The Aesthetic of Nature

For my main project I have decided to focus on the aesthetic of nature.  While in last week’s post, I said that I identify with the mountainous aesthetic of Colorado, this project will be more jungle themed. For those of you that haven’t read my previous blog post about my final project, I have decided to make a paludarium.  A paludarium is an aquarium that also incorporates a land area. Think of it as mimicking the edge of a river. As for the dynamic component, I have decided to add a waterfall on the filtration output. I think this will really add to the aesthetic by giving an otherwise still image of nature a moving component. The paludarium will be home to two dwarf puffer fish and a handful of red cherry shrimp.

The aesthetic of nature for the most part focuses on the color green. I think that the red cherry shrimp and the yellow puffer fish will add nice contrasting colors to the green plants in the scape. Nature in itself has a lot of diversity in plant life. My goal for this project is to showcase the wide variety of plants found in a jungle environment. I will be using both large and small leafed plants to add the aspect of scale along with moss to show just how small living things can be in the wild.

As for the logistics of the build, I think I want to keep clean lines on the glass while letting the plants take over for the more contrasting elements. For this, I am going to be using an old aquarium, but cutting the panes into more appealing shapes. The water feature will go up about half way, and the rest of the front will be open air. The sides will slope down from the tall pane of glass in the back to a smaller pane of glass in the front to give a minimalistic feel to the shape of the paludarium. An alternative to this would be to leave more 90 degree angles and have taller side and front panes of glass. As for the rest of the scape, there are many alternative I can make, including both plant life and size/shape of the land area.

The aquatic section of the paludarium will be comprised of a minimalistic hardscape including both branches and stones. Hopefully, to go along with the jungle theme above the water, the aquatic feature will be densely planted and offer multiple hiding places for the live stock. Th aquatic plant selection will be similar to that of the immersed varieties, this way the plants can add scale and dimension to the scape. The waterfall will be supplied by the outlet of the filter, which will mirror that of the water cycle in nature.

 

Images:

Featured: https://www.aquariumsource.com/paludarium/

1: https://www.aquariumsource.com/paludarium/

2: original

3: original

4: original

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2 Comments. Leave new

  • Hunter Meissner
    March 21, 2021 1:40 pm

    Ben,
    I believe I haven’t read your previous blog posts for your final project, but after reading this I am very intrigued to see what you come up with. I think adding the waterfall is a very good touch for your dynamic component. Since you are going for more of a jungle aesthetic did you think of adding misters to mimic humidity?

    Reply
  • Natalie Jagelski
    March 21, 2021 10:08 am

    This is a really cool project idea! I made a bio-dome, which is pretty similar to this paludarium concept, back in high school. Why did you decide to go with a jungle theme and where will you get the various earthy and plant elements to make the land section? When I made my bio-dome it was completely closed off so, as the water section evaporated, the vapors would condense on the ceiling and then drip down into the earthy plant area to water the plants. Will you water the plants in you paludarium in a similar way, or is the filter outlet / waterfall the main source of water for the plants? It’ll be cool to see how this turns out!

    Reply

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