# 47 Gallon Column Background



## GRIMM (Jan 18, 2010)

Here is the custom background I made for my very first customer. It uses very similar build methods to my peninsula tank. Built in air duct, Malaysian driftwood, pvc piping, ropes, silicone hinged/beaded glass top, silicone/peatmoss finish, fluval stratum aquarium substrate, and a high draining orchid substrate for the land area. He took the tank home today and plans on planting it himself due to his background in the bonsai hobby. Hopefully he will add pictures to the thread once completed.

Here are some pictures. There is also a video on my youtube channel you want more info, and some "umms" and "ahhs" from me  Click the link in my signature to find it.


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

Very nice indeed! Lots of places to mount orchids in there. Needs some really oddball stuff to set it off in my opinion. It needs a few Racinaea crispa


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## GRIMM (Jan 18, 2010)

Fat chance of us ever finding those beauties up north. Its hard enough getting a few fireball hybrids, no joke. We can always dream of a problem free express shipment of plants sometime from the US though


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## Alegre323 (Sep 2, 2011)

Very nice tank. Cant wait to see it planted

Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk


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## Neontra (Aug 16, 2011)

Sexy  (10 characters)


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## inka4040 (Oct 14, 2010)

Damnit dude, you make me want to smash everything I've ever made.


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## GRIMM (Jan 18, 2010)

inka4040 said:


> Damnit dude, you make me want to smash everything I've ever made.


Hahaha best compliment ever!...But please dont 

Thanks buddy


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

great job as always 
It's so clean, smooth, and sexy 
I would really love you know how you made the silicone hinge


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## frogface (Feb 20, 2010)

DragonSpirit1185 said:


> great job as always
> It's so clean, smooth, and sexy
> I would really love you know how you made the silicone hinge


http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/parts-construction/57871-custom-silicone-hinged-glass-top.html


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## eos (Dec 6, 2008)

GRIMM! Fantastic work as always!


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## FIT BMX (Jun 10, 2011)

That's one NICE TANK!!! Best of all it looks really user friendly!

Here is another forum were you can show your skill to the world!!!
Riparium/Terrarium/Vivarium - The Planted Tank Forum

P.S. The Peninsula Looks better than ever, and the orchids look great!!!


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## aurantiaca1 (Dec 13, 2010)

Really nice tank! what kind of wood is that?


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## heatfreakk3 (Oct 15, 2008)

Great build Grimm. Tank looks amazing. That's one lucky customer


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## GRIMM (Jan 18, 2010)

Thanks guys.

Its actually just regular malaysian driftwood that you can find almost anywhere. I just made sure every piece was thin and matched eachother relatively well.

And yes I tried to make it user friendly. The only thing that may be difficult for the owner is the fact that he isnt a tall guy like myself. The reach to the bottom could be a pain. I didnt pick the tank out though, so the possible annoyance is on him


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## diggenem (Sep 2, 2011)

Another nice tank Grimm. Everytime I see your work I go back to the drawing board.


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## Lbacha (Sep 7, 2011)

Great tank, you have me rethinking my current build base on a couple of your concepts like the circulation, external fogger and silicone bead on the glass, thanks for the inspiration.

Len


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## lunaforge (Jul 27, 2011)

Hey Grimm, I see that there is an area for water. How do you have the plumbing set up for it? I didn't see any tubing coming up where the fans are. Thanks a ton and Damn it looks awesome!


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## hydrophyte (Jun 5, 2009)

That is really nice.

Is that the Marineland 47 Column can you get those up there? I am starting a project in a 37 Column, which I think has the same footprint. They both have a real nice shape.


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## GRIMM (Jan 18, 2010)

lunaforge said:


> Hey Grimm, I see that there is an area for water. How do you have the plumbing set up for it? I didn't see any tubing coming up where the fans are. Thanks a ton and Damn it looks awesome!


Thanks. No plumbing at all. It is just going to be a small pond for a tad deposite site. The tank is completely tempered, so drilling was not an option, and he didnt want an ugly syphon tube coming out the top.



hydrophyte said:


> That is really nice.
> 
> Is that the Marineland 47 Column can you get those up there? I am starting a project in a 37 Column, which I think has the same footprint. They both have a real nice shape.


