# 2nd 10gal Construction Journal (update - 2/25/2007)



## Jay Why (Aug 27, 2005)

Had the tank and surplus supplies from my first 10gal - so why not set up a new one? Going with a false bottom, Great-Stuff background with corkbark, pond and water-fall.

The tank was previously used for insects and misted with tap water and had mineral deposits, so I used white vinegar to clean it. Can't recommend the white vinegar enough for cleaning deposits. After a rinse and towel dry the tank looked brand-new.

Heres the sketches of what I have in mind - mostly showing the pond in the middle and the water feature. I'm basically going for three platforms that flow into each other - trying to make the flowing water as audible as possible.










Got a rough idea of the water and land level and marked the tank for putting black silicone on the inside to cover up the eggcrate. (Chapstick works for marking the outside of the tank in case you run out of forehead grease.) I spread the silicone out at least an inch or two further than I needed to. Its easier to remove excess silicone than it is to add, right?










The half Gatorade bottle in the middle of the tank against the back wall is the pump access area.

I'm curious how strong GreatStuff is. For the waterfall platforms I'm thinking I want them extending as far to the front of the tank as possible. I might mess around with using eggcrate for an understructure to provide a little extra support.

Time to start cutting some eggcrate...


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## c'est ma (Sep 11, 2004)

Love your sketches--you're quite the artist. Hope you'll be updating this soon.

--Diane


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## Guest (Mar 31, 2006)

looks good so far, keep us updated!


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## Jay Why (Aug 27, 2005)

Just more silicone, some broms (thumbs up for Ken @ PeaceOfTheTropics and his broms), and corkbark! Nothing special.








I'm thinking about how to cover the fountain areas and thought I'd try pressing brownish sand and the occasional small rock... Kind of a sand stone thing... we'll see how it goes! I'm curious how well greatstuff can handle weight because I want to try to have the fountain plateaus stick out pretty far. If you imagine three tongues sticking out at you, you'll get the idea... 

Got me some great stuff, another tube of silicone and a pump. Cost so far - $6 x 2 for silicone, $6 for great stuff, $11 for broms, $12 for pump = 46 bucks.


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## Jay Why (Aug 27, 2005)

*What`chu know `bout Great Stuff?!??!*










*"This is just a test. This is only, a test."*


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## Jay Why (Aug 27, 2005)

The fun has begun. I'm hoping the GS will expand where there's room and not pop some glass... time will tell I guess.

Latex gloves. Use `em. Spend the three bucks to get a big pack for working with GS. I only managed to get a tiny bit of GS on my hand and it really does not come off. 

The test I did powdering the wet GS with red sand turned out awesome. It works and looks great, but I decided it didn't look authentic based on the research I did. 

I'm going to stick with the standard silicone on GS with peat/coco pressed in. I still have tests to do because I'm not sure it'll look `right` for the stone/waterfall/fountain area.


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## dustin_grey (Mar 8, 2006)

Great stuff expands three times its size (or is supposed to) so it should be alright. Then you can take a razor blade or box cutter to it to carve your own shapes out (if you want to that is). Its looking pretty good, keep up the pics!


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## Jay Why (Aug 27, 2005)

*Finally more progress!*

Two steps forward, one step back. Had to tear out a bunch of GS because I didn't think to imbed the corkbark I had when the GS was wet. Ooops, jumped the gun. But, layed out the silicone and peat to the riverbed, and found an interesting detail technique while still trying to figure out how I'm going to coat the waterfall `stone` areas. 

Riverbed coated:








(If you look close you can see the white markings on the glass, right in the center, where I'm thinking of making the ledges that the water flows through to get to the pool.)

Promising background technique:








Looks better in person, and its just a first test, but I think it has potential for adding some detail to just a plain GS/Silicone/Coco background. After the silicone/coco is dry, put some new silicone on top, sculpt and feather it, then powder with red sand. Let it dry a little and sculpt in some details with fingers or a toothpick... 

