# TheDragonfly's 29G Build



## TheDragonfly (Jun 12, 2012)

This will be my first vivarium, which will hopeful house my first dendrobates if all goes well.

I suppose I should introduce myself since this is my first post..

I am an all around nature enthusiast, but I usually appreciating things it in the wild. Ive never really tried keeping plants, so that will probably be most challenging. I had a green tree frog several years ago, but it was housed in mostly simple petco decor. After seeing a wild green tree frog in my backyard this summer I became nostalgic and wanted to do it again, and then like alice chasing a white rabbit, I fell into this amazing and bizarre world of dart frogs. Ive always been fascinated with them not knowing they were pet material! After seeing what people on this forum have done in terms of bringing zoo-like exhibits into their homes, I am just amazed! 

I do come from an artistic background so construction and plant choice and placement will probably be enjoyable for me. I tend to focus on aesthetics, but I always feel its best to do it right the first time, so I will always try to balanced form and function.

Because I am beginner to the hobby, I thought Id share my methods step-by-step, like a journal. This way I might help other newbies, and also get helpful feedback along the way from those more experienced. 

That being said, even at this point, some things are just "set in foam" so to speak….


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## TheDragonfly (Jun 12, 2012)

*Phase 1 of Construction - Egg-crate and Zip tie stitching *

I got a 29Gallon for free from a lady at work. It came with other things I cant use and a light I can use for a while. 
30Lx12Wx18H 


































I gathered 2 sheets of Eggcrate from Home Depot, in the lighting department. Approx $12 per sheet. 


























Cutting results in flying, sharp, plastic debris! 
I used tin snips to quickly cut out my shapes. 
I then used needle nose pliers to get any sharp prongs which remained. With a quick snap of the wrist, it will break of more smoothly. I finished up by quickly smoothing all the edges with a large metal file. 

Note: I will use a full solid box as my unit of measurement regarding eggcrate since it is easier.

The main top or base started as a 15x42 rectangle. I then removed a 7 x 11 rectangle from the front left, and back left corners. This will be for the water pool, and the pump access tower/waterfall. It now is shaped like a tetris piece. 

The front and rear side panels are 30 x 6. The left and right side panels are 8 x 6. To box in the front left corner you will need a 11x6 and a 7x6.
The rear pump access tower which will box in the rear corner is a 21x12* with a 3x11 cut out from the bottom. *not a mistake, I left 1 extra on the side for a reason youll see later. And the other piece is a 21x8.Then I cut a 3x7 from its bottom as well. This basically leaves a support at the outer corners, and allows access through to the the bottom of the false bottom for removal and entry of the aquarium heater. 

I then began constructing the pvc supports.

Gathered 10 1/2" PVC Couplers from Home Depot. 









Used a metal file to trim a cutout across one end of the support. I cut out triangle shapes approx 1/4" deep. I figured, this will allow water to flow out from the bottom to prevent it from getting trapped and remaining stagnant.









I then wanted to drill a small hole were the last number of the barcode is, on the sides of the pvc which is opposite to the bottom cutout. This hole will be used for zip-tying to the base. 









There was a divot in the center of each pvc from the injection molding process. I Uses this to start 1/4" holes through the center. I figured this will help water flow more evenly throughout and their wont be hot/cold water spots trapped in the pvc. 









Now I gathered a roll of Black Fiberglass Window Door Screen to cover the eggcrate, and 100 4" black zipties. This part is the hardest to explain every detail. I found it to be basically like sewing with zipties. It was very frustrating and time consuming which is why I didn't take as many pictures, sorry. Refer to later pictures of completed assembly. 

For the main piece, I covered it, and left 2 units extra around it so it can be folded under. Diagnal cuts from the corners will make a neat