Im not to sure what brand it was. Every piece was tempered though. I quite like the shape also. Gives a nice 270 degree verticle display tank. Lots of climbing area, and hidding areas under the roots. The next tank I'll be working on is a 24x24x30 tank, giving even more depth/width to work with. Should be a fun and original background design.


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## leuc11 (Nov 1, 2010)

I need to do this background method on my next viv because Im starting to not like clay one side of the tank gets to moist and the other to dry even though there is even misting. It looks good to great work


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## wimvanvelzen (Nov 1, 2008)

Must have missed the thread, until now that is. Great work!


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## Venutus1 (Feb 13, 2010)

GRIMM said:


> Here is the custom background I made for my very first customer. It uses very similar build methods to my peninsula tank. Built in air duct, Malaysian driftwood, pvc piping, ropes, silicone hinged/beaded glass top, silicone/peatmoss finish, fluval stratum aquarium substrate, and a high draining orchid substrate for the land area. He took the tank home today and plans on planting it himself due to his background in the bonsai hobby. Hopefully he will add pictures to the thread once completed.
> 
> Here are some pictures. There is also a video on my youtube channel you want more info, and some "umms" and "ahhs" from me  Click the link in my signature to find it.




I love this. It really captures the look of washed out exposed roots.

You da' man!!


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## hydrophyte (Jun 5, 2009)

GRIMM said:


>


I really like the way that those driftwood branches extend at that angle. I think I might try something buy more simple in the 37 Column that I am starting on. Now I sort of wish that I had gotten the 47 instead because it sure is nice and tall with lots of vertical room. 



hydrophyte said:


>


I have a big crate of manzanita pieces here. I think that I can just use a construction similar to what I did for this 30 with manzanita branches attached to a plastic sheet, but I would use several different pieces and oriented similar to the feature you made. This would provide lots of spaces for mounting plants and I could put a big nest of bromeliads and orchids up at the top to hide that piece of plastic. These two pieces of manzanita are angled slightly upward, but I can just as easily mount them to sweep downward and forward. 



hydrophyte said:


>


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## gardennub (Dec 10, 2011)

OMG, this is going to be amazing! Nice background!


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

gardennub said:


> OMG, this is going to be amazing! Nice background!


yeah I hope he gets pics when his buddy is done putting the finishing touches on the viv.
If his friend doesn't send him pics we may never see it finished 

Make sure he sends you pics Grimm


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## B-NICE (Jul 15, 2011)

I like the fact you stated in the video about the black foam dettaching from the glass. Im going to go silicone my glass from here on out. I really just want to use black foam by itself.


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## Bunsincunsin (Feb 11, 2008)

Grimm, do you have any photos of the hinge set-up you went with? Or possibly a link to a similar set-up?


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## rsain (Nov 5, 2011)

Bunsincunsin said:


> Grimm, do you have any photos of the hinge set-up you went with? Or possibly a link to a similar set-up?


I think this was already answered earlier in the thread - but here it is again.

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/parts-construction/57871-custom-silicone-hinged-glass-top.html

-ryan


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## Bunsincunsin (Feb 11, 2008)

Ah, I figured it was; guess I didn't look hard enough...

Thanks Ryan.


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## lunaforge (Jul 27, 2011)

How is your friend going to do water changes? Just pull out the old aquarium hose and siphon it out by hand?


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## Azriel (Jun 15, 2011)

Really nice job Grimm! 

I have a question though. Is there a pump or anything to circulate the water underneath the egg crate and in that shallow pond area? Or is it fine to have sitting water in there like that without circulation? I'm just curious because I thought you needed some sort of water circulation, but if you don't, then I might add a shallow pond to the corner of my vivarium too. I just don't want to mess with adding a water pump, etc...


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## leuc11 (Nov 1, 2010)

Azriel said:


> Really nice job Grimm!
> 
> I have a question though. Is there a pump or anything to circulate the water underneath the egg crate and in that shallow pond area? Or is it fine to have sitting water in there like that without circulation? I'm just curious because I thought you needed some sort of water circulation, but if you don't, then I might add a shallow pond to the corner of my vivarium too. I just don't want to mess with adding a water pump, etc...


you dont need a pump to circulate water in the false bottom plant roots will get down in the false bottom and take in the water and keep it clean


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## vraev (Feb 6, 2012)

Stunning Grim. I really love your fan tunnel Justin. I always had an idea for a tube to vent outside air into my tank, but this is waaay better...more modular and helps with automation.



