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Axolotl Paludarium

Phoenixcry

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Hello all! I thought I'd show off the tank I just built for my axolotl. The 'land' portion is strictly for my own benefit because I love moss and waterfalls, there are no animals housed up there. The land is fully suspended over the tank bottom and above the waterline by about half an inch with the exception of the one piece of driftwood coming down to offer the axolotl as much room to roam as possible without clutter. My ax doesn't like to hide and has never gone in any cave I've offered so I'm just opening it up for him. The stone waterfall hides a filter and the top of it comes off so I can clean the cartage, the other waterfall has two points of water flow from a small pump next to the filter, hidden by the driftwood but still in a place where I can preform any maintenance.


Start of build:

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Build without water:

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With water (lack of flash made things a little dark looking).

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Here is a YouTube video of the tank in action:

https://youtu.be/Bji2-HWMd2k
 

Wysper

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I would LOVE to know how you built that!! It is absolutely stunning, I would love to do something like that for my tanks.

Details please??
 

Phoenixcry

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It was not difficult. I painted the outside of the back of the tank black with acrylic paint, allowed to dry, I used Apoxy Sculpt (you can get this from taxidermy and art supply stores once dry it is non toxic) to help attach the driftwood to the glass to offer support since the wood on the right has no structure underneath. I used a cut up light diffuser (home depot) to hold up the wood while the Apoxy dried. Added filter, and pump.

I used a cut up light diffuser to fill in the gap between the wood and the glass also secured with Apoxy, covered that in plastic screen. I broke up a piece of cork and glued them with super glue gel (non toxic once dry, but you must use the gel not the liquid) to the back glass.

I used Great Stuff (spray able foam from Home Depot, the yellow stuff) to add both some depth and additional security for the diftwood and the filter (also non toxic once dry). Painted the Great Stuff black with acrylic paint (leave for 48 hours to dry). Then I attached the moss to the Great Stuff and the wood using small amount of super glue gel. The plants are in soil inside the wall made by the cork board with light diffuser at the bottom and some great stuff to keep the water from dripping through and contaminating the tank.
 

Phoenixcry

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Sorry if my responses are disjointed, apparently a moderator has to approve each of my posts to this so it takes time for me to reply and sometimes I don't see the other responses first. :)
 

Wysper

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All I can say is WOW. That is still gorgeous, every time I look at the pictures I see something new I didn't notice before. :)

I'm not that great with creating things like that, but I love looking at them.
 

AxolotlChris

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I think the water is a little shallow for my liking, but I would certainly use it as a juvenile tank.

Would like to see something like this in a larger 180L long aquarium.
 

Phoenixcry

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It's ten inches deep and my ax is on the smaller side (the photo has some of the tank cropped out and the perspective is off). :) Bigger is always better but for the space I have this was as large as I could go.
 
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