40B Vertical Conversion Build Journal

[Goose]

Paul,
Thanks for the info. Don't worry about the time it took, everyone gets busy. I have REALLY enjoyed learning and researching on this site in preparation for getting some darts of my own. I WAS encouraged and inspired by your build, so well done. I'm doing some filming when I work on my tank, its spent alot of time sitting though, partly cause of the money it takes to put into it and partly cause of chasing a toddler here at home. I'll be sure to share some pics along the way and see about having a video put together when its all done too.

Thanks Again,
•adam

[DigitalPunk]

Awesome can't wait to see it. Yes tank building takes a lot of time, money, and energy lol. So Do toddlers

[Keeshe]

That is an absolutely amazing tank Paul! It is crazy how much it changed from the first page! After talked to some people on this forum, I was trying to find more info on how people were doing with their false bottoms set ups, and your initial build looked really cool (but like you said limited floor space). What did you end up doing with that front part in the finished set up? I am not sure if I saw that in the videos or pictures.

Either way, that is such a cool tank! My Whites are jealous!

[DigitalPunk]

I ended up extending the false bottom to cover the whole floor. The Cits are not great climbers and I worried about them getting down in the 2 - 3 inch space above the water and drowning.

Thanks for the compliment. The tank turned out nice, but has some design flaws for the frogs I added. I was hoping they would like to climb like Azureus do, but I was wrong. This Cits have been moved to a temp tank while some tank remodeling is being done.

[DigitalPunk]

I owe and update to this thread and will try to get one done tomorrow. The tank got gutted down to the glass and set back up as a tree frog tank. Live and learn i suppose lol. The Red Eye tree frogs we keep are now enjoying the 36" of height and the Cits will be moving into the now empty 24x18x24

I will post some pictures of the remodel tomorrow.

[DigitalPunk]

As promised

First I ripped the 40B apart to get ready to convert it to a Tree frog tank.



The original drainage hole was to high. I drilled a hole lower down and used the negative from the new hole to plug the old one. I installed a bulkhead to allow excess water to drain off the tank automatically.



Traditional drainage layer with a layer a quilt batting added for extra filtration (keep more soil particles out of the drainage layer)



Decided to do a "Flybyfern" style moss fine in the tank for the reds to hopefully climb on and enjoy. Here are all the needed supplies laid out. I first drilled a hole through the magnetic ledge and threaded the rope through. The end of the rope was knotted to keep it from pulling free. The crochet hook was used to weave the sheet moss and sphagnum moss through the loops in the ropes weave.



The process is time consuming. From beginning to end i spent roughly 6 hours weaving moss to complete the near 6 ft vine, but the results are stunning and well worth the effort!






Here is a close up of the sheet moss I used. I bought it from NeHerp. They sell it as "NeHerp Moss"



I bought 4 of these aquatic heater suction cups from petco for like $2 or $3 and will use them to mount the vine to in the tank. I should also add that prior to starting I used the rope to roughly map out how I wanted the vine to hang in the tank and cut the top to length.



The completed vine in the tank. The wood will be used in the final version, but ignore the broms in the planter. they were just sitting there to keep them from dying. The pothos was also ultimately removed from the wood.




And here is the final layout. The plants in the substrate were a gift from my good friend Heather and the rope for the vine along with the idea to make a moss vine are from My other good friend Lynn.



Hopefully this will be the final layout for a long long time lol.

[LilyPad]

It looks amazing, Paul, I was planning on doing a moss vine for my next tank also. Lynn had such an awesome idea