# 40g breeder w/ river journal



## MELLOWROO421 (Feb 21, 2007)

I thought I would post a construction journal of a 40 breeder tank I built last year. Not sure why I never posted this, but here it is now. Maybe some of the newer people in the hobby can learn from this, and even better improve upon it as they build their own.
Step one was simply to clean the tank and anything going into it, then place a nice piece of mopani wood in a corner to block it off. This will be the pond.








This is a protective shield I use around my pumps. It's a simple butter tub with holes drilled covered with fiberglass window screen siliconed to the inside.








Drill a hole in the lid, place the pump inside with a tube for the river sticking out of the top.








Place the pump in the tank under where you want your water to flow from.








Fill up to just under the top of the wood and to the top of the butter tub with LECA.








Cover leca with fiberglass screen to separate the soil layer from the drainage layer.








Next is how I built my river. This is a block of florist foam. I kept a cube at one end so I could make a hole for the pumps tube and shape later. I then shaped it to fit my tank and began to dig out the stream bed.

















Next I coated it in silicone. I filled it with tiny pebbles from the local lowes garden section and pressed them in. Then I poured it full of sand and pressed it in as well. This both filled any ugly gaps as well as sealed the foam better. It looks really good too!


























This is an idea of what it looked like done, only with the river made out of GS. (My original one I forgot to take pics with, but both the florist foam and the GS work well for me)








Next I placed it in the tank and ran the water hose from the submerged pump through it.

















Next I added the dirt (I use a mixture of coco fiber, peat moss, coco chips, charcoal and sand) and some plants.








This is how it finished. Hope you like (for those of you who have not seen it before)


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## MonkeyFrogMan28 (Feb 3, 2009)

AWESOME!!! That would be awesome for some marbled or emperor newts also.


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## MELLOWROO421 (Feb 21, 2007)

MonkeyFrogMan28 said:


> AWESOME!!! That would be awesome for some marbled or emperor newts also.


Thanks, the bicolors in there now seem to really enjoy it. The only thing I regret was not leaving an easy access to the pump, which is still working fine over a year later but you never know when they are gonna quit on ya. My choice of plants could have been better too, those rabbits foot ferns don't like to be that wet. They have since been replaced or overgrown by other plants. They sure looked good to start!


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## toxicfrogaddiction (Apr 18, 2009)

what did you use to section the water off into that little pond on the right??


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## Jellyman (Mar 6, 2006)

MELLOWROO421 said:


> Thanks, the bicolors in there now seem to really enjoy it. The only thing I regret was not leaving an easy access to the pump, which is still working fine over a year later but you never know when they are gonna quit on ya. My choice of plants could have been better too, those rabbits foot ferns don't like to be that wet. They have since been replaced or overgrown by other plants. They sure looked good to start!


Those ferns looked really nice. Maybe they could be in their own moss covered container so they stay more dry??


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## MonkeyFrogMan28 (Feb 3, 2009)

If that fern would spread all along the back of the tank to the left, it would look like a real jungle. Since I keep alot of newt species, this tank inspires me to try something like this.


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## Dane (Aug 19, 2004)

Very cool Brian. The final placement/composition is great.


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## ray1taylor (Nov 15, 2008)

Wow that looks awesome! I love that fern u hav in there.


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## elkinsda957 (Jul 12, 2009)

Real awesome tank setup. Great job!


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## hpglow (Jun 8, 2009)

That is awsome. I will definatly have to put down the florists foam down in my list of materials to try.


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## dartboi101 (May 14, 2008)

AWESOMEE!!! lol. I really like the ferns! Great Job!


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## Jellyman (Mar 6, 2006)

I just wanted to say I tried your method and it seems to have worked great. It is still curing. I cannot wait until I see the first flow of water. Thanks for posting pics.


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## jig1 (Sep 7, 2008)

very nice i like the butter tub idea


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## weta (Mar 2, 2008)

very nice
I especially like the wood that makes the pool


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## pet-teez (Oct 3, 2007)

Thanks for the build info! This is still one of my favorite tanks on here 
Also, that river did turn out pretty cool, I didn't realize it was florist foam


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## carbonetc (Oct 13, 2008)

I think I may try a river on my next go-around. Thanks for the tip on the florist foam.

Though it's probably too late now, I would have recommended making the river more sunken (maybe you can build up the substrate around it). If the river looks more like a groove in the earth than a water-slide the effect is a lot more striking, I think.


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## wickerstone (Jan 19, 2009)

the rabbit foot fern really looks nice in this tank. Great job!


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## Tran2la (Nov 6, 2009)

Really nice setup.


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## pygmypiranha (Jan 1, 2009)

Nicely done. Came out really well!


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## fleshfrombone (Jun 15, 2008)

I did the same thing with the butter dish for a pump housing, the only difference is I used weed blocker instead of mesh. I used weed blocker to separate the leca from the substrate as well. You can see a pic of my build here new tank picture by flesh-from-bone - Photobucket and here update picture by flesh-from-bone - Photobucket. Second pic is an update. That river is amazing, I wish I had done that instead of let the water drip off the ghostwood on the left.


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## happy dart (Nov 22, 2009)

Amazing job on the layout and planting!


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## johnc (Oct 9, 2009)

Very nice - thank you. I have a question though - what did you use for a lid on the terrarium?


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