I've been meaning to write another tank log for about a month now, but every time I go to write one, something new happens with the paludarium. So, here are some quick updates:
my "wet towel" strategy fared perfectly over thanksgiving break, keeping my plants nice and moist.
I brought my tank back home for winter break and it's currently sitting in my room.
I solved the "huge overflowing puddle that could potentially cause water damage" issue.
I made some big changes that have really boosted the tank's self-sustaining nature.
To begin, let's dig into the latter two.
As I mentioned in my last post, the UNS atomizer I've installed to keep my above-water plants moist is incredibly important to sustaining my little ecosystem. However, the constant mist it generates pools around the tank and drips onto the floor if I don't have a towel there to sop it up. Even with a towel, the water just sits there on the surface of my desk, table, etc. Not good in the long run. The solution — which I should have come up with a long time ago — is a little annoying but also pretty effective. If I place a fan at the exact right angle next to the tank and set it to the lowest speed, it picks up the mist, swirling it back over the plants, and speeding up evaporation, avoiding any pooling. So far, it's worked excellently, with essentially 0 drippage. The annoying part is that I now have a fan running 24/7, though that won't be as bad when I'm back at school with my new (quieter) fan instead of the 20-year-old one I have at home that sounds like a wind turbine. So, success #1.
Success #2: A few days before I headed home for winter break, I logged onto buceplant dot com and saw something extraordinary:
See, the UNS 5e tank that I have is supposed to come with bulkheads (adapters that attach to pre-drilled holes and allow for inflow/outflow pipes that can connect to a canister filter). When I bought it, no such bulkheads were available. As such, even though I had a — way overpowered — canister filter, I wasn't able to use it on the tank. Instead, I employed a small UNS Sigma 5 water pump, hoping it would provide enough movement to keep all 2.1 gallons of water algae-free and clear.
That did not go as I had hoped. Not only did algae absolutely ravage the tank (think back to tank log [1]), but the filter was finicky and not very powerful; it only managed to provide water movement for about half of the tank.
With the bulkheads, I no longer had to worry about the stupid so-called "sigma" pump. I brushed the dust off my beautiful 150G/hr, 0.66G capacity Delta 60 canister filter and went to town. Is it way overpowered? Sure. Is it tiny loser dog vs. buff chad dog meme? 100%. My new setup beats that chud pump any day, and its increased filtration power has allowed me to skip 2 water changes in a row with little to no algae buildup.
Here's what the new setup looks like:
From a visual perspective, there's a little more going on, but I'm not too pressed about a bulkhead and an inflow pipe. As far as I'm concerned, the tank still looks gorgeous. The pipe situation, however, does not:
The weird valves you see are for flow control. I was a bit concerned that the delta 60 would tear a hole through the side of my tank, given its relative power when compared to my water volume, but so far, it's been fine. Always better to be safe than sorry, though. The piping is a whole nother story.
When I went to install both bulkheads, I ran into an issue. They're theoretically meant to be used with my filter system, yet some of the connections were incompatible. See, if everything has 1/2 inch diameter, then you get into situations where two 1/2 inch diameter pipes do not connect. No matter what I tried, I couldn't find a solution that fit in the tank. I had connector pieces, but they only pushed the inflow filter downwards, and I don't have that much vertical space to play with. Half of my solutions would have had the inflow fully covered in sand. Instead, I ditched the left bulkhead. In its place, I used the full plastic inflow system that came with my canister filter and aligned the suction cups in such a way that the inflow lay just above the sand and right below the water level. Problem solved (after 2 hours of fighting with plastic connectors lol).
Once the tank was settled, I started eyeing plant expansion. My plants are thriving, so why not add more? One problem: no money... So, I pilfered 😈. See, I had noticed a week or so prior to this that my terrarium was growing like crazy (albeit despite a weird red algae):
It could do with some trimming, and my paludarium could do with some new plants. Match made in heaven.
I grabbed some scissors and started hacking away. In the end, I did a pretty aggressive trim on my terrarium, stole basically all of its moss, and transferred the clippings to my paludarium. If all goes well, I'll get much better growth in the 5e and can replace what I stole in a few months' time (sorry terrarium!).
That was a week or so ago. Pretty much everything I took is thriving in its new home. Here are some pics:
moss
hydrocotyle #1
hydrocotyle #2
hydrocotyle #3
Overall, things are going great. The algae is mostly under control, the tank now has actual filtration, the water pooling has been solved, and some new plants have been introduced. Things are good.
One remaining change is upcoming. When I return from break, I'll be moving from my current dorm room to a different one, so the tank will once again be in a new home. I'll provide an update after that happens to track how it's doing.
(Sorry for the insanely long tank log lol.)