55 Gallon Build - Photo Diary

[ProjectReptile]

Well, a customer in my shop dropped off a 55gal tank last week to be converted into a viv, I believe it's going to be a Christmas gift to his g/f. After being lazy for a week, I decided I better get started on this thing, as the holidays will be rolling in in a week. Before I got too far into the construction phase, I decided to grab my camera and post the progress on the boards here. So here we go.

Below is as far as got before I decided to make this project into a build journal. I am going to try something new here as the water feature will be powered by a new Exo-Terra Repti-Clear pump/filter. I hope this will work well as fittings are the same as the Exo-Terra Repti-Flow pumps (which I have used every time before now). The other perks about the Repti-Clear are #1 it includes a foam filter media which is a great thing to see as I ofter have debris block the intake of my Repti-Flows, and #2 it is a bit more powerful than the Repti-Flow (RF). The RFs have a flow rate of 45gph and the Repti-Clear is rathed at 60gph. The only downfall that I can see is that the RFs operate in as little as 1cm of water, and Repti-Clears pretty much have to be fully submerged, which is about 1 1/2" of water needed. This doesn't affect me much though as I have never designed a viv where the RF's run in 1cm of water. In fact, I always make sure they are submerged to achieve maximum flow rate. Back to the subject at hand. Below is a picture of my plumbing. The 1 1/2" PVC on the side is for the power cables to run, the clear 3/4" tubing is for my water feature. It is split at the top with a T and will operate two different functions:



And here is a close up of just the plumbing:

[ProjectReptile]

I decided to make two seperate posts here, rather then one large one. I figured it will serve as a break for the reader.

On we go. The next step was the foam and decoration applications. I really had to game plan as such. The decorations that I found around my shop included 2 pieces of cork park, 1 larger piece of drift wood, and 1 branch of Java wood which I ended up breaking into 3 pieces. I also gathered up a few deli cups and vials to use as planters. I started foaming the side with the plumbing first. I covered the power cable port, then covered the tubing best I could. Below the outter-most water port, I foamed in a delicup which will fill with water and then serve as a waterfall once it over-flows. There will be some carving to be needed, but it's nothing I am not used to. The inner-most port was originally just going to be a dripper which I would create by almost completely blocking the port, which would just drip down the wall face. However, in mid foaming I decided to try making the drift wood fit into place whereas the dripper would now run down the wood. It took some rearranging but by god it worked. I positioned it as such that the water would drip in almost a stream-like manner down the piece of wood and empty into the same basin as the waterfall. On the opposite end of the tank, I randomly placed the Java wood and cork bark into place. Here is a close-up of the water feature side:

The water outlets are marked by the red circles.


And here is the other side of the tank with the Java and cork in place:


And last for today, here is two pictures of the entire tank. Sorry about the quality of pretty much all of these, but most were taken with me standing on my tippy-toes and pointing the camera down, not really being able to tell where I was aiming.

[Mywebbedtoes]

Cool, I like your tanks. Looking forward to this one.

[ProjectReptile]

Thanks Mywebbedtoes! Hopefully this one won't disappoint. Anyway, today there was nothing done to the tank. I'm allowed 48 hours for the foam to cure. Around noon tomorrow it will be silicone smearing time... yippie. :roll:

[ProjectReptile]

I'm committed to finishing this diary. I'll try to detail every bit as it happens. In that spirit, I'll explain the days work.
I started carving away the foam earlier this morning. This alone is something new to me as I usually alter the spray foam very little in my previous constructions. In this new project, I did a great deal of sculpting I must say. I started off near the Java wood and drift wood. I decided to 'continue' the body of these wood peices into the background by carving their phantom parts. The larger flat piece of drift wood wasn't very creative, I more or less just brought the foam down to the wood's level. The Java branch, on the other hand, took some time. I continued the branch into the foam and I even added a split near the bottom. Aside from the split, I made the top of the branch into a "stump" which I then hollowed out and realized that I can get a plant in there. Heres a picture of the chaos:

I'd guestimate that I carved away around 20% of the over all foam.



Here's a picture after cleaning. You can see the carving of the branches.



Aside from the branch sculpting, i decided to use that technique on the fly with the water tube that will be dripping down the driftwood. My original idea to hide the pipe didn't work out so well. What the new plan is, is to sculpt a small section of a 'root system' into the foam and have the tube be a 'branch' of the roots. Hopefully, when finished it will look as if a root is dripping onto the wood. Here it is:



With all of the sculpting and carving finally finished and the scraps cleaned up... it was onto the silicone. I decided to put down one layer of just silicone with no dirt, then later add another layer to which the bedding would be applied. I'm not sure why I decided to do this, and for that matter, I probably wont do it again. I have made quite a few vivs now and I normally don't put down this base layer of silicone, and they have all turned out time. I new feel it was a big waste of time and product. None the less, here is a picture of the progress:



Lastly for this update, below is a picture of the "root system" where the water tube is conceiled. With the silicone put down, I'm able to picture it a little better and I'm a bit more optimistic about the possibly end result.

[Mywebbedtoes]

Don't you hate the silicone process? I have a sweet looking tank all foamed up with wood and all, just sitting there because I dread the silicone process.

[Obliv79]

I hear ya when it comes to silicone stuff is messy and not fun to work with. Plus at 7 bucks a tube can get a bit pricey on a bigger tank. Nice work so far really looking forward to the end results

[ProjectReptile]

Yeah, I don't think anyone out there really enjoys the silicone smearing. I wish there was some kind of 'frog-safe' solvent that could thin the silicone down making it paintable. If it was a tad bit thinner, it wouldn't be that bad at all. I hate getting it all over my hands and trying to get it into the nooks and 'caves' the foam creates. And the ultimate slap in the face is when you THINK you're finished and you step back and see a half dozen patches of yellow foam shining through.

[Raymond]

Tank looks good!

I've found that the concrete binder/flevapol method is a good deal less messy then silicone. It doesn't give off those potent fumes either :wink:. Much more pleasant to apply overall imo. Anyways, just some info, and I actually don't bother with either anymore. I do not like silicone.

[ProjectReptile]

Thanks Raymond! Go on about this concrete binder and flevapol method..... I'd love to learn about it.