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

[sooxiwei]

nitrate, ammonia and those poo poo stuff will mostly remain at the bottom of the tank if the water is not strongly circulated, which also means that plants inside can help to break down a portion of it, but then still there are certain amount that are every where in the tank, so like you say, try it out

moisture of the medium...I personally think the medium will be wet, good enough for other cp that require lot of water like drosera, sarracenia and vft, nepenthes wise, those intermediate and high land plant can be given up in this project since they require more airy medium...low land variety might thrive under such condition like gracilis, mirabilis...but then the size those sp can grown into is pretty big or tall

with a tank of water underneath the nep...humidity is expected to be high, a good thing for most nep

looking at how the medium affect the water quality...perlite might release chemical not good to fauna in the water, need to do some research on that before using, sphagnum moss is very acidic, I read somewhere some times ago which stated it can lower the water to ph as low as 2 if the water quantity is very very little, but for a big pond of water, no idea what will be the overall effect...

algae wise , once sphagnum moss is infected, hehe, almost impossible to get rid of, they might "expend their territory" to other part of the tank...

look out for lighting stuff, vft and sarracenia thrive under very strong lighting while most drosera can tolerate low lighting area but won't grow into it's best coloration...

good luck on that and keep us update with some photos when you made it

[cowlat]

wow. alot to consider now. have to lay it out one by one now.

the acidic part is interesting. this will definitely kill the faunas in the water. maybe close up the hole and use a humidifier with a timer to humidify the air inside and in turn will moist the media for cp.

more research on the way....hehe

[sooxiwei]

Originally Posted by cowlat

wow. alot to consider now. have to lay it out one by one now.

the acidic part is interesting. this will definitely kill the faunas in the water. maybe close up the hole and use a humidifier with a timer to humidify the air inside and in turn will moist the media for cp.

more research on the way....hehe

ph...water portion vs medium portion, get the sphagnum soak in water, wash it a few times to lessen the acidity

[Harris Azariel]

since you guys talk about live sphagnny,may i know how do you pros propagate them?