FrogFevers 55g Display Tank Build...

[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!

[rosaphile]

That is looking to be fantastic! I'll be watching this thread.

[optimum]

i bet this will turn into a killer set up! looking forward seeing it finished

[FrogFever]

Okay, its been a while since my last post but much progress has been made!

This picture is after the first coating of black Silicone II and peat moss.
The blue tape is covering all the slate, wood, and air/fan vents.


I ended up using half a small bag of peat moss ($3 at Fred Meyers) and 3 tubes of GE Silicone II Black ($7 each)

This is what it looks like after the final coat of silicone/peat moss was applied, after I took off all of the tape pieces from the slate, circulation vents, and off of the firefly lights, and after I vacuumed up all excess peat moss.
This took me about 2 hours.


I decided to do only a slight coating of peat moss in the water fall area just to give it a little color. I am assuming that most of it will eventually come off when the waterfall is turned on.


Lights in flight with the lights (and tape) off. As mentioned earlier I plan on re-taping the lights with green painters FROG tape to dampen the brightness of the lights so they appear to be more natural.


Picture showing the lights on in a lit room!


A quick test and all systems are still fully operational!
Lights, fans, and water pump.


After one last quick water test then comes the next step...
Planting the substrate and plants!

Hydroton: JoshsFrogs- $10 for a large bag.

I am using the ABG soil mix recipe.

Tree fern pieces: Sierra Fish and Pets- $7 a lb. I think I used about $10 worth.
Spagnum moss: from Joshsfrogs $5 for 200g. I used less than $1 worth.
Charcoal: Fred Meyers- $3 per bag. Used 1 bag.
Orchid Bark: Fred Meyers: $5 for a huge bag. Used $3 worth.
Peat Moss: Fred Meyers: $3 per small bag. Used 1 bag.

I mixed the proper amounts per ABG recipe, and because I had some extra on hand I added:
2 handfuls of coco fiber (JoshsFrogs- 3 pack brick- $5. Used less than $1 worth)
2 handfuls of coco husk chips (JoshsFrogs- $3. Used $ less 1 worth.
1 handful of washed sand (Fred Meyers- $3 a bag. Used less than $1 worth.)
1 bag of leaf litter- Free

(Also pictured is a bag of Fluval Plant Stratum for the water feature. (Amazon- $16)

In case anyone is wondering why I am including prices for absolutely everything its because for one, I want people who are not familiar with these products to have a good idea of how much it would cost them to buy all of this, as well as where to buy them from. (I am what I like to call "thrifty", so wherever I bought my supplies from there is a good chance that it is the cheapest price around.) And two, I want to keep track for my own purposes exactly how much this build cost me.

[FrogFever]

So instead of planting today I found another 5 hours of things to prep! Haha. There are always more steps than there seems.

My intention was to re-tape all of the lights with Frog tape, but the damn stuff is barely sticky at all! (I wouldn't recommend it.) Plus I couldn't get to a couple of my lights properly so I had to abandoned that idea. In the process I realized that I only had 16 lights blinking, so that means that 4 of my lights were covered under foam/silicone/peat moss somewhere. If it weren't for previous pictures I took I never would've been able to locate where they were.
I still wanted my lights to be 'dimmed' so I decided to go with green acrylic paint instead. Two coats of green and then one of clear coat got it to the color that I preferred.
I am debating whether or not I should paint all the lights in glow in the dark paint as well...
What do you think?



Anyways, the water test passed again, and the water flows down the slate just as it should after contnuous hours of fine tuning the rocks edges.
Here you can see 3 of the lights painted green. In my opinion they look like nice little flowering buds throughout the tank.


I also forgot that before I layed down any plants and substrate I had to sand more rocks...
These vice grips work MIRACLES when it comes to breaking off pieces of slate. One would be surprised how accurate and easily they break off little chunks!


I am trying something new that I haven't seen anyone else do yet... something that worked great for me on one of my previous tanks.
You know how some people make a false front out of rock/substrate to cover up the LECA balls? Well instead of a fine soil to cover it up I am using very thin pieces of slate to tie it in to the rest of the tank.


Comments always welcome. Questions too.

[Pixidust]

Great job on the rock waterfall it looks AWESOME!