# 29 gallon build log pic heavy



## J Teezy (Jan 25, 2012)

my current build


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## Giga (Mar 31, 2011)

Looks pretty cool, this your first viv?


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## goof901 (Jan 9, 2012)

your gonna epoxy the whole thing right?


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## J Teezy (Jan 25, 2012)

this is not my first viv, it's my second. My first one i made was a 10 gallon vertical conversion. Here's a picture of the 10 gallon, not current but close enough to what it looks like










I'm not going to epoxy it, i use several layers of grout which i then paint with acrylic paint. Sealer i use is Shields All and depending on if it's going to be constantly really wet i smear silicone on as the final sealer.


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## goof901 (Jan 9, 2012)

make sure it's entirely covered because styrofoam is a known endocrine disruptor


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## J Teezy (Jan 25, 2012)

yeah its completely covered due to 3-4 coats of grout i put on


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## J Teezy (Jan 25, 2012)

grinded out some foam in the pot areas and made the drain holes alot bigger. Applied the first layer of grout


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## J Teezy (Jan 25, 2012)

with about 4 layers of grout i think i'm done grouting. Waiting on my Shields All to arrive so i can seal the grout then paint it and seal it again.


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## J Teezy (Jan 25, 2012)

little video showing pot drainage and caves

29 Gallon Vivarium Rock Background - YouTube


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## J Teezy (Jan 25, 2012)

did a little thick grout work on the pot areas and then laid down a quick layer of black paint


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## J Teezy (Jan 25, 2012)

think i'm done with laying down the black so will be adding the grey tones next


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## J Teezy (Jan 25, 2012)

finished painting it

after the black coats comes the dark grey sponge application


















after that comes the light grey dry brush


























I may add some hints of green here and there for algae but i'm not sure yet


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## MX83Drifter (Feb 13, 2012)

very nice man, looks awesome. cant wait to see it done, I have a 29 gal fish tank Im thinking of converting.


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## J Teezy (Jan 25, 2012)

Thanks, but there's nothing much to it really. I'm not an artist at all. The techniques to apply the paint is what makes it look good (the pictures don't do it justice, looks totally different in person). Sponges and dry brush is what brings the rocks to life, and just go to town, the more perfect you try to make it the worse it will turn out. I just sit down and throw the paint on. Think it took me maybe 45 minutes if that to apply the dark grey then dry brush the light grey on and it was a wrap


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## B-NICE (Jul 15, 2011)

Great build I need to do some rocks....


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## MX83Drifter (Feb 13, 2012)

J Teezy said:


> Thanks, but there's nothing much to it really. I'm not an artist at all. The techniques to apply the paint is what makes it look good (the pictures don't do it justice, looks totally different in person). Sponges and dry brush is what brings the rocks to life, and just go to town, the more perfect you try to make it the worse it will turn out. I just sit down and throw the paint on. Think it took me maybe 45 minutes if that to apply the dark grey then dry brush the light grey on and it was a wrap


totally know what you mean, I used to do custom paint jobs at a hobby shop. seemed like when I just went for it they turned out better. but when I sat there and tried to get all perfect, it would turn out ugly. and you lay the colors the same way I have done in past projects, dark before light. either way man good job, hard work pays off. again I cant wait to see it done and grown in.


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## eos (Dec 6, 2008)

That's awesome... Nice work on the rock


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## J Teezy (Jan 25, 2012)

thanks. Just waiting on my sealer to get here so i can seal it. Then i still need to drill the drain hole in the tank, assemble the FB, get the glass top cut and drilled, then should be good to go for substrate and plants


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## SLiK JiM (Oct 10, 2011)

Glad I subscribed to this thread now as that has turned out awesome! The dry brushing/sponge painting has really bought it to life!

Good work!


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## J Teezy (Jan 25, 2012)

little different ligthing, almost matches the countertop lol










Again though, this looks way better in person, i'm really happy with how it turned out. It's heavy as hell but very sturdy


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## Niels D (Oct 18, 2011)

That's really beautiful. Very nice!


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## J Teezy (Jan 25, 2012)

Shields All came today, so i put down a coat on the top, sides, bottom, and front (can't do the back cause its laying on its back, but i'll get that later once the first coat sets up some). 

My impressions of the stuff:

I think i like it. It goes on very easy. I was using a stencil brush so that i could get down in the cracks and get the hard to reach spots (i'm going to use a spray bottle for the next couple applications). It's a liquid sealer almost as thin as water (it's pretty thin) and its milky white in color. When you apply it with a brush it goes on very easy. It seems to be cloudy in some spots when you put it on but once it dries it becomes clear. If you use it just try not to leave areas where its pooling up. Brush it out as best you can. It dries fairly quick. Says to the touch in 1 hour and can be recoated 3-4 hours later. Its recommended to use at least 2 coats by manufacturer for what they think you are using it for, but since this is going in a viv, i'll be probably doing 4 coats, just to make sure i get a couple layers every where.

