Category Archives: Water physics

Paludarium Waterworks

Posted on September 4, 2013 by Erik Zandboer| Leave a comment

I finally have all the stuff I need for the construction of all of the plumbing around the paludarium. So next was to decide where to place what. And that proves to be quite hard; I have less space than I initially anticipated…

How to place plumbing inside a cabinet

The first question was: How do I place all of the required plumbing in a cabinet while I’ll still be able to work on it properly without having to hang inside the cabinet all the time? The answer was to build everything onto a piece of multiplex and then placing the entire multiplex board inside the cabinet (and then connect up all of the hoses).

I ended up with something like this:

The wooden board where most of the plumbing will go.

The wooden board where most of the plumbing will go.

At the top left tap water will be connected via the hose laying on top. This hose will connect Read more »

Posted in Cabinet, Paludarium, Water physics

Tagged , , , , ,

Hardware ‘n stuff ordered!

Posted on August 25, 2013 by Erik Zandboer| Leave a comment

Today I finally ordered most of the hardware I’ll require for the further construction of the paludarium. Not computer chips this time, but pumps, filters, pipes, heaters and other cool stuff. In this blog post I’ll highlight some of the components that I’ve selected.

Aquatic Filter

Originally I used an Eheim 2222 external filter for Paludarium 1.0. However, this filter was already too small, so for the new Paludarium 2.0 it would definitely be too small, so I was in need of an upgrade. The price of the larger Eheim filters scared me a bit – So I decided to go for another vendor, JBL. They have a much cheaper filter line, the greenline filters:

The JBL Greenline 1501e external filter

The JBL Greenline 1501e external filter

I bought their 1501e version, which outputs an impressive 1400 litres per hour and Read more »

Posted in Automation, Paludarium, Rain and Mist, Water physics

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Paludarium Feed-throughs mounted

Posted on August 5, 2013 by Erik Zandboer| Leave a comment

After the cracked glass of the paludarium was fixed, I could continue to mount the feed-throughs. This is a vital part to build before any water can be put into the paludarium, as right now there are some huge holes drilled in the glass bottom :O

Different types of Feed-through

There are several types of feed-throughs planned for the paludarium:

  1. Feed-throughs feeding through the back that will run into the waterfall (3x);
  2. Feed-through feeding through the back for cabling;
  3. Feed-through in the bottom where the filter will draw dirty water from;
  4. Feed-through in the bottom where waist water will stream from into the sewer.

All the feed-throughs have rubber rings in order to make them watertight. I applied some vaseline to the rubber rings which will help to make them waterproof. Read more »

Posted in landmass physics, Paludarium, Water physics

Tagged , , , , ,

Go with the Flow

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Erik Zandboer| Leave a comment

As I’ve started to think up Paludarium 2.0, more and more ideas are popping up. The most recent one: How to build the water household. With all the things I want, and all the technology I can build, I am now thinking up the specs and features I need/want, and how I can build them so that it will actually work, and most important, KEEP working.

Specs for the flow of water

I have quite an extensive must have / wanna have list. Here they are in random order: Read more »

Posted in Paludarium, Rain and Mist, Water physics

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Separating the aquatic system from the land system

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Erik Zandboer| Leave a comment

When I built Paludarium 1.0, I was positive on having solved the water poisoning by not using potting soil anywhere in the landmass. As it turns out, the plants on land rot away leaves and build their own soil inside. Very nice for the plants, not so nice for the fish inside. since the water streams through the soil, it picks up a lot of chemicals that aren’t very healthy for the fish in the aquatic part.

Read more »

Posted in Water physics

Tagged , , , , ,