GRIMM said:


> Here is the custom background I made for my very first customer. It uses very similar build methods to my peninsula tank. Built in air duct, Malaysian driftwood, pvc piping, ropes, silicone hinged/beaded glass top, silicone/peatmoss finish, fluval stratum aquarium substrate, and a high draining orchid substrate for the land area. He took the tank home today and plans on planting it himself due to his background in the bonsai hobby. Hopefully he will add pictures to the thread once completed.
> 
> Here are some pictures. There is also a video on my youtube channel you want more info, and some "umms" and "ahhs" from me  Click the link in my signature to find it.


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## NAKE (Feb 11, 2012)

Gorgeous, as always !
What do you use as substrate ?
Do you have pics of the construction ?


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

NAKE said:


> Gorgeous, as always !
> What do you use as substrate ?
> Do you have pics of the construction ?


I'm pretty sure he uses ABG mix
the build is kinda covered on his youtube I think jgrimmier's Channel - YouTube


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## RedEyeTroyFrog (Jan 25, 2008)

Any update on this one? Any pics from the customer after its been planted or in the progress of??


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## GRIMM (Jan 18, 2010)

NAKE said:


> Gorgeous, as always !
> What do you use as substrate ?
> Do you have pics of the construction ?


Sorry, no pic of the construction. I actually did take pics along the way but I accidentally deleted them when I cleared my memory card :S The substrate is a mixture of orchid bark, orchid charcoal, crunched up leaves, and some homemade clay substrate. It is surrounded with Fluval Stratum clay based aquarium substrate.



RedEyeTroyFrog said:


> Any update on this one? Any pics from the customer after its been planted or in the progress of??


Sorry I dont have any at the moment. The customer realised planting is harder then it looks, and isnt totally happy with it just yet. I talked to him this last weekend and he said all his plants are healthy at least. Apparently the family of tricolours are loving the tank though  Maybe I'll ask him for a few updated pics this week.


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## RedEyeTroyFrog (Jan 25, 2008)

cool thanks Justin


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## snake54320 (Dec 16, 2011)

Thats ok I saw the video. 
You use a very complicated substrate. Why ? Lots of propel get good results on peat.
I sended you a PM


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## asialk (Oct 29, 2009)

Awesome as always, love your work Grimm!


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## Lukiluk (May 24, 2010)

I read that to make the background, using a 50/50 mix of live and dry sphagnum.
but I have a silly question, as you mix it? and don't use anything else? xaxim, coconut ...?
thanks, have some awesome terrariums


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## Bunsincunsin (Feb 11, 2008)

Any updates from the owner?


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## GRIMM (Jan 18, 2010)

Lukiluk said:


> I read that to make the background, using a 50/50 mix of live and dry sphagnum.
> but I have a silly question, as you mix it? and don't use anything else? xaxim, coconut ...?
> thanks, have some awesome terrariums


Thanks. Im not sure what exactly you are asking. All I use is black silicone, and dry peat moss stuck to it. Even though the peat moss is dried in an oven, over time little bits of moss and small plants begin to grow from it. I even have some sort of amazing dwarf hairgrass growing from it in my other tank.



Bunsincunsin said:


> Any updates from the owner?


Soon. I texted him and he should be sending me some pics this week sometime. Hopefully it looks good. At the very least he says his Tricolours are still loving it.


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## snake54320 (Dec 16, 2011)

Hey Grimm,
Did you get my PM ?


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## GRIMM (Jan 18, 2010)

Got a couple pics. Due the the insanely blue lighting he is running, the true colours were very difficult to bring out in post processing. I'll have to get some pics next time I head over to his place, possibly with just white lights. Almost looks like a reef from a few of the other shots I got 










and a few members of the happy family...










Here is an unaltered shot with what I assume is full lighting, or night lighting. Not to sure. GLOW IN THE DARK PLANTS! lol


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## mcaiger53 (Jan 3, 2011)

looks like there is a black light over the tank? maybe there are "special" mushrooms growing in there. the glass on the left side looks like it came out of a CSI episode! haha
mike


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## dendrothusiast (Sep 16, 2010)

...make sure you tell him he's got some real beauty in there.


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