# 29g Build, Clay BG, Water Feature (Photos, Large post)



## Cloudfish (Dec 3, 2007)

Greetings all,

I thought I'd share my 2nd build. It's a 29 gallon tank with a clay background and water feature. Explanations/captions will be above the corresponding photos.

Having had aquariums for the vast majority of my life I'm a bit old school and still use Under Gravel Filters (UGF henceforth)--so I have incorporated that concept into both of my terrariums. As far as I can tell it has worked well in my 1st terrarium, the water staying clear and only really needing changing when it gets too high from periodic misting.

The UGF is simply a piece of egg crate that's had notches cut out of each side of each square to let water flow underneath it. Screen was then placed on top to hold the gravel that the water will flow through to filter. This photo is of the UGF portion, upside down so that you can see the notches.


UGF by Cloudwender's Other Stuff, on Flickr

Here it is connected to the rest of the false bottom, without the screening.


FalseBottom by Cloudwender's Other Stuff, on Flickr

And in the tank with screen. The open square in the back is where my access for the water pump will be.


FBintank by Cloudwender's Other Stuff, on Flickr

Next I covered the back portion of the "pond" with silicone....


FBSilicone by Cloudwender's Other Stuff, on Flickr

...and embedded gravel into it. I'd considered embedding larger rocks and whatnot--but it just didn't happen. Maybe next time... You can also now see the walls for the pump enclosure, screened part way up so that the substrate won't fall through it and into the underlying water.


SiliconeGravel by Cloudwender's Other Stuff, on Flickr

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The Clay.

This is my first clay background--and I read and read the various threads here about it. I really tried to follow the ratio's that have been working for others, but in the end it became approximations as you add a little bit of this and little bit of that....  The ratio turned out to be _about _70/30 kitty litter (Petsmart brand) to Red Art clay. I then mixed in coco fiber, sphagnum peat moss, and sphagnum. The ratio of clay to organic mix was approximately 75/25. 

I kind of wish I'd put in more organics into the clay mix because of the resulting color. I'd experimented a little with the mix prior to this build--and my "practice" ball of clay was a bit _too _brown, so I made a mental note to cut it back. In hindsight I cut it back too much--my only reason being aesthetics--I like a "browner" look. In the final photos further below I'll show how I remedied this.

So here's how the clay background turned out. You'll notice the larger piece of Mopani wood that I'm using as a "creek/waterfall." There's a tube that runs from the pump, through the clay, and is affixed to the piece of wood so that the flow doesn't touch the clay itself. My initial plan was to have the water flowing directly on the clay (I had all sorts of elaborate little plans for that  )--but until I have a bit more experience with clay backgrounds that will have to wait. (The difference in color in the next two photos is just due to different lighting.)


Tank by Cloudwender's Other Stuff, on Flickr

(This is a 5 photo panorama.)


TankPano5F by Cloudwender's Other Stuff, on Flickr

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Partial Grow In.

Here's the result after 3 or 4 weeks of growing in. The substrate is a coco fiber, sphagnum peat moss, sphagnum, forest bedding, and charcoal mix--along with some "chunks" of the experimental clay I mentioned earlier. Additionally, I took some of this substrate and manually embedded it into the clay background to help it look more "natural." I figure that whatever washes off with misting is fine and hopefully I'll get some of those magical mosses I've seen in other posts here.

Above the enclosure for the water pump was obviously a space. I sealed that off with two pieces of fern board, topped off with sphagnum. The glass top rests on and compresses this, sealing it off.

The lighting is a Zoomed dual fixture with 2 24W T5HO's (5000K and 6500K.)

The plants I will struggle with defining. Everyone here seems to know all the scientific names for them--and I don't even know where to start to learn those. The moss in the foreground is simply java moss from my fish tank---and another moss I found locally (there will be future questions from me on this.) Other than the Baby Tears in the foreground I'm not 100% certain as to the identification of the other plants. I know that the 2 large leaf plants will have to come out at some point--especially the "red veined" plant--it's grown 3 more new leaves in the 3 weeks or so that it's been in there. I do have some more broms ordered and on the way.

Anyway...here's where the tank is now....


3weeks2 by Cloudwender's Other Stuff, on Flickr


3Weeks3 by Cloudwender's Other Stuff, on Flickr


3Weeks by Cloudwender's Other Stuff, on Flickr

Thanks for looking!


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## Azurel (Aug 5, 2010)

Great looking tank......


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## shazzbott (Sep 17, 2010)

What do you plan on putting in this tank?


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## Cloudfish (Dec 3, 2007)

shazzbott said:


> What do you plan on putting in this tank?


I've not yet decided. I have 3 Azureus right now--a male and female, and the one offspring that I've managed to rear (sex unknown yet, who is in a temporary tank.) I've been leaning towards some Leuc's--but I'm open. I do know that if I have my druthers I'd like some that sing....


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## andyrawrs (Aug 16, 2008)

I believe the large, red-leaved plant is Maranta leuconera erythroneura or something like that...I might have gotten the subspecies wrong. I'm sure other people will try to identify the other plants if there are more detailed pics! That's a nice tank, I actually like the color that the clay turned out. If you don't like how it looks in the light, changing the color temp might affect that (but it might have an adverse effect on plant growth and other aesthetics) 

Just my 2 cents,
Andy


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