Well, I'm liking it, but I'd love to hear critiques. If you think it looks like dookie, let me hear it. Next test is to see how well it holds up to running water...


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## c'est ma (Sep 11, 2004)

I think it looks very naturalistic and livens up the otherwise homogenous coco background. Nice!


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## Jay Why (Aug 27, 2005)

Re-did the background, this time pressing cork-bark panels in while the Great Stuff was still wet. When the GS cured, I used brown silicone and pressed ground sphagnum peat moss into it. I like that if you add plenty of silicone, after you add the peat, you can still kind of sculpt it with your fingers to form veins or root looking structures. Nice for a little extra detail.

I've also made some `huts` from GS. I need some hiding space for whatever residents end up here, and I don't really care for coco huts - too unnatural, IMO, so I made my own.










I started by making some blobs of GS, letting them dry, then carving out little huts. I coated the inside with brown silicone and peat. I found the placement I liked in the tank, then decided I wanted to make them blend with the background by adding tree-trunk looking structures. I *was* going to just glue the huts to the background with the GS trunk structures, but changed my mind. I realized it would be more useful if I could remove the hut structures. With the huts in place, I figured the angle I wanted the trunk to connect with the background, and stuck a wood skewer into the hut to form a base for the trunk. Took the huts out and sprayed GS slowly, wrapping it around the skewer up from the base, to form a trunk. Let it dry, carved just a little, and they're ready to coat and will match great with the background. 

Still haven't decided what to coat the waterfall `rocks` with. I might give in and use silicone/peat, but I really want to find a black sand or tiny black rock - for contrast from the peat/wood looking background. From reference pics from the rain-forest, it seems all I see are black rock streams and waterfalls...


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## Jay Why (Aug 27, 2005)

*working on the waterfall*

Back to working on the tank after some time off. I'm working on the waterfall rocks which are carved from Great Stuff. I tried a couple options that I decided sucked. First I jumped into trying sanded tile grout to cover the rocks - but after doing more research on what to cover it with (to be frog safe since the sanded grout is too rough) I discovered that it really wouldn't withstand the constant wetness over time. Cross out that idea. I also tried putting silicone with a large grain black sand. The sand was too `glassy` and the grain size just didn't work. It looked like a sequined dress. 

I finally gave in to just black silicone. Its shiney, but most of this area will be wet anyways. (Note the flash in the pictures make the rocks look even more shiney than they actually are.)










Because of the small tank size, and that I need to have the waterfall `platforms` stick out so far, I need to do it in layers that progress outward. First layer, so I can get in and cover with silicone the crevices I wont be able to reach when the platforms are extending out more.










The brown silicone/peat up the middle helps break up the black rock and makes it look more natural, IMO. Added bonus is that dusting with the peat gets on surrounding black rocks and takes away shininess in some areas. Also, I started adding one of the extending platforms. Another layer or two like this and it will be out far enough.










Another view. I think its coming along well, and looks reasonably realistic. The black silicone on the great stuff is a bit of a pain because it doesn't want to stick very well. It'll stick if you lay it on thick, but then you lose the detail in the carved great stuff. So... what you see here is about an hours worth of work every night for the past 7-8 days. Put on a layer, let it dry, layer on some more, dry, etc. The layers can work for you though as some of the light great stuff showing through just slightly adds depth to the look of the rock. With a little finesse you could get a nice marble-ish look.

(Its really hard to see because it blends in with the background like I wanted it too, but in the bottom right corner of the waterfall you can see one of my coco-hut substitutes. Its a good hiding spot for the frogs, but it isn't actually connected in the tank in case I need to get to whoever is hiding in it.)

Finally - I've come to realize that with all the space the water area and waterfall is taking up I don't think this tank would be a good idea for a pair of azureus like I was thinking of getting for it. I think it'll be my tadpole/froglet tank since I'm not a real big fan of thumbnail frogs.


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## carlos (Nov 14, 2006)

*~~~~~~~~ Jay Why, awesome work ! 

