# Drylock Waterfall, GS Tree Stump Build



## wjesse (Jan 27, 2008)

I have been searching the threads for a while gathering ideas on how to rebuild my 40 gallon Oceanic Hex once again. I finally decided on making a water feature and some trees with sheet foam and Drylock. My main motivation, besides getting lost in a fun project, is to make a low maintenance tank as I have rebuilt this tank four times ever since I got it in '07 because the wood in my backgrounds and waterfall eventually rots each time. This time my approach is to make everything in the background out of non-organic material, then place live plants and wood in afterwards so it can be easily swapped out in the future, if needed.

First I have to say thanks to Ed Reding for giving me a ton of advice and spare supplies for this. He is a great frogger who happens to live right down the road 

So, I started out by stacking blue foam together to build a corkscrew waterfall. This took several nights of carving foam (inside a big cardboard box for the mess) while watching TV with my bride. I initially kept the foam in three sections, a few boards thick each to simplify the build a little. They were eventually all fastened together with hot glue.

The stump was carved and put together similarly but I wanted it to have more character in the legs so every other one is lifted at the base then curves down toward the ground. In order to pull this off I took wood shishkabob skewers and stabbed each piece in place before blasting with great stuff. I also carved out little shelf mushrooms and smooshed them in while the foam was still wet.

I started coating with Drylock and cement coloring (black and terra cotta mixed together). This process is taking forever since the Drylock doesn't really want to get into all of the nooks and crannys. I coat, then wait to dry and re-coat, then re-coat and... you get the point.

I'm going to start working in some PVC tree branches in soon as I just started bending some with a new heat gun I got the other day. I'll keep updating as I go...


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## Dendro Dave (Aug 2, 2005)

Looks interesting....Love the waterfall... subscribed


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## zachxbass (Apr 21, 2008)

This looks awesome. I'm thinking of making a small waterfall/drip wall with sheet foam. When I go to the hardware store, what kind of foam do I ask for? Insulation foam?

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## usctom (Mar 30, 2013)

I want a ride on that tube slide.


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## wjesse (Jan 27, 2008)

zachxbass said:


> This looks awesome. I'm thinking of making a small waterfall/drip wall with sheet foam. When I go to the hardware store, what kind of foam do I ask for? Insulation foam?
> 
> Sent from my C5155 using Tapatalk 2


Yeah, they will probably have both pink and blue sheet insulation foam. Either would work fine. I think one is just thicker than the other.


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## zachxbass (Apr 21, 2008)

wjesse said:


> Yeah, they will probably have both pink and blue sheet insulation foam. Either would work fine. I think one is just thicker than the other.


Cool. Thanks for quick reply. Subscribed to this. Love the twisty slide

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## zachxbass (Apr 21, 2008)

Got some pink foam yesterday. I think I'm gonna use grout to make fake rocks for the waterfall area. Used it before in vivs and aquariums with good results

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## wjesse (Jan 27, 2008)

zachxbass said:


> Got some pink foam yesterday. I think I'm gonna use grout to make fake rocks for the waterfall area. Used it before in vivs and aquariums with good results
> 
> Sent from my kindle fire using tapatalk


Nice. I was really intrigued by the grout method, especially because it lends itself to have a grittier, more natural rock-like finish. Ultimately, the long cure time steered me in the Dry Lock direction. 

Keep me posted on your build while you go as well


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## zachxbass (Apr 21, 2008)

wjesse said:


> Nice. I was really intrigued by the grout method, especially because it lends itself to have a grittier, more natural rock-like finish. Ultimately, the long cure time steered me in the Dry Lock direction.
> 
> Keep me posted on your build while you go as well


I never found the cure time too long. As it's drying I spray it with distilled white vinegar. I try to keep it moist for a few days, then submerge it in water for a few days, usually some vinegar added to this also. Something like that. It's been awhile since I've done it so maybe it took longer than I remember. I'll take notes this time. It's gonna be a slow build anyway

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## wjesse (Jan 27, 2008)

Getting closer! After a few nights of hard work I have completed some of the bigger tasks I was looking at getting done. 

First, I siliconed the waterfall in the parts where the water will be flowing. Then, I decided the tree trunk legs should extend into the water feature across the front of the tank so I built them a little lower by placing wax paper down along the edge of the area they were extending to and carefully foaming it with more Great Stuff.

