# 10/24/05 29 gallon simple paludarium construction thing..



## MattySF (May 25, 2005)

See page2 for update.. 10-20-05
.My space is limited so I'm making things for other people to enjoy. This way I can have the joys of building for the hobby while spending someone elses money. It's going to be a simple set up. Here's the guts.


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## devin mac (Oct 4, 2004)

interesting. you have any sketches of what you're designing this to end up like?


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## MattySF (May 25, 2005)

Yes Devin, I've had several sketches so far and It looks like since I now have wood rock and plants both on hand and in mind. It's time for another revision of the plans. Now that I finally have all of the hard scape I should have a better Idea of the final design. The outer tube will be consealed in great stuff (thanks to Bob Zarry's lost viv for inspiration on this method) and partitions of cork tubes are going to conceal the water fall. The Idea will be water falling from under a log. This is my fist waterfall and I'm hoping to avoid the soggy background. That seems to accompany some of the lace rock set up. That why I went acrylic. We don't have a homedepot in San Francisco, but thank heavens we have got a Tap plastics.


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## MattySF (May 25, 2005)

*update*

Update 10-03-05

Supposed black pond foam (looks grey to me), great stuff, baskets, cork and cypress.










Black GE II silicone over grey foam and great stuff.










A few more baskets later that night and some additional great stuff










View from above.


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## MattySF (May 25, 2005)

*10-06-05*

Making mud! Trimmed great stuff. Then brushed brown GE II silicone over the previous black coat.

right











upper right waterfall area 










middle










left


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## Cory (Jan 18, 2005)

Why did you put two coats of silicon? One black and then Brown on top.


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## MattySF (May 25, 2005)

Well Cory,
I guess in my mind I seem to think that the two different colors add more depth and detail to the foam. Also I think that using the two diffent types of colors over the pond foam makes it look more like Mud. Any thoughts on that yourself?


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## Darren Meyer (May 22, 2004)

Hey just my 2 cents here , but silicone in 2 coats is a bad idea . As one layer cures the other layer dosen't have a propper bond to the other coat (it's not made to do that) you could run into a problem over time w/ the 2 layers pealing from eachother with the added moisture . 
But it looks cool so far! Good luck .
Happy frogging ,
Darren Meyer


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## MattySF (May 25, 2005)

Darren,
Thank you for the two cents. Now that you say that, I think of the times I heard about stripping old silicone before adding new. I guess in future projects if i want to duplicate this look I could could combined the two colors in one coat ( kind of like marbeling if that makes sense). This is only my third project so I definately am still learning as I go. I'll have to see if any brown comes off down the road. Now I can't claim it's a suprise if it does. Thanks for the complement thou. I'm pleased with the effect it had.


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## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Daren,

Have you actually seen silicone peal when applied one layer on top of another clean layer? I frequently cut sections out of the bottom silicone bead on aquariums in order to add glass dividers and such. I then add more silicone. I have never seen this peal or cause a leak (knocking on Wood). You would think that if the silicone didn’t bond with the original bead, there would be seepage where the old bead meet the new one.


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## MattySF (May 25, 2005)

Ah a ray of hope.
Thanks Chris.


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## Darren Meyer (May 22, 2004)

Chris , yes I have seen silicone peal away from overlaying on top of cured silicone . You must have been lucky so far. As a general rule I don't apply silicone over other silicone , probally just a matter of time until you run into problems down the road . If not count your blessings :wink: 
Happy frogging .
Darren Meyer


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## MattySF (May 25, 2005)

Progress update.

Silicone & cocos fiber.












Water fall Face










plumbing cover


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## Guest (Oct 13, 2005)

its looking great, can't wait to see the final outcome. 

I wish there were viv building classes, lol.


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## MattySF (May 25, 2005)

*plants stage 1*

Thanks, Khamul.

Here is the plants stage 1. 

Upper plants only are in place. I'm just storing the lower plants for now.


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## andersonii85 (Feb 8, 2004)

looks good! Keep us posted.

-J


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## Guest (Oct 21, 2005)

Looks great...keep us posted  

Good Luck,

Dartguy15


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## MattySF (May 25, 2005)

*mostly planted stage 2*

This is the second stage of planting the tank is now cycling 8 gallons of water. 










Waterfall










above waterfall










left top










right top










last pic before tank was picked up by it's owner


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## MattySF (May 25, 2005)

bump 
New pics.


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## Guest (Oct 25, 2005)

Thats real nice. How did you arrange the rocks on the water fall? I want to do something similar but in a way that the water doesnt spill or seep over to the land and soak it.


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## MattySF (May 25, 2005)

Thanks Khamul. The frame of the water fall is a portion of acrylic I bought at Tapplatics. It's kind of 3/4 of a box. The water flows straight down a little trickles along the background below the fall which is all foam and silicone. None seems to be seeping on the sides. I will check again tonight. All the rocks in the waterfall container itself are loose to be stacked and arrange as please to change the flow of the water.


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## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

Looks good, so how does the great stuff look in person. From the pictures it looks good. All you covered it with is silicone?


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## MattySF (May 25, 2005)

Thanks Kyle. Most of the foam in the wet areas is the Handi foam black ( looks grey to me foam). It's covered (mostly) with brown and black silicone. My take on mud. Looks good in person and it doesn't matter that it's shinny. It's a wet area. The great stuff has got the good ole brown silicone with cocos fiber pressed on top. This looks good too. Kind of standard like every one elses.


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