Building Paludarium

[Hockeyrooster]

Hello, It’s time for our EFT newts to have some more water as they are about 2.5 years old and growing (a bit). We are going to try a spray foam paludarium with live plants and a waterfall. I have a question about water flow and water circulation. I know (believe???) newts want a low flow environment but I am concerned about the water not moving enough and getting stagnant. As of right now the plan is to use a small pump to move water up the back wall and then have it cascade down as waterfall. Because of this setup the water will flow down very slowly and I’m concerned the sitting water won’t have enough movement. I’m not really sure what I am concerned about but I don’t want to have a scum build up on the water surface and any other issues that would arise from water with almost zero flow.

Any thoughts or comments? Suggestions?

I added a couple of pics…which are really hard to get. The little one looks scared as we were in the process of moving tanks so we can start working on the paludarium.

Thanks

 

[Fij]

I have landscaped my terrariums using fibreglass. 1st line the base of the tank with cereal cardboard taped together and then coat with Vaseline. Apply 2 or 3 layers of 300 gram fibreglass mat stippled with coloured resin. This creates the ”shower tray’. At the back make a box compartment for your water sump but make it big enough or the pump will lower the water level as it starts to draw and may expose the inlet. The landscape above can be modelled with papier mache and then fibreglassed over. Once dry, dig out the soggy paper behind and apply a fresh coat of resin only using a sieve to drop sand on it from above. I used crushed red sandstone and the result resembles mudstone. Once the pipe work is connected you can test the flow. If not happy, file away or add dollops of fibreglass mixed with chopped strands until the flow looks right. It is also watertight. You might need a door in the back behind the rock work to access the pump and sump.