The Hysterocrates Hercules Paludarium (First one i ever built) (WARNING HUGE PICS)

(ok after posting the thread, it automatically scaled the pics down, THANK YOU A-Boards)

40 gal breeder. 2 broms, 3 ferns (maidens hair fern, Lady fern and asparagus fern, 1 purple dragon dead nettle, 1 air plant, 2 mimosa's. For the water i have, Java moss, narrow blade grass, micro sword, cardinal plant, anubia nana and a bangeria sword, along with a few pieces of drift wood.
southern magnolia for leaf litter. home made rock wall to seperate the water from the land.
currently housing 5 guppies and 2 plaky's. AND of course...... the Hysterocrates Hercules (not pictured because she burried itself under the drift wood and is in premolt. I honestly havent seen it in over a month now hahaha. here are the pics (Click on the images to make them bigger if you please)


This is the cabinet that i made to house some of my Ts



and here's the cabinet with the lights installed. this is was when it started to take off (the building of it and fine tuning)



Here's an updated pic of the cabinet and palu.



here's the beast that occupies the tank, she spun the web....packed the dirt..and sealed herself away. this was the last time i seen her.





and here's the rest of the pics... and the pics speak for themselves.















































here's updated pics of the new water plants i put in (Cardinal plant, and micro sword) and i also re-arranged the plants around too a lil bit.

That is a lovely set up. Not sure you have a herc but still a lovely set up for a Hysterocrates sp.

Well at least you've still got plenty to look at even when the spider is hiding! I think this looks amazing, really interesting to look at. How did you make the walls on the back and sides? Does the light provide all the warmth needed? Is it difficult for you to get access for maintenance and feeding?

AMAZING!! Are any of those plants fake? I would bet not... I'm looking into adding real living plants (i have a few favourites already) to any future terrariums, so posts/pics like yours are inspiring! I'd like to build a background like yours as well. Fully covering about 3 of the interior walls, sculpted for a natural looking shelf.... love the pothos vines spooling out too! Again, simply amazing!

Sloworm said:

Well at least you've still got plenty to look at even when the spider is hiding! I think this looks amazing, really interesting to look at. How did you make the walls on the back and sides? Does the light provide all the warmth needed? Is it difficult for you to get access for maintenance and feeding?

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haha so true and thank you very much. the walls i built up with spray foam called "Great Stuff" i used the big gap filler, then trimmed down the excess. i shaped and contoured the foam to my liking, then i went and mixed up some cheap tile grout i got from home depot. slathered it onto the back ground, then let it cure, mixed up more grout but with some acrylic cheap paint from a craft store, so when i layed it on, i could see the difference in the shade of the grout. I did this once more with another shade of paint. so i had 3 layers of grout on. Next i brought out some aquarium safe silicone and slathered and spread that on (MAKE SURE YOU WEAR A MASK FOR THIS PART) the smell of strong vinegar was imminent. i made sure to cover every area. but it was a bit of a mistake with such a large back ground cuz silicone skins over pretty fast. then once i made sure everything was covered, i quickly covered the back ground with my coco fiber substrate. dumped/saved the rest and then moved onto the sides. and did the same situation.

the light isnt for warmth for the tarantula, its only for the plants and plant growth. and the top has a sliding screen top and i actually layed some plastic cling wrap on 3/4 of the screen to keep the humidity in. and its sitting at 80-85% humidity.

edgeofthefreak said:

AMAZING!! Are any of those plants fake? I would bet not... I'm looking into adding real living plants (i have a few favourites already) to any future terrariums, so posts/pics like yours are inspiring! I'd like to build a background like yours as well. Fully covering about 3 of the interior walls, sculpted for a natural looking shelf.... love the pothos vines spooling out too! Again, simply amazing!

Click to expand...

none of these plants are fake. they are all real.

and thank you again for the compliments!

i'm actually in the midst of building a 120gal plywood vivarium for some Dart frogs. the plywood is bubinga. (drools)

Enclosure looks awesome. What are you using for substrate? Did you do anything to sterilize your magnolia leaves before you put them in? I have always wanted to use them but don't know if they would survive baking. Also, where did you get your H. hercules? I pretty much thought they were extinct/not existent in the hobby.

korg said:

Enclosure looks awesome. What are you using for substrate? Did you do anything to sterilize your magnolia leaves before you put them in? I have always wanted to use them but don't know if they would survive baking. Also, where did you get your H. hercules? I pretty much thought they were extinct/not existent in the hobby.

