FrogFevers 55g Display Tank Build...

[FrogFever]

The time has come... I've been gathering supplies and brainstorming the design for about 6 weeks now. I've ran out of space in my frog room so this one will be front and center in my living room. This is my umpteenth build and I'm going big this time.

I first picked up a 55g tank at Goodwill: $25!

My next step was to paint the wood grain frame to black.
Sanded it down, painted it, and finished with a few layers of clear coat.
Attachment 17886
Look at the mess of stuff. Unfortunately my new place does NOT have a garage!
Luckily my roommates are understanding. But they'll love it when its done.
(Still looking for a beautiful black stand).

Next step I went to ACE hardware to get glass cut to section off a quarter of the tank to allow for a water feature utilizing a real slate waterfall.
The two glass pieces cost me only $2! (They know me there now). One horizontal piece and one vertical piece to block water that may try to leak through the great stuff and into the substrate section.
I used Aquarium silicone which I ordered on Amazon: $12. The silicone spreading tools: $3 at Home Depot.
I water tested it today and its doing its job so far.
Attachment 17887

The next step is of course, the egg crate layout. I personally prefer to use this method for a false bottom to reduce the weight a bit and also so I don't have to use so much LECA balls.
Eggcrate at Home Depot: $11 for a huge sheet
Wire cutters: $5
Small zip ties: free (they were in with my girls medication in the mail?)

PVC pipes layed out


bottom base, hideout cave, water area slope, waterpump/waterfall tower
Malaysian driftwood: I won in a ZooMed contest!


water area view


I was initially going to just make a mound out of this, but as I was designing it I decided to make it more useful by making it a mound as well as a cave.


Here you can see how I put the powerhead pump tubing and electrical cord through the pvc pipe for easy removal if I have to get to it.
Sunterra powerhead: $13 on Amazon
1/2 in plastic tubing: $4 for numerous feet
black pvc: $2


These are the doors that open allowing me to access the pump should I need to do so.


This tower will hold the slate pieces that make up the waterfall. I will be using great stuff to hold them in, somehow. This is going to be an extremely hard task to make them all sit and stay set in place. Most likely the hardest and most tedious part of the whole build.
The black pvc piece on top is where the water will be draining into from the tube, spilling out each side, and I'll drill a couple holes in the center too.


Everyone please do subscribe to this as I have many more goodies yet to come. In tank circulation fans in custom housing, LEDs, rock ledges, glass canopy, glow in the dark mushrooms (thanks GRIMM), and some other ideas that I've personally never seen and am not even sure how I'm going to pull off yet!

Coming soon: the slate waterfall feature build...

I found these scrap slate pieces at a stone company for about .26 a pound (or some ridiculously low price) so this all cost me less than $3.


Here's me sanding them down so they don't cut my froggys!
Sandpaper: $3

I'll try to post more updated pictures tomorrow...

Questions and comments always appreciated.

[John]

I really like what you did with the powerhead. And in general it all looks very promising. Ain't sanding rocks a pain in the butt?! By the way, the first 2 pics don't show.

Keep us up to date please .

[FrogFever]

Just started working on my in tank fan circulation setup. I must credit GRIMM as he was my inspiration behind this whole system.
I bought these super quiet Suscool fans from Amazon as well as a Y adapter and a Fan Mate speed controller.

Suscool 7 blade design: $9 each

Fan Mate: $9
2 to 1 Y converter: $3


I used Plaskolite for the housing of the fans. It is pretty dang easy to work with. You can use a razor or a special Plaskolite cutting tool.
Plaskolite sheet at Home Depot: $8
Cutting Tool: $3

I then used black duct tape to hold it all together (it will all be covered by great stuff and/or brown silicone).

All plugged in. Just have to add some screen to cover up the intake and outtakes. I found that any angle given to the housing will take away from its power it provides and putting screen over it will have the same dampening effect.

These fans are nearly silent!


Fans siliconed to back wall.
Eggcrate structures are now all covered with weed blocker- 3 x 50ft roll: $13 at Homedepot
Also shown new pieces of driftwood i picked up. 2 small pieces for $8.

Now its time to do some shrooms!!

My girl and I got this idea once again, from GRIMM.
We used brown and white sculpey clay ($5) and water based acrylic paints ($.75 each) We molded them, baked them, painted them, and will probably do another touch up coating, clear coat, and THEN they will be painted with powerful glow in the dark green and blue paint, then more clear coat.

Kind of our practice run. Next time they will be more realistic.

The glow in the dark paint I used is by GlowInc! $8 bucks for 1/2 oz. I got bright green (24+ hours of glow) and Pure blue (3 hours glow time)

Probably going to change the brown dots to bright red


Another idea I found elsewhere as well... making fake vines/roots. I figure copying someone else's ideas and making them myself is a sincere form of flattery.

So for this I went and bought different strands of rope: $5
Toluene ($8 at Aces Hardware) This is used as a thinning agent for the silicone so it more thoroughly coats items better. There was a huge long debate on another thread about the safety of this stuff and after all was said and done it was deemed to be vivarium safe (after it cured/dryed and evaporated). Another option would be to use natural based turpentine.
Brown silicone II: $6


The mixture I used was 2 parts silicone to 1 part toluene to 1 part peat moss
I mixed the Silicone and toluene together first to make it real soupy (thin) and then mixed in the peat moss. Once the ropes were completely covered they were then dipped in dry peat moss. And they came out looking like this!

I particularly like the thin strands of rope that started to come undone from the rest of it.

I then took 3 or 4 rope strands and tied them together on top with a zip tie (which will eventually be covered in silicone). They come out looking like bunches of roots.

My lovely assistant/girlfriend Crystal displaying them for me.



And now for my toys...

I got this High Pressure Sodium Marine Lighting setup for free!
I met a friend of mines friend, one time, we started talking, and he told me had some extra things from his reef tank. I told him I'd take it all off his hands for some cash. He just told me to take it for free and get it out of his sight!
I got a 40 gallon tank, Cascade 700 Canister filter, numerous lights, pumps, crazy pipe things, more crazy acrylic sump things, a black bakers rack and a bunch of other crazy stuff I don't even know what it is or what to do with it!
I have since gifted all of the salt water setup stuff to my girls brother who will put it all to good use.

Here is the perfect light for my 55 gallon!


(You can see the ridiculously heavy ballast in the left)

Not sure of the brand because its not listed anywhere, but I have to imagine its a couple hundred bucks at least. Anyone recognize it?

And the bright blue flourescents that are built into it just made my day! Hell, it made my entire build!

Its beautiful after I cleaned all the years of salt and dust out of it!

And for some more toys...
I personally only know of two other vivs that has these lights incorporated into them.
Much thanks to Dendrodave for the idea.


These are called Lights in Flight. What they are is firefly resembling patio light sets. They come in strands of 10 lights and they randomly light up for a couple/few seconds each and then fade away. There may be 0-8 lights on at one given time.
Super cool idea if I can get them to successfully fit into my viv setup.

I got 2 sets at Lowes. $13 per set.

These are of course pictures taken at night. Video camera would do much more justice.
I'll post some more pictures further along as the build progresses.

If anyone has any questions or comments about how I did any of this please feel free to comment or PM me.

Tons more additions on my build to come soon!

[FrogFever]

Bump . .

[Kreamcheese]

Cant wait to see the final product. I would like to incorporate some of your/others ideas in my new build.

[FrogFever]

So much more to come!