My Vivaria

[asch803]

I started cutting the egg grate andgetting the basic setup for my 40 gallon tank. I am really happy with how it looks and with my planning so far. I am ordering a bunch of stuff today from 2 different online stores and hopefully will be able to do even more next weekend. Here isw my 1 big question: I have the front 1/3 of the tank which is going to be approx 3" high of water and will house tetras. the question is, do i have that 3" of water in the entire tank and just have the back 2/3 not visible (except from the sides) or do i use plexi-glass which is already cut and basically have the water in just the front 1/3? I'm trying to weigh the positives and negatives of both and my biggest concern is whether i can properly contain the water in just the front 1/3 with the plexi-glass and seal it up well? I'm inclined to just have the entire tank filled with approx. 3" of water and feel that might just be the easiest way. Opinions, please?

Thanks!

Andhy

 

[asch803]

I started cutting the egg grate andgetting the basic setup for my 40 gallon tank. I am really happy with how it looks and with my planning so far. I am ordering a bunch of stuff today from 2 different online stores and hopefully will be able to do even more next weekend. Here isw my 1 big question: I have the front 1/3 of the tank which is going to be approx 3" high of water and will house tetras. the question is, do i have that 3" of water in the entire tank and just have the back 2/3 not visible (except from the sides) or do i use plexi-glass which is already cut and basically have the water in just the front 1/3? I'm trying to weigh the positives and negatives of both and my biggest concern is whether i can properly contain the water in just the front 1/3 with the plexi-glass and seal it up well? I'm inclined to just have the entire tank filled with approx. 3" of water and feel that might just be the easiest way. Opinions, please?

Thanks!

Andy

 

[Julio]

Hey Andy,
if you are looking to house fish, you really need to cut off the front area as a seperate section. other wise you will have the water table at 3 inches through out the entire tank, and your daraining system with the egg crate wont' really work!

 

[Corpus Callosum]

Well if he makes the eggcrate / substrate 3" high also, then it should be fine to have the water table at that level throughtout the tank ? This way he has more water volume and the substrate is high enough to not be affected. I've never done that before so not sure..

 

[imlocke]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11304692#post11304692 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Corpus Callosum
Well if he makes the eggcrate / substrate 3" high also, then it should be fine to have the water table at that level throughtout the tank ? This way he has more water volume and the substrate is high enough to not be affected. I've never done that before so not sure..

well if he wanted to have the entire bottom full of water, he'd want to have some way to drain the water out above the 3" and have the false bottom 4" off the bottom, that way anything that drains won't overflow the bottom and just sit in the substrate..defeating the purpose of the false bottom

 

[Julio]

are you planning on installing a filter on your tank? or just having standing water with tetras in it?

 

[asch803]

this is the plan: the water will be approx 3" to 4" throughout the entire tank and then i have the egg grate at about 6" above the bottom (so about 2 to 3" above the water). On top of the egg grate a double thick layer of screening then about a 1 to 2" inch layer of hydroton with another double layer of screening and then finally my substrate which i'm planning to use spangnum (sp?) moss and leaf mix. Along the edge of the water i will use cork bark about 6" from top to bottom all the way around the edge of the water with maybe 2 "caves" cut out which will go to the 2/3 which will be covered. I have an eheim 2213 which i'm going to use for filtration (love those filters) and i plan to place the intake strategically so i can get to it and change the pre-filter sponge. The outflow will go onto a piece of cork bark down the back of the tank (to look like a waterfall) and into what will be a stream heading back into the main part of water. Does this make sense? As far as doing water changes, i can simply siphone out and refill w/ no trouble at all. I will only add fish (likely tetras) that will be ok in the 65 to 75 degree range. I am still a little unsure how to hide the egg grates, etc on the sides of the tank and was thinking i could just paint the outside possibly...Comments in general, please...i've already cut the egg grate and now am waiting on the cork bark and other stuff before i continue on...

Andy

 

[Corpus Callosum]

Sounds like a plan. You could put black silicone on the inside side walls of the tank before you put the eggcrate to hide it, or you can just paint the outside of the tank as you said.

 

[Julio]

Andy, what are the dimensions of the tank you are building?

 

[asch803]

tank is a 40 gal breeder: 36 x 18 x 18

 

[Julio]

well, i think you might be cutting a little too much vertical space, you might need a taller tank.