I painted the stump with more dark tinted Dry Lock. After that dried I went over some of the the raised areas with a lighter shade of brown to accentuate the texture. I may do this again with another tone since I think I went a little too far into the cracks so it almost took away from the effect. On top, I dry-dipped the brush in darker shades and swept it across in a circle to emulate growth rings on the tree. I don't think it stood out too much, but worth a try anyways 

Finally, I Great Stuffed the rest of the tank. I turns out that I did not have enough of the white stuff so I switched to some left of grey (waterproof) stuff I had from a previous build. Looking at it now, I think I will divide the grey and white into rock/ soil background for character. I'm not too sure how to incorporate all of the plants yet though.

Oh, and I decided to scrap the PVC tree branch idea- just wasn't working out.


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## zachxbass (Apr 21, 2008)

Great progress, gonna look great when finished. Some wood and plants/ moss, leaf litter will look awesome

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## wjesse (Jan 27, 2008)

Moving right along... Finally finished carving everything (five blades later) including pot holders for various plant sites around the tank. 

I started coating with Drylock until I ran out of my quart which I originally thought would complete the whole project. It goes FAST when coating carved Great Stuff Foam- it's like trying to paint a big sponge with this stuff.

I was able to get a full thick coat of dark colored Drylock on all of the rock background tonight. Will buy more supplies and re-coat in a few more days. 

Getting antsy as I can start to see a light at the end of the tunnel nearing. I know some Azureus living in a plastic bin who probably feel the same way right about now


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## zachxbass (Apr 21, 2008)

Good progress. I've been trying to find quarts of drylock but can only find the gallons. 

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## wjesse (Jan 27, 2008)

Adding another layer of color to the tree stump is really making the bark on this thing come to life! I am very pleased with the results so far. 

I have to clean up the over-painted white areas around the mushrooms, then add some color to them with some acrylic paints next. After that, I'll seal them with silicone to add a unique texture.


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## Dragonfish (Mar 23, 2012)

That's pretty impressive right there.


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## wjesse (Jan 27, 2008)

Another late night has produced some rewarding results. I mixed acrylic paints with Drylock to get a nice effect on the growth rings on top of the stump. Then, very carefully blended yellow to red for the shelf mushrooms. I am nervous about coating them with silicone because I don't want to ruin them, but with any luck they will gain a high gloss look which is what I am after.

I am somewhat disappointed with the left rock wall's finish. The right wall has a nice blend with gradual grey hues. The left is choppy and harsh to look at. Not sure what I'm going to do about that yet.

Next on the list... coco husk, moss, vines and plants!


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## Froglet54 (Jan 17, 2013)

Looks Great!


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## TheCoop (Oct 24, 2012)

Looks good, i would be careful with using up too much of the interior space.. Next thing ya know a 40g turns into having the interior space of a 20g.. Should have pm'd me I have a nice 46g bowfront with stand wasting away in the garage lol..


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## Dweezy247 (May 2, 2013)

great build cant wait to see it completed.Gives me some great ideas for next build I do,thanks.


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## wjesse (Jan 27, 2008)

Coco husk is now on the background with brown silicone. Had some chopped up sphagnum mixed in with it but it didn't really make it through once dried. Probably because I took about 15 minutes painting the whole background with caulk THEN I applied all of the mix at once instead of going section by section in order to keep it more moist while adding the coco with moss while I went. 

I'll see if I can make some vines out of cotton ropes, beige silicone and sphagnum to spice up the background a bit. Also, I'm going to attempt to make some more small tree roots from the rope and drylock as well.


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## wjesse (Jan 27, 2008)

Last night I put a couple more hours into my tank. First, I pushed some coco husk under the tree stump to make sure the frogs don't get stuck under there. Then, I placed sphagnum moss all around as the substrate. 

I smeared some cotton rope with tinted Drylock then rolled it in coco husk and sphagnum moss bits to create a root system that will reach down into the water feature in the front. Most of these will be covered by the leaf litter up top but hopefully will still look cool or "natural" poking out under it all coming down over the rock part.

Then, I siliconed the mushrooms for that shiny look. I carefully used a blade to evenly distribute the silicone across the first one which took like 15 minutes then on the second one realized I could get my finger wet and rub it across to make it perfect in 30 seconds- haha! I've learned a lot of time savers AFTER the fact on this one!


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## wjesse (Jan 27, 2008)

By the way, here are my frogs. This is Beep, Bop and Princess and Cutie. My three year old daughter was sweet enough to name them for us 

I know Princess is a proven female. I am hoping that either Beep or Bop is a male- I bought them off Craigslist and have them in quarantine right now. I am planning on housing all three adult frogs and keeping an eye on aggression. With my luck they'll all be female...

