# 40 Gal Stretch Hex Construction Journal



## nawth21 (Apr 17, 2008)

I've had this tank sitting around foooorever and I finally got around to starting it. I'm planning on a group of Imis but we'll see. I have chronic blurry-itis when it comes to picture taking so bear with me 

False bottom, I don't bother to hide it, i just drape the black weed block down in front.









These were a little too tall for me, so I used shorter ones









The beginnings of the pond. You can see the eggcrare on the back wall, I do all of my stuff outside the tank so I'll be foaming + concrete binding that soon. The next panels will be half covered with tree fern panel.









I'll be foaming in the shoreline









Another angle. Nothings been glued down yet so its a PITA working with eggcrate sliding all over lol.









Dang blurry pictures. Need a tripod. Heres some wood.









Willow branches, probably will rot fast but I'm foaming it into the background near the ventilation (where i usually put my tillys) so we'll see. I found it at Pier One









Just a little bit of the mess. It's considerably worse now. Its a good thing we don't have a kitchen table hehe









I also got the lights in today, 130W CFL Aqualight. I'll continue to update regularly


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## denfrogs (Dec 10, 2007)

that tank is a great shape and size , love it !


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## jausi (May 14, 2008)

Wow!!!

looks good any updates from your viv??


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## LittleDip (May 20, 2007)

Very curious to see some updates as well. I love the style of the tank


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## allyn (Oct 6, 2008)

oh god cutting egg crate is such a pain. freaking plastic shrapnel fly evrywhere, specially ur eyes. its like there little plastic chunk eye seeking homing missles!



oh and ur tank is looking good.


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## nawth21 (Apr 17, 2008)

yeah my hand gets pretty sore

Well here is where I am at as of tonight. The pvc pipes are glued down, the lower level glued in place and the barrier dealies are up. I'm still going to line it in weed block but that'll be part of the next stage. I wont be working on the background till the tree fern panels are here which should be tomorrow or so.


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## zBrinks (Jul 16, 2006)

Now that's a serious false bottom!

Tank from the Petco dollar-a-gallon sale?


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## nawth21 (Apr 17, 2008)

zBrinks said:


> Now that's a serious false bottom!
> 
> Tank from the Petco dollar-a-gallon sale?


yessir. I got this one, the 30 gal cube and a 42 gal hex (all oceanic). not too long ago i snagged the stand for the 30 gal for like 40 some $. Havent been that lucky with this one, think ill have to go to menards and get a shelf


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## nawth21 (Apr 17, 2008)

Allright, finally got the rest of the supplies delivered.
panels








hmm no shears, so used a steak knife lol. 








the aftermath. I chopped it up further and I'm going to use the leftover loose stuff in the background mix.








layout for background wood








rough idea for wood placement








foamed waters edge








foamed background. this was immediately after, its puffing up more









in the meantime I have to finish off the weed cloth divider layer.


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## morselchip (Jul 17, 2008)

Love the looks so far! I'm excited to see how the water area turns out- I never thought to angle the false bottom like that. How is that going to work with the substrate? Is there going to be air space under some of the bottom, or wet substrate around the edges?


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## PacMan (Oct 9, 2008)

looks good man. It was good idea to put your backround on the eggcrate stuff, that what i did. if you ever have to remove it you can. Looking aweomse man. keep us posted!


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## nawth21 (Apr 17, 2008)

it never showed up in the pics, but i marked the water line on the front of the glass. It is just below the lowest part of the eggcrate - this is going to be my transitional area as it may be a bit damper than the higher elevations so itll be anubias, ect but I'm not too concerned with extreme saturation.

I do all of my backgrounds outside of the tanks, it's so much easier with the concrete binder method since it lays flat the entire time I work on it. 

I can't claim the angled eggcrate as my own idea LOL I suck at water edges. I came across the idea in a build journal and it was like AHA! duh hehe.


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

those tanks are awsome i wish i could get a few of those, I love the oceanic tanks!!


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## morselchip (Jul 17, 2008)

Looks like it's shaping up to be great- I can't argue with taking your favorite ideas and using them to make an amazing viv! I'm doing my background outside of the tank for my next build too- it's a much cleaner/easier proposition. Very excited to see your tank put together!


