131 Gallon Viv Build

[Kisa]

So hey everyone!

Unfortunately I had to put this build on hold because I was on a glorious vacation for a week in L.A. for a convention, but I'm back now and I've finally finished foaming my 131 Gallon Monster Tank!

Ok, I did procrastinate a little bit (I got back on the 6th...>>) But there were a lot of things I needed to do once I got back, namely making sure all my little froggies were taken care of while I was away. My mom did a great job filling in for me as frog mommy, even if she got a little confused...but all's well!

So I finished the foaming today, after much trial and tribulation. Before I left I bought what I thought would be my final can of GS, only to realize that the spout was missing. I tried as hard as I could to get the thing to work without the spout, but to no avail. It wouldn't even budge. And of course it took my dad FOREVER to get me another can (he works all the time and here I am at home without a liscense or a car to get me where I need to go.) Finally, before I left he got me another can, but that ran out just before I was finished. I had a tiny section left to do...

So I left on my vacation and when I came back, I had to wait to get another can of GS. And can you guess what happened to this can...? It came with a spout...that was broken. The straw part that connects to the can completely snapped off as I took it out of the plastic wrap, just fell apart. So I sucked it up and just used what was left of the little handle to foam the rest, and shaped it with my hands since it was so hard to control, and low and behold, the foaming is finally done! There'll be some pictures of the finished product down below.

I hope you all have enjoyed my little horror story.

[Kisa]

Here's the right side.


The middle...


And the left side.

The whole thing is lying on it's back. And I foamed a total of four pots into the background.

I tried to create natural looking shapes as I sprayed the foam, but anyway you spray it that stuff dries basically the same. I've seen everyone else cutting natural looking shapes, hills and valleys into their foam backgrounds before, but I'm a little scared about slicing up this foam after I've gone through six cans of GS just to finish it.

Does anyone have any tips on how to make it look like natural rock while using a knife? Maybe a helpful video or something someone knows about? Any information would be greatly appreciated, especially by those who have worked heavily with GS before.

Thanks everyone!

[DonLisk]

Your knife will slice thru it like butter. (as long as its sharp)

You can just trim out some ledges for the frogs to climb and perch on and I usually do a few angled for top to bottom crevasses for the appearance of where water carved the land away.

You don't have to do a lot of them just remember to exaggerate the cuts since the silicone will fill a lot of the cuts in.

You could just have the wood in place and propped up with stones or other pieces of wood thats atop the substrate if you think you will be needing to remove them often.

Looks great so far Kisa

[Kisa]

Yeah I was planning on building a few ledges, and those puffy parts you see on the right I wanted to carve out little caves for them to sit in.

I guess I can use an old Foam Background from Exo Terra for reference, they have little streams carved in...

And as for the wood I decided not to foam it in just in case I ever need to clean or break the tank down or something. My uncle found some awesome huge rocks that I might use to prop them up. I could cover them with dirt and make them look like natural hills. These are BIG rocks I'm talking about. XD;

Thanks for encouragement Don! Hopefully this new layer of foam dries quickly so I can get to work on siliconing the whole thing together.

I have two and a half tubes...thought I had one more lying around, I'll have to look for it...

[bshmerlie]

Yeah, I think you're going to need more than 2.5 tubes of silicone. Carve it with a steak knife it is very easy.

[DonLisk]

Also, dont put the big rocks in until you have this where your going to display it since its going to be crazy heavy with those rocks.

And have fun doing it.... its for the frogs ya know :-)

Oh, and you can always use that foam background to hide some of the wood.

[Kisa]

Yeah...I thought I had one more tube lying around but now I'm not sure. It could be just swallowed up in the huge mess of building materials we've accumulated in one part of the living room...I'll have to take a closer look tomorrow.

Since I did the foaming today, how long do you think I should wait until I can carve it and the foam is dried all the way through? I noticed that it will harden on the outside within a day or so, but the inside is still gooey in thicker areas.

I think we've decided that the final resting spot is right where it is, next to the sliding glass door. I'm a little skeptical about this because of the weather, but maybe everything will work out...we'll just have to see.