New Construction Thread

[Mcbobs]

I've always found rubber stoppers Ace hardware in the small drawers with the rubber o-rings and synthetic washers. You might try looking somewhere like that.

-Matt

[Tropicok]

Yep, rubber stoppers, I called them rubber corks and I got them at Ace Hdwe. but naturally the one closest to me doesn't carry small items like that. Had to drive to the big Ace much farther away. I should have posted my long story here but have it under Terrarium Waterfall instead. This tank is driving me crazy but I've learned a lot of "what not to do." I found a plant called Irish Moss...anybody used it before?

[Tropicok]

"I decided to try gorilla glue for the first time."

This is a good idea, I love Gorilla Glue.

[Mcbobs]

This weekend, I've been hard at work again trying to get this viv finished.

Yesterday was Fake St. Patty's Day here in Manhattan, so I didnt get much done then, but got quite a bit done today.

Hopefully I can have this sucker up and running before this next weekend.
On to the pictures.

First thing I did was to make a false bottom for drainage below the soil. I made it out of white light diffusing egg crate and wrapped it in screen mesh to keep the soil from falling through.




Next, I filled in around the egg crate with pea gravel to build a facade so that the egg crate was not visible and had a more appealing look from the front. I really dont like how false bottoms look when you can see the white shining through.




After that, I fit the driftwood center piece back into the viv (which is a pain in the *** because it just barely fits with the center brace in the middle). Using great stuff expanding foam, I great stuffed the driftwood to the back glass to seal off the cavity behind the driftwood. I dont want any curious frogs slipping back there and never coming back out!


Once the Great stuff had cured, I slathered on the brown silicone and pressed peat into the silicone to give a textured natural look instead of the yellowish/white look of the great stuff. The key here is to use your materials in EXCESS. It all seems to produce a better product when you dont skimp on the silicone and peat moss.






Next step is to add substrate, plants, a glass top, lights and FROGS!

It's coming together super fast!

-Matt

[John]

Very nice and thorough walk-through thread, Matt. Many thanks for sharing this with us. I'm currently working on a "fancy" 10g vert using the same principles, but with LECA/hydroton instead of the egg crate.

[Mcbobs]

Hydroton/LECA also works very well, but with the heavy piece of driftwood, I didnt want it settling into the false bottom over time. Also, with larger aquariums, although hydroton/LECA is very light, it can still get too heavy to move easily. That's why I prefer to use egg crate with a pea gravel facade in front of it. It provides the best of both worlds (weight vs. appearance)!

In any case, plan on more pictures tomorrow! I'm trying to get this one done as fast as possible and still look really good. At first, it might be a little sparse in planting, but this weekend, I'll be picking up a ton more plants when I go home to KC. It should be 100% done by this time next week.

-Matt

OH! John! Don't forget to put up pictures of your fancy 10gallon when you get it done as well! I LOVE seeing other people's finished vivs!

[daziladi]

Great walk through Matt. I won't be attempting this kind of thing for a long while but appreciate the visual how-to. Can't wait to see it finished.... how do you drain the false bottom when it gets too wet?

[Mcbobs]

For draining the false bottom, I just stick a piece of small airline tubing into a slurpee straw and then using the spoon part against the side of the glass, just slide it down to the bottom of the tank. Start a siphon on the other end and let it all drain out. It works super well. The flow may be kind of slow because of the small diameter airline tubing, but I'll usually start a couple siphons from the bottom and it drains just that much faster.

Thanks for all the compliments guys!

-Matt

[Mcbobs]

Alright guys. New update on my viv and this update should take it up through a finished product. Also, I wont bug you much with too much explanation...Just short sentences and lots more photos.

Anyways, here we go.

After the silicone and coco fiber has cured, I brushed away the excess coco fiber leaving just the silicone with the fiber stuck to it.


Next, I needed a glass top so that I can keep humidity and frogs in the viv.


Moving on was to add substrate to the bottom. I just used left over stuff from previous vivs that left a layered look.


Add a thick layer of leaf litter.


Tested placement of some of the bromeliads.


Finished planting the viv, sprayed the holy heck out of everything and then added a 1.2.1 of R. Imitators.




Here's a bromeliad that I got at the new grocery store in town. I swear this thing holds a gallon of water! I hope the imitators like it!


And last but not least, when I was getting ready to transplant frogs into their new viv, I found a little surprise!


Now tonight after the new episode of Lost is over, I get to tear apart their old viv to search for eggs and tadpoles. Hopefully I can find some!

The best part of this viv is that I spent hardly no money on it at all. I think all in all, I only spent about $20 total on it because I had almost all of the supplies and plants laying around the house already.

I hope you guys like it!

-Matt