Nano-Paludarium

A Nano Paludarium... What the hell is that??

A paludarium, from the latin Palus (swamp), is also named aquaterrarium. This is a tank with an aquatic part, and a terrestrial part, aiming at reproducing a whole ecosystem.

I discovered paludariums when I found the "écosculptures" of Paul-Louis Duranton (make sure you don't miss the "Vulcan Island").

Most of the paludariums reproduce a tropical ecosystem, or mangrove swamp like. It allows growing plants that require lots of humidity and heat (orchids, mosses, ferns, epiphytes...), and eventually associate to them the related fauna : fishes, amphibians (tritons, salamanders), invertebrates (crabs, shrimps), batrachians (dendrobates)... In brief, some kind of a small bit of jungle at home!

I've got in mind some "serious" tank for a while... But just for fun, I made a planted nano-tank (well, due to its size, I should probably say pico-paludarium, or even femto-paludarium!), and I'm pretty happy with the result! The tank is a vase (25x15x15cm) bought at the local superstore... The stone, I found it 3 years ago while walking around the Cap d'Antibes (already thinking about such a usage!)... 2 cm of river sand and loam to feed the aquatic plants, 2 more centimeters of bigger sand for the aspect...

For the look and hygronometry, I added an ultrasonic fogger. It's the little chromed cylinder hidden behind the stone... It automatically starts every 4 hours, and during 15 minutes. Beyond the aesthetics, it increases the hygrométry in the tank, as well as the water temperature (the fogger heats up while running).
Isn't it lovely? Lighting is done with a low tension halogen lamp, mounted on an homemade aluminium U shape, clamped on the tank's side...



Here we are... I'm really happy with the overall look of it, and for now it looks like the plants like it as well... Some Java moss (Vesicularia dubyana), and some duckweed (lemna minor) will come later to finalize it...
Next step? Hummmm, well, I'm not sure yet, I could have something more complex in mind...