so much.

Plants: Christmas fern, creeping Jenny, smartweed, and several varieties of moss.

Animals: five juvenile blacknose dace, one crawfish, isopods and springtails.

All plants, animals, and hardscape materials collected locally from my backyard.

For some reason the duckweed is dying / not thriving in my paludarium. I used to have to scoop out excess every few weeks.

I have a filter but it’s in a chamber, so no water movement. Fertilize with API Leaf Zone once a week. Nitrates are around 50. There is a misting system and I know duckweed doesn’t like to get rained on, but the misting settings are the same as when it was thriving. There is a slight silver sheen on the water, wonder if that’s related.

What should I add, aesthetic wise anyways

Also I have been struggling with mold lately and have been told to use 3% hydrogen peroxide. I have no animals in this and I had isopods but they all died? So idk what that is about, pls help.