 

[Corpus Callosum]

Well I've been making some progress as well:

eggcrate false bottom

foaming some driftwood on:

siliconed tree fern panels to the wall and foamed in between, then carved all the dry foam:

siliconed the foam and stuck on loose tree fern fiber, and threw in some dirt and leaf litter:

 

[asch803]

wow, very cool Mike! I like that you did 2 walls with the tree fern. That's what i was thinking about doing as well. which is easier to work with, the tree fern fiber or coconut fiber? I also see you can get sheets of tree fern, any thoughts on that? Also, is the black silicone you use basically the same as "Great Stuff" which is tan in color?

With regard to the height of my tank, i'm planning to have a pair of Azareus and have read that they prefer land space to vertical space. Should i drop the heigbht of my egg grate by an inch or two and go with about 2" of water - i can still do that? would that help? Thanks!

Andy

 

[Julio]

Hey Mike,
looks great, what are you putting in there, the pumilios? how is your male doing by the way?

 

[billsreef]

Cleaned up an old 29 over the weekend and have some supplies coming this week. Figure on putting it all together this weekend.

 

[Corpus Callosum]

I used Handi-Foam which is black in color but its pretty much the same stuff as the Great Stuff foam. It's easier to stick coco fiber on it, but I like the look of tree fern better so I stuck that on. I use Black GE I Silicone, no specific reason. I don't think you need that much height for azureus.. I've never had them so I don't really know but your plan didn't sound bad at all.

He's doing better Julio, his throat deflated after 30! hours.. and now he's eating flies as if it never happened.. very odd. Keeping him in quarantine before putting him in here, will put the other 2 in here in the meantime. Yea this is their tank.

 

[asch803]

I did a major amount of work on my 40 gallon breeder this weekend. I have to say it's not as easy as it looks in Mike's pics. I also learned the hard way that you really need to wear gloves when you do this - my hands are still really dirty and sticky. Over all I'm very happy with how it looks now, but I do have a few concerns. My waterfall which runs from the back up to the front and spills into the approximately 3 inches of water is leaking a little. I used a ton of silicone on that last night, so hopefully i should be ok now. The other thing is that the coconut shavings did not stick incredibly well everywhere. For the most part it's ok, but when i wet it down, a lot of it came off. I'm not going to worry too much since it just looks like rocks and also will be filled in by all of the foliage. I would post pics, but I have always had problems resizing them to fit on this site. Later this week i am going to order some plants and some moss. What is the best moss for a vivarium and where should i get it? I am also hoping to put some of the moss along the waterfall, so suggestions are welcome. Then the last 2 things i will need to do is finish the top - right now i just need to figure out how to do the screen on top which should be 6" x 36" and i'm thinking about mounting a small fan on that (again, suggestions are welcome). The last thing i'm going to do besides adding a pair of Azereus is painting the back and sides black. I also am looking for a stand if anyone has one 36 x 18. Thanks!

Andy

 

[Corpus Callosum]

We forgot to warn you all that foam is really annoying to get off your hands... oops!

The coco fiber usually sticks onto the silicone best when it's really dry.. if its even a little bit wet it won't stick on as good. If you wanted to do another pass, you could let it dry out again and just patch up the bad spots with more silicone and fiber.

I don't have a lot of experience with which type of moss is better, I usually just wait and it starts growing on the wood in a few months, or can just buy any tropical moss you can find. I don't think you should put a fan on the screen, unless you put it on a timer. If it's on all the time it will exchange too much air and humidity will drop, but on a timer it would be good. A recirculating fan system is another story where it just moves around air inside the viv rather than bringing in new air from outside, and this type of fan could be on all the time.

I just planted some bromeliads in my tank, haven't finished the top yet, and could use some vines and orchids for the walls, but here's my progress:

 

[asch803]

Mike, your tank looks great! Guess i can do some touching up with silicone. i saw a kit that they have at home depot for screening. Is that what you use? Where did you get the bromeliads, they look really nice!

Thanks!!

Andy

 

[Corpus Callosum]

Yea I use the home depot kit for the screen frame (cut it to fit in the vented area in top). I got the bromeliads from 3 different sources, I was comparatively shopping, and all of them gave me great plants. I mainly knew what cultivars/species I wanted and saw who had them available, and got what I was looking for.