[01] tank log

A few weeks ago, I had a "planting party" in my room at Willamette; after receiving all the necessary plants and materials in the mail, a couple of friends and I set up my new paludarium.

(For those unaware, a paludarium is a glass tank where a portion remains below water and a portion remains above water — essentially a mix between a terrarium and an aquarium.)

The hardscape was built using old sand, seiryu stone, and dragon wood (all from buceplant ). I chose dragon wood in part because I wanted some sort of protrusion, and the thickness of dragon wood would cause the tank to look larger rather than smaller (a more spindly protrusion would have lessened the tank's footprint rather than magnified it). The result was a beastly hardscape that pushed right up against the glass, the focal piece of wood a blunt pillar pointing outwards. A pathway runs beneath, all but obscured by dark rock and even darker wood.

To me, the wood almost looks like a crashed spaceship, crevices and entry points speckling its surface.

The goal was to plant epiphytes up the surface, with an atomizer keeping everything moist. We quickly realized, however, that it wasn't going to work; the mist barely reached an inch above the surface, and the pump I ordered failed the gravity test, meaning that a "waterfall" feature was impossible. Things thus condensed downward, crowding a large amount of epiphytes into a small space.

Another key part of the vision for this tank was a small carpet of HC Cuba suspended between land and water. It almost worked. While the planting went smoothly and it seemed that everything had anchored in, algae quickly decimated the Cuba in one go. Here's what it looked like freshly planted:

The entire HC Cuba section is now basically gone... except for the tiniest of portions that anchored itself to the seiryu stone.

As you can see, I replaced the HC Cuba with a lot of those extra epiphytes. The Hygrophila Pinnatifida I planted in that cradle between rock, wood, and water is now thriving — it even started showing signs of red!

While the algae outbreak in week 1 that took out my Cuba failed to do the same to most of the other plants, it certainly took it's toll. Everything that was in contact with water was affected, with most of my background stem plants rotting from the root up. Thankfully, after a few regular water changes and aggressive monitoring, we're finally approaching a rebound. The tank has changed a LOT since planting, as I've had to find new spots for plants to live (the lighting is very limited in this tank as are the moisture levels).

I'll try to keep a weekly log as this tank grows and changes, with the hope that it will help me stay on top of maintenance (lol). In the meantime, if you're reading this, let me know your favorite plant (aquatic or terrestrial)!