FrogFevers 55g Display Tank Build...

[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!

[FrogFever]

I usually don't use black foam because its harder to come by and more expensive but I had to go with it this time. Luckily I found this brand on Amazon for $10 each. I bought 3.


Alright so I forgot to take a picture of the initial session of the waterfall construction, but here are some pictures of the second session.

I started by using quite a bit of black pond foam on top of the eggcrate. That allowed for the slate to have something to stick to.

I found that after the foam had cured the slate was not really stuck (from being sticky) but instead, the force of the expanding foam wedged the pieces in place. About half of the pieces fell out upon touching them so basically this pond foam isn't as gooey as regular great stuff and it cured very fast so we also encountered the problem of not working fast enough to get the pieces in place. (The tank was laying on its back unlike how its pictured.)

(The first session had A LOT more tape to hold the slate pieces in place.)
So for the second session we used brown silicone to stick the remaining pieces in place so they'd stay put this time.

In my opinion I think the brown ruined the look to it so I planned on covering that all up with more foam.


So far so good but you can see all the big gaps where slate is missing.

Water test shows that I've got a pretty powerful stream going so I'll have to turn it down a notch.

3rd foam construction session - 2 cans of black pond foam worth in tank

Tubing and fan housing concealed, pots, film canisters, and water bowl all set in place...


Right side of tank


Left side

I decided to incorporate more slate pieces in other parts of tank to tie it all together, so its not "just a waterfall"

Attachment 0
The foam expanded much more than I anticipated the second time around. BUT it did get rid or the brown silicone look.
I have some SERIOUS sculpting/carving to do to clean it up. I really enjoy that step though.

So does anyone know which types of darts would most appreciate and utilize perches for calling? Any recommendations on which species would most enjoy this setup? :0

[Kreamcheese]

Build is coming along nicely. Foam always expands much more than you want, but like you said the carving can be fun. Wish I could help with what darts to get but I'm not yet in that hobby; hope to have some soon though!

[FrogFever]

Finally got the first coating of Pond Foam carved out. It took me well over 3 hours.
(Right side of tank)


Waterfall area carved out. I added more slate pieces on top to hide the drilled pvc pipe that distributes the water over the rocks.
I do plan on hiding the water tube as well. I am also planning on using one more can of black foam to get spots throughout the tank that I missed before.


I almost decided to not use the Lights in Flight because of the whole technical detail oriented aspect surrounding them, but then I couldn't find the receipt ($26), so I decided to use them! Like I said before, "I've gotta go BIG in this build", so I'm glad I decided to stick with the original plan.


Here you can see how I taped up the lights with painters tape. I did this so that the lights didn't become covered in foam or silicone. It helped out tremendously not having to worry about how they were laying in the background.


In another build I saw someone mentioned that they covered up the lights casing in silicone. I thought this was a smart move just to be extra cautious since there will be water/humidity surrounding these lights. I took this a step further (got the idea from the gf) and decided to coat the entire string of lights in silicone and then peat moss. That way if I can't figure out a good way to conceal the light strand into the background then at least the wires will look like vines strewn across the enclosure.

It turned out better than I had hoped and this was only with one layer of silicone and peat moss! This time we didn't use the Toluene to thin the silicone it and it coated it very well. Any spots that were still showing green will be covered with more pond foam.

Silicone: $6
Peat Moss: $3 (Fred Meyers)
1/8" Fiber Insulated Staples 40ct.: $1.50 each (2)
I found these insulated staples at Home Depot. I thought they would be perfect to hold the strands of wires to the background as I set them all in their right places.


It was quite a tedious task as the staples kept falling out every time I moved the wires at a different angle, but after more than two hours the whole tank was set up with two strands! I then used dabs of silicone on the staples to give them a little more stability adhering to the foam.


End shot


I also finally got this beautiful stand I ordered online!
Petco online: Shipped for $140.


It may be hard to tell in the picture, but here are a couple of lights glowing green and the way the blue tape is covering them it makes them much dimmer than before which in my opinion looks a thousand times better. Much like real fireflys and not super intensely bright LEDs flashing in a tank.

My plan is to replace the blue painters tape with green painters tape and leave them covered.

COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS WELCOME!