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## pilo0024 (Aug 22, 2006)

post more post more. Really fun post keep it up.


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## nawth21 (Apr 17, 2008)

Ok, heres the background covered. I had just finished touchups on the background - hence the lighter spots. Later on I'll silicone it in the tank, along with the tree fern panels and then i'll work on filling in the edges where the 2 meet.


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## Derek Benson (Feb 19, 2004)

Looks good, but I would scratch the thin branches. I got some at hobby lobby to use in quarintine tanks and even misiting once every 2 days, they will turn black and melt pretty much.


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## nawth21 (Apr 17, 2008)

i figured as much, nothing is going in here for till spring so ill yank em when they start to go


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## S2H5287 (Sep 7, 2006)

looks good so far and like the idea of a background on the crate. I'll def. have to use that idea later.


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## nawth21 (Apr 17, 2008)

Here it is, finally on the shelf and with the broms in place. The 2 in front are just there, not quite sure what I'm going to do with them lol and i'll be splitting up the creeping fig when the rest of the plants get here on friday. I wont be filling in the pond any time soon since it turns out we're moving in the next few months. woohoo.


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## pilo0024 (Aug 22, 2006)

that's gonna be sweeeet. so nothing's goin in till Spring?
do you have a pic of the hood that you could post or pm me?


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## nawth21 (Apr 17, 2008)

Nope, it's already going to be a big pita to move lol and its already going to be snowing this weekend so the cold temps are here to stay. - duh i just saw, you're in duluth so you know how it is 

Sure, but i don't have a hood. It's just a 130 watt coralife aqualight fixture set on some books haha

And my plants are arriving today wahoo, so I'll probably have some planted pics up pretty soon.


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

came out very nice!! what kind of lighting are you using on the tank?


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## nawth21 (Apr 17, 2008)

It's a 24" 130 watt coralife aqualight with a 6700K bulb and a 10,000K bulb. It's the saltwater version, which I got for super cheap lol so I swapped out the actinic that originally came with it. The only downside is I can't use legs with it since the tank is an odd shape. I suspend my lights on the 30 gal during the summer, but this one is pretty heavy so I might fashion some supports. 

I have a 24" 65 watt 6700k one on my 30 gal cube that I've been happy with.


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

well you can always set it up with a hanging brackety coming off the wall


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## nawth21 (Apr 17, 2008)

ohh Good idea, thanks! I may have to do this in our new place since a lot of the places we're looking at have extra high ceilings. Kudos!


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## clwatkins10 (Nov 15, 2008)

Nice tank. I look forward to the growth


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## nawth21 (Apr 17, 2008)

OMG I can't believe how long it's been since I've started this beast. I neglected it a bit, as I had no inhabitants, so it's not looking as nice as it could. It's the best luck I've had with ground plants, surprisingly, but my poor broms kicked their respective buckets. 

I recently got some more clippings in, re-working some of the wood, and I'm going to hand pick my broms instead of doing a package - I think I'll be happier that way. It's a big tank so I need broader leafed broms. 

I'll be getting a group of Leucs to go in this one. The cam is MIA at the moment, so here are just a couple of quick iphone shots that don't show the new clippings or the rearrangements.


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

very nice!


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## Jason (Oct 14, 2004)

Cool. I have always liked the stretched hexes. Good job!


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## eos (Dec 6, 2008)

Nice! What's the ground cover? Is that moss?


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## nawth21 (Apr 17, 2008)

eos said:


> Nice! What's the ground cover? Is that moss?


Yep, out of control java moss lol I thinned it out a bit tonight. This is the first tank I've had luck with Selaginella (not 100% sure I spelled that correctly) just don't have a good photo of it so hopefully that'll spread out more. It took awhile to really get going. 

It's also time for new bulbs so I'm sure that'll help. 

I really want to start on a 36 gallon corner bowfront but I'd want to try the fake rock and fake tree look and we just don't have the space for that in the current apt.


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## slipperheads (Oct 17, 2007)

always love the variety of plants people like you sprinkle over the tank. Great Work.


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## nawth21 (Apr 17, 2008)

A few more iPhone photos. No new broms yet, just the clippings.


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