Cutie is the offspring from Princess from last year before her mate passed away  I just keep him around because he's just so... cute.

What I REALLY want is someone to sell me a proven male Azureus but I can't find anyone who is willing to part with one (at least not for a fair price) Any suggestions are appreciated if you guys know of one


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## zachxbass (Apr 21, 2008)

Great update, the stump is looking awesome. Those roots look good, as do the mushrooms. Nice frogs too! That last frog is a beast

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## wjesse (Jan 27, 2008)

Thanks! She is a beast! She was breeding away with a male last year then they stopped breeding and she started beating him up! I removed him but it was too late and he never recovered  to my discredit they had a lapse in food at the time so I've made sure that won't happen again. Needless to say, I'm nervous to introduce the two new roomies with my Praying Mantis frog now!


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## wjesse (Jan 27, 2008)

Plants! well, kind of... Their not permanent yet. I'm trying to figure out placement and it's a bit tricky due to some needing soil and others being bromeliads (and huge). To be honest I could really use some help here. 

I wanted to vertically mount the bigger broms with a blast of Great Stuff to bloom straight outward from the background for a great visual effect but I'm not sure if that is a wise idea all of the sudden since I don't see anyone else doing that. Then I thought I would place the potted ones back there to drape down the background but I'm worried their soil won't hold up against gravity. 

Suggestions are greatly appreciated!!!


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## zachxbass (Apr 21, 2008)

I wouldn't try the "blast of great stuff "I believe is toxic until fully cured. Could be wrong though. Some people use floral wire or toothpicks to pin the brom to the background. Not piercing the brom though. I could be wrong, but I think I've seen hot glue used too. After awhile the roots will hold it in place. There's probably some more experienced people that can chime in, I have little brom experience.
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## wjesse (Jan 27, 2008)

I have been rearranging and fine tuning some of the details on my build before I seal it up and invite the frogs in. I am hoping my plant sites take off and i decided to add some real wood ledges in place of my plant holes in the background (thank God for sphagnum moss to jam in the holes i made!) I took out the rope roots and made a handful of other changes since I am totally making this up as I go and some of the ideas i come up with just don't really work out.

I will keep tweaking and updating as I go. Plus, I just got some new goodies ordered for the tank from ebay. I'll update as soon as they come in!


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## wjesse (Jan 27, 2008)

Coming up on the home stretch... 

I decided java moss is going to be a better ground cover than leaf litter in this tank. I also have some Kyoto moss spores spread all over the fake tree stump. Hopefully these will pop soon giving it a mossy log look and take away from the fake feel of it a bit.

I have a two 24" T5 ballast which was using one 2700k bulb and one 6500k bulb. My purples and reds are fading fast from my broms though so I switched to both 6500ks. Hopefully this will bring back the color as well as promote some good grow-in.

Now I am just waiting for my new external pump/ filter to arrive. Once it is here, I will have the waterfall/ ultrasonic fogger running and this thing will be finally ready for frogs! I just seeded my second volley of springtails/ isopods today too so it should be ripe for the pickings within the next week or so.


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## Gamble (Aug 1, 2010)

Very nice job. It looks amazing. 
Thx for sharing.


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## wjesse (Jan 27, 2008)

I just started to realize a potentially dreadful reality that the drylock is cracking on the stump  It seems like the foam is breathing and swelling once I kicked off the misting system.














Not sure how I am going to address this yet. Thought about sealing the cracks with brown caulk. Don't really want to recoat with drylock again but it may be my only good option at this point!

Open to suggestions...


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## Dendro Dave (Aug 2, 2005)

wjesse said:


> I just started to realize a potentially dreadful reality that the drylock is cracking on the stump  It seems like the foam is breathing and swelling once I kicked off the misting system.
> View attachment 50081
> View attachment 50089
> 
> ...


This is all theory but...
You might try painting over it with a clear polyurethane coat, or clear plasti dip...the clear plasti dip should flex with the dryloc/foam and while you'll still have cracks it should hold it all together without it flaking off....maybe. You'll wanna get as complete a coat/coverage as you can down to the soil line. Maybe clear some soil away, wash the area, let it dry, paint on the plasti dip, let cure, replace soil. 

