First Timer

b1fcs · #1 (**permalink**) 04-25-2009, 06:30 AM

Looks like I broke a bunch of rules on my first vivarium, but I already started so too late now!

After lurking around here for awhile I decided it was time to venture out on my own. So I jumped onto CL and searched for a good deal on an aquarium. I found one that fit the bill but it was the wrong color, but I liked the price, and the size... 75 gal. (yea a big undertaking for a first timer for sure!)

First was to fix up the stand. I stripped it, and built some opening lids for it. I decided that I would kill a few birds with one stone and buy this minwax stuff that had poly built in. Don't ever buy it. It is more like paint then stain. But I didnt care that much, it gives it character!

b1fcs · #2 (**permalink**) 04-25-2009, 06:31 AM

the stand with the crappy stain. I built some opening lids on the canopy because it had an open top.

b1fcs · #3 (**permalink**) 04-25-2009, 06:33 AM

Bought some wood and laid out where I thought I wanted it. I went to Petsmart and Petco and bought up all their Mopani and Malaysian Driftwood.

b1fcs · #4 (**permalink**) 04-25-2009, 06:35 AM

I bought big 2" PVC tubes to hold the false bottom up, and drilled a few little holes in them just because it seemed like the right thing to do for water flow...

b1fcs · #5 (**permalink**) 04-25-2009, 06:39 AM

Started making my false bottom. Wanted to make a pretty deep pond to keep some feeder guppies or something in... not sure what quite yet.

Made a big entry way to drop my pumps and stuff down inside of. I got the eggcrate from Home Depot, and have loads of ties already from my IT job. I also wanted to completely hide this false bottom so I left about 1" of open space to the front and side.

I also bought some screen, to place over the eggcrate, I just got whatever had the smallest holes.

frogparty · #6 (**permalink**) 04-25-2009, 06:42 AM

Too bad you stained the stand, I think the wood color looked great before.
Looks good otherwise, as long as the screens fiberglass and not metal

b1fcs · #7 (**permalink**) 04-25-2009, 06:46 AM

So far it was a ton of fun and actually pretty easy, I let the silicone on the back and side dry for a few days. I enjoyed doing the design part and building the eggcrate bottom etc.

I was already like 4 tubes of silicone into the tank also. I am already way over my initial budget

Every little thing costs like $20.

I silicone the wood where I want it and prop it up as well as tape it to hold it in place.

While the tank is on its back, I start spraying the GS, I put a small coat on, give it a light spray, all good. Then in this picture I start on the left wall while its on its back. BAD IDEA. As I sprayed it just kind of started running down the side of the tank. (You can see it start to sag and almost drip in this picture). So this sets me back another day because I want to let the back section of GS dry before I flip the tank on its side to do the side.

b1fcs · #8 (**permalink**) 04-25-2009, 06:48 AM

Last part of GS applied. I went high on the GS so I could build up the water level taller and have a deeper pond.

b1fcs · #9 (**permalink**) 04-25-2009, 06:55 AM

So I was then at the point where I had to do the coco fiber and silicone part. I bought WAY TOO much coco fiber

. 6 of those condensed bricks... I baked a few bricks worth to dry them, but that still took a few days.

I switched to brown silicone because it seemed like it made more sense. No one really explained how hard this part was :/.

That stuff is a friggin HUGE MESS. spray a bunch and smear. Too bad half of it ends up sticking to your glove and then it just pulls away from the GS, then you bump into the glass and get silicone all over that and.. etc etc. its just really messy is all and hard to get into the cracks. I used probably 7 tubes of Brown Silicone on the background and 2 bricks of coco fiber.

I also decided to use river rock to line the pond area, so I just stuck rocks to it after covering it with silicone. I again had to flip the thing over to get the rocks on the sides, or they were just sliding or falling off. It is also really hard to get the coco on the walls if the wall you are working on isnt on the ground. So it took a few days of curing to flip it around on the sides I needed it on.

b1fcs · #10 (**permalink**) 04-25-2009, 07:00 AM

I forgot to take a picture of how I did my dripwall, but I used someone's advice on here to just carve some trenches, put my tubes in and then silicone and coco fiber over them to hide them. So I did that and it seems to be working fine. I used planting wire to hold the tubes in place also because they wouldnt stay still as I silicone'd them. I put 5 into the wall, not sure if I will even use them, but we will see.