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the leaf litter i boiled them in a pot of boiling water for about 10min-15mins.

i got my H. Herc from bruce at arachnophiliacs.com, great guy, knows his stuff!

I've got something you can try for sealing your back ground that is much easier and less stinky than silicone.

Use titebond III wood glue with coco fiber mixed into it, you want it to look like gross runny oatmeal. Spread it all over the back ground and give it a week to dry. Than go over it with a second coat this time covering it with loose coco fiber after your done spreading the mixture out. Press it all down lightly than let it sit for another week. Than remove all excess with a shop vac or by blowing it off with that air duster stuff. Then you've got your earthy background, with out the need of gloves or masks. If you get it on your hands it washes off with soap and water. The wood glue is water proof but not recommended to be submursed so any areas which are should still be sealed off with silicone. Oh and the surface your working on has to be laying flat for best results, it will run if you try to apply it vertically. And if after your 2nd coat if you see spots you arnt happy with unlike silicone you can just add more
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yeah i am VERY familiar with the Titebond 3 method, and i would of used the method, but at the time, i could not for the life of me find the product here in my city. no big box stores here sold it. and i looked everywhere for it.

it wasnt until last week when i picked my bubinga plywood, to make my 120gal vivarium, from a local owned wood store here in the city. I found titebond 3 there and they stock it in large quantities. that just blew my mind and totally made my day.

there's also a method where you spray down your spray foam, add a layer of "Drylok" its called, tint it to what ever color you want it to be. then lay down your titebond 3 and peat/coco fiber or coco coir with a little bit of sphangum moss blended into it.

i'm making a 120gal vivarium for dart frogs. if you guys wanna see the build process, i can make a new thread on here for it. up to you.

That is an amazing Paludarium!!

You should start a new thread on your vivarium build, I bet a lot of people will like to see your ideas!

That's fur-king red hot that mate, I've seen some fly set ups in my time but this is really well put together, hope the plants last for you, not sure how they'll fair without sunlight. Amazing set up though.

What other species would you recomend for this?
I got a C. marshalli and a P. murinus sling that i growing, but they dont favour that much water/Humidity.
I'd like something that would build distinctive webbings, not just make one deep burrow, i got a terrarium ready, possibly a little narrower, but taller than the one in this thread.

Miehrano said:

What other species would you recomend for this?
I got a C. marshalli and a P. murinus sling that i growing, but they dont favour that much water/Humidity.
I'd like something that would build distinctive webbings, not just make one deep burrow, i got a terrarium ready, possibly a little narrower, but taller than the one in this thread.

Click to expand...

what species would i recommend for this set up (paludarium)? i've only really read that the hysterocrates sp. is the only T that would even remotely make itself go into the water. but really the water is more of a retreat out of fear. but sometimes the T does go fish. myself i havent seen Lolth go fishing (yet). she's very reclusive and hates the light.

yeah dont put your Ts that you have into a paludarium lol. if you want to build a paludarium, get yourself an Hysterocrates gigas.

Wow... absolutely incredible. One of the coolest ive ever seen

Id like to do an update here.

Yesterday I was feeding my fiah and the cabinet lid slipped out of my handa and hit the locking tab on the tank and cracked the front glass.
I had to do an emergency water evacuation. And fish out all my fish I had in there as well as my hystercrates sp.
Also when trying to get her out, I discovered she had molted. And has regenerated her lost leg! So im happy for her.

I will be either replacing the front pane. Or replacing the whole tank. Regardless of the decision, I will be doing a different design for a paludarium anyway.



cheers!

xTimx

Wow, I can't imagine replacing the whole front glass piece, or the whole tank itself! You do amazing work, my friend! And it appears you do amazing fixes as well! Kudos to you!

Oh and grats on the molt as well!

Thank you for the kind words.

I have decided to do a different style for the paludarium. Im probably going to do a half moon land with a crescent style water feature in the front, wrapping around the land portion. A super nice piece of driftwood would be the center piece.
But I wont start on it till my 120gal vivarium for my frogs is done.

cheers!

xTimx