Now, it does have a shine to it kind of like when you seal a background with silicone, makes your work appear to be wet. Some may not like this but i say since it's in a viv with a mister where stuff is usually wet majority of the time then this really isn't a big deal to me. Now a trick to combat the shine is to sprinkle colored sand on the final coat of sealer. I did this with my 10 gallon vert background where i used silicone as the sealer. The Shields All leaves kind of a slick finish, so if your animal needs some help in the traction department sand may not be a bad idea. I think i'm going to add some again on this project at the end but i'm going to do it in a different manner. Last time i sprinkled it on with my fingers. This time i'm going to throw the sand at the background to get a bigger spread of the grains as i just want to get a light bit of sand on it. I've seen my leucs feet sliding when trying to get up the glass when it was wet before so i'm going to help them out a bit with a tad bit of traction but not alot.

Now the bad thing about Shields All is the price. It's $25 a gallon, which for me isn't bad, especially since I know its going to be safe for my frogs. The bad part is that it's only sold from the manufacturer which is in Florida so that means you have to have it shipped. The $20 for standard group shipping makes this stuff $45 a gallon. The other thing is that i'm not even going to use close to 1/3 of a gallon most likely. 

so basically

Shields All = $25 a gallon
Shipping = $20
peace of mind knowing its safe for my frogs = Priceless.


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## J Teezy (Jan 25, 2012)

oh man Friday the 13th hit me. today i was loading up my car to take my stuff over to my place (i had been working on this at my parent's house because they have utility sink and other stuff that makes it more easy for me to clean up brushes and ****). So i stuck my background all my other supplies in my car, then about an hour or so later I had decided i was going to do another coat of Shields All so i went out to get the background out of the car. What i saw gave me a bad feeling in my stomach.

For some reason the areas where the Great Stuff was used had started to crack. Its almost as if the foam had decided to expand a little bit even though i did the foaming almost 2 weeks ago. I really i'm baffled on what happened as the cracking only happened in areas where the GS is. All the other styrofoam where there is no GS is perfectly fine. Now its about 65 degrees outside and probably a little bit warmer than that in my car where i had the background, but i find it hard to believe that a tiny bit of heat caused the GS to expand more (2 weeks after i applied), but who knows. So of the cracks are pretty extreme, and i'm very pissed off right now. So my ideas were either throw it away and forget about it or figure out some kind of solution. Well i really don't want to start over on this so I decided i'm going to try and see what i can do. I got out some black acrylic and my paintbrush and started trying to fill the cracks with paint so that the color of the foam isn't showing. It kind of messed up my paint job on the rocks but it doesn't look too bad. I hope the cracks don't get worse or i'll have to just toss this background which would really make me mad.

Here's some pictures of the cracks before i tried to fix them with paint























































I'm really bummed right now in fear that this background is done for, hopefully i can fix it. Man i'm pissed right now


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## Alegre323 (Sep 2, 2011)

I think it gives it a more "real" look.
paint them black and move on with the project.

it wouldnt be fun if it was easy lol


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## perry123 (Nov 28, 2011)

What is the type of foam you used to cover the pots.


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## J Teezy (Jan 25, 2012)

was Great Stuff spray foam. iwas able to fix the cracks with some paint for now as long as they dont crack more


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## Nismo95 (Jul 30, 2011)

how long did you let the GS cure before carving and painting with grout? looks like it continued to expand to me. Been there once before. But regardless. Love the work!


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## J Teezy (Jan 25, 2012)

at least a week till i started grouting it. It had to have something to do with a little extra heat, because it was fine when i put it in my car, then when i took it out like an hour or so later was when it all happened


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## jacobi (Dec 15, 2010)

My guess, some of the gases in the closed cell foam expanded. Like when an empty soda bottle expands if you crumple it and leave it in the sun.

Jake


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## J Teezy (Jan 25, 2012)

probably, hopefully its all gased out after that incident.


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## jacobi (Dec 15, 2010)

It may not even be gas from the foam, just air in the cells.

Jake


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## Shibumi (Feb 13, 2012)

Hey J, don't forget to throw another coat or or 2 of sealer after your touchup. Still looks great.


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## Nismo95 (Jul 30, 2011)

Agreed! it does look great! my girlfriend loves it lol


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## Shibumi (Feb 13, 2012)

I just came across this subject on another thread and thought of your build. They reference mortar, but it should be the same principle. Here's the quote......

"The mix should have the consistency of thick cake icing. The tradeoff to a thin mix is that water weakens concrete and increases shrinkage which 
leads to cracking as it cures."


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## J Teezy (Jan 25, 2012)

yeah i know how to mix it and all. Problem was most likely the heat from it sitting in my car for a bit. Its all fixed and coated more and pretty much ready to go. All i really need to do is get to the glass store to get my glass top and it will be ready to start planting


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## J Teezy (Jan 25, 2012)

Decided to resurrect this tank. I put it off to redo the background as I didn't like the way the rock wall background fit. It didn't leave enough floor space for my liking in a standard 29 gallon tank. May try and build my own tank for it this summer. With that being said I redid the background in GS style covered in cocofiber

It just needs to be finished off with the silicone cocofiber process










I will mostly be selling this tank once the background is done

If you can't tell there are several built in planter spots that will hold 2" net pots. Each planter spot has a hole through the bottom so that extra water drains out to keep roots rotting. Also there is a cave in the left corner and a couple of ledges built in


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