I just had to respond to this post because it is so similar to the plan I had for my horizontal 10gallon.
check it out !










I had a 145gph pump in, plumbed into a tall and shallow vert container to slow the water down and a flat edge stone to help " sheer " the water off the main fall. I thought for sure it would "sheer the water " into the lower catch basis area that start the small stream so that no SPLASH would hit the front glass or surrounding area. HA ! I WAS SOOOOOOOOOOO WRONG !

I messed with tweaking the pump, the flow, the rock, elevating the "catch pool " so as to not get any sprinkles on the front glass.
NOTHING WORKED FOR ME 

I even placed a thin, clear piece of plastic on the spill rock for a perfect EDGE for the water to SHEER off of and into the catch basin below,...... greatly reduced splash but not enough.

I suppose in a larger tank with more room.. the slight spirinkles would not reach the front glass.

The pump was able to be toned down for reduced flow,.. but it actually did better at it's full throttle flow.

I gave up after 4 beers, 1.5 hours, and a slew of profanties. I even cracked the tank glass trying to get the pump out of my failed project !
OIhhhhhh ! FUNK Me !
So now it's a 10 gallon vert in progress.









best of luck on your project !
I hope your falls work great !*


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## carlos (Nov 14, 2006)

* ~~~~P.s.......... I remember first working on this project thinking 

"Wow ! I'm going to be the first one I've seen installing a small water feature in a 10 gallon "

After watching it eat up the land area, and the sprinkles on the front glass driving me batty,....... I suddenly firgured out why NO ONE HAS DONE A SMALL WATER FEATURE with VISIBLE waterfalls in a 10 gallon ! :roll: hahaha I was all about having those cascading sheets of waterfalls,... oh well  *


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## Jay Why (Aug 27, 2005)

Yeah - I'm very aware of how water features never work the way you plan! I've pretty much already assumed that splash on the front will look like crap. This started off as a project just because I had an empty tank and wanted to work on another viv. So if I have to scrap it - whatever! I'll take some good pics and then start on another! 

I don't know the gph of the pump I'm using though. Its one of the little Repti-flo 250's. With the tests I've done I know I'm not going to get a good waterfall `sheet`, but I'm going to see what I can do with what I have going so far. I'm real curious what the smallest size a waterfall you can have a sheet with. It seems like you need a pretty large volumn of water flowing pretty quick...

Nice vert you got started there - who knows, in a couple weeks I might be following you down the same road!


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## Jay Why (Aug 27, 2005)

Basically done. The picture isn't the best but you get the idea. There are even more plants than it looks like here - a number are set to grow up the back and for now are hidden by the broms. 

Yes, the waterfall does do a bit of splashing, and the substrate seems to be staying fairly wet. Could cause problems for some plants, but we'll see what thrives and takes over. I'm looking forward to seeing how things grow in. 

The dischidia ovata is crazy. The top inch literally moves around throughout the day. Curled one way for a while, then a few hours later corkscrewing another direction. I'm pretty sure when I turn my back this plant is flipping me the bird. I've never seen a plant move so much...


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## wax32 (May 9, 2006)

Wow, that turned out nice!


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## Jay Why (Aug 27, 2005)

Hey thank you. The picture doesn't really do it justice either!


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## Chanda W (Mar 18, 2007)

I was wondering if you can still access your pump from the top? Is the gatorade bottle still open at the top? Looks great!


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## the_noobinator (Jan 14, 2007)

that turned out pretty cool. why so deep?


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## Jay Why (Aug 27, 2005)

Yeah it's still open at the top - thats why I used the gatorade bottle, so I could fit my arm in there if needed. Wanted plenty of space in case I needed to replace the pump with something completely different.



the_noobinator said:


> that turned out pretty cool. why so deep?


Why not! Actually, I thought the tank might make a good grow-out tank. The water movement is a bit too much though, and the edges of the pond are too steep. I haven't seeded the tank with any feeders yet, and I'm thinking I might sell it to someone for cost so I can just start my next tank.


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