You'll want to remove any animals of course, maybe move some plants, and possibly put a fan sucking air out of the tank to help it cure and blow the fumes out to help maintain plant health.


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## wjesse (Jan 27, 2008)

Thanks for the reply. That is not a bad idea. 

For now I put another thick, dark coat of dry lock on. I think moving the roots around to place the substrate in may have played in to the cracks. I am going to not touch them after this and see if they come back. I will go over it once or twice more with lighter shades to give it that textured look again then leave it alone. 

If I was to do this over again I would probably caulk the whole stump then paint it with acrylics as I think that would be more elastic. Oh well, you live and learn


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## wjesse (Jan 27, 2008)

I've been putting a lot of effort into the stump lately. It's had a handful of coatings which keep getting painted over with tinted dry lock because I can't settle on a look so far. I think I'm pretty close now though. The good news it that it now has almost another quart of dry lock on it! Lets see if it holds up to the moisture now...


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## wjesse (Jan 27, 2008)

Put the final paint touch ups last night. I am finally happy with this thing 

I am waiting on some ABG mix to arrive so I can get the ground cover finished and permanently fix the plants into place.


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## zachxbass (Apr 21, 2008)

Looking good. I hope the cracks don't come back. At least you know the stump is water proof now

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## wjesse (Jan 27, 2008)

I have had a really tough time buttoning this thing up. Everything that could go wrong... did. 

First, my pump is not suctioning enough to stay working- it will start the waterfall going, but then wimp out a few minutes later. It is a HUGE pump for this tiny of a job and should have the pressure to push a 48"+ rise but no such luck. As it turns out, my suction tube was flawed, I acquired new pieces and ran a different line then viola! Finally got the blasted thing working.

Next was the waterfall itself. Somehow along the journey of two layers of Drylock and one layer of silicone I missed enough of it to get two separate leaks out the sides of it. I Put another layer of Drylock on the outside and siliconed some more. The leaks are gone, at least for now.

And then there is the stump. After my last post I realized that putting just the colored tint on there is a bad idea (without mixing it in the Drylock first.) Just after my last post this thing started oozing concrete tint all over the place. I considered putting the frogs in there anyways to make them even more colorful, but ended up changing my mind  I eventually decided to carefully (until a leg broke off) remove it from the tank and put it back on the workbench. I'm glad I did because the bottom was all cracked like the sides were before. I hot glued the leg back on, then put two one coat of brown silicone completely encapsulating the entire thing except the rings on top. Then, two coats of Drylock without tint and two coats of it with tint and the details. After carefully transporting it back into the tank, it is now ready. BTW it now has TEN coats of Drylock, acrylic paint and silicone surrounding it- and this sucker is heavy! If you look at the original picture compared to now it is about twice as thick!

I also had mixed feelings about the ultrasonic fogger since it is in a cavern that the frogs can access and I don't want it to get them. I figured I should put this behind screen mesh and moss, but it just wouldn't push the fog through. So, I took it off the timer and will only run it when I am watching them in the tank, then turn it off when I leave. Simple fix.

All said and done I am glad the main part of the project is over. I moved the frogs in this afternoon and they seem to like it so far (no complaints yet) I may have to replace a plant here or there depending on what thrives and what shrivels, but I am feeling pretty good about the rest of it. 

Next on the agenda is a photoshoot with a real camera (no more iPhone camera.) I'll post those soon. Fingers crossed that this thing does not run into any more snags!

Also, thank you to everyone who encouraged me and complimented the build as it went. This made the project much more rewarding


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## TheCoop (Oct 24, 2012)

Either way I'm rather impressed..


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## Alexmenke92 (Nov 19, 2013)

I would love to resurrect this thread. How do you know when you have coated with drylock enough? And does the color stay forever or will it decay?

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## wjesse (Jan 27, 2008)

So far, so good- no fading or anything yet. The only downside if that everything grew in and is covering up all that background I worked so hard to create!

I knew I had enough drylock when the entire thing felt like plaster with no foaminess showing anymore. It took about four serious coats and got pretty heavy and smooth before it was finished. All of the intricate cuts turned out smooth by the fourth coat. When you think it's done, put one more coat on just to be sure if you decide to tackle this type of build.

The pair of Azureus are laying eggs like crazy in here. I decided to let them do everything on their own so only one tadpole turned into a frog over the last year. I was worried they would fight the baby, but he (or she) seems to be thriving just like the parents


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## RNKot (Jun 9, 2010)

Very nice one!


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