My first 55 Gallon Build...
Hey everyone! I'm new here.. and wanted to share the build my wife and kids and I have been working on for the past few weeks... Hope you like pictures.... not good pictures but pictures hahaa... anyways.. so we started out with a 55 gallon from Jacks.. and went to Ikea to find us a suitable stand, as the aquarium stands started out @ about $199 and up... we got this stand which is a very versatile bookcase.. for $69 and the doors were $20 each.
After this I got egg crate zip ties and weed blocker to make my false bottom, remember when making your bottom to try and leave at least 3/4 inch space on the front and sides of the tank...this way you can hide the ugly with aquarium gravel.
Then we started on the backgrounds and great stuff creating a masterpiece...the good thing about the great stuff is that after you build it if you don't like it its easy to change carve and add or delete stuff you don't like... like the support piece on the ledge we built... which is egg crate zip-tied and covered in GS goodness...also to note the tree carved out pretty nicely after about 3 layers of gs and carving, but didn't make the Viv , just didn't flow...
So after all of the creating adn carving and building now its time to cover this madness!! Now we went to Lowe's and got GE brand 100% black silicone.. and covered all the background (USE GLOVES!) and then we spread a mixture of Eco Earth bricks, (dried for 2 days) and Sphagnum moss(which I chopped up a bit in the Ninja a lil bit) and applied to the background,... we also made our own vines... we took rope, any type will work and covered the rope in the silicone and covered it with the earth we made, cover it like your making fried chicken....
The family and I then decided we should have a waterfall and river in the enclosure.. so I made a great stuff river... and covered the edges with the earth and carved out the pool area and river (which I forgot to take pictures of) and then covered the inside with silicone and coated with aquarium gravel... to look like a riverbed.. then placed inside to measure up to see where it would go and how much of a angle to put it on to flow properly and added a piece of driftwood from Petland so the occupants can get up to the loft area ( which ever frogs move up to this hut will be named the Jefferson's ) Note the gravel on the edges to hide the ugliness of the weed blocker material
So now after waterfall has been built, river installed, stairway to the deluxe froggie apartment in the sky added.. its time for your substrate.. we mixed eco earth, sphagnum moss, fine orchid bark chips, and ground up charcoal, added a few cups of water to stick together and mix, which this all will retain a lot of moisture... and began to build the landscape.. which I forgot to take many pictures of... sry, pay no attention to the golf balls, it was a experiment on the waterfall and not splashing... also you will see that we started some planting ... Irish moss, creeping Jenny and venus fly trap...
And finally we've been growing some moss in the backyard for a while that we got from the woods... ( this isnt something everyone should do, its possible to infest your tank with unwanted badies and bugs and such) so to fix this we placed the moss inside a air tight tupper ware container and put small chunks of dry ice inside a bowl... once the dry ice melts we are told that the CO2 content was strong enough to kill any bugs and mites or whatever may be inside and just fine for the plants... so this is what we did...and once planted and situated around this is what we have...
With a small repti-flo 200 works the waterfall, and we also made our own fogger system from a ultrasonic humidifier and various plumbing pieces , it does very well... also yes thats a Xbox360 lamp my wife and I built.. with nightlights
No occupants yet we will monitor the temps and humidity and such for the next week or so and give the plants time to start growing, also I am ordering some isopods and springtails to put in as well to take care of my cleanup... haha let me know what you think and hope all the pics turn out ok... Also thanks for letting me share... Ren
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