A paludarium project

[cowlat]

got my cp last week. some seeds coming soon. getting more media this friday.

now some idea came up to me to build a paludarium. but i'm kind of a little too ambitious though i'm doing aquascaping too, so i do have aqua plants and fishes and shrimps too.

so...lets get to the point. i wanted to build a paludarium that combines half land half water. the water part will house fishes, shrimps and aquatic plants. land area will house cp and ferns maybe. layout will be like the image below.

my question here is......is it ok for the water with the fishes dampen the sphagnum moss for the cp? as the water might contain minerals as the fish waste will be some sort of fertilizer, if you get me.
a filter will be fixed for the water column too, for cleaning the water.
basically it is combining a aquarium with a terarium.

please give me feedback and advise on this. will it work? will the water cause the cp to die?

thank you

[Harris Azariel]

the poo of the fish got er... methane? which can kill the plant.well lets w8 for expert to answer

[Robert]

it's not necessary to let the sphagnum moss half submerge in water, as long as it touch the water level up pulling of water or capillary action will ensure sufficient supply to the plant. The sphagnum shouldn't be wet but moist else roots will rot. Are you mixing sphagnum with perlite or sand to ensure laeration and well drain ? How do you hold the media in place-with plastic mesh?

[cowlat]

it's a 1:1 mix of sphagnum and perlite. held to position using a plastic mesh. the media will touch the water a little. not really submerged. my concern is, i read somewhere that the water used for cp should not contain minerals. so i'm worried that the water with the fishes in it will have minerals as fish poo will break into nitrite then into nitrate which in turns will work as fertilizer for aquatic plants. will this raise any concerns for the cp?

[Robert]

since the water will be filtered and replenish with fresh clean water else the fishes and shrimps will not survive. How well can cps stand the high nitrate content i'm not sure but it sure was beneficial to plants.

[cowlat]

hmm...so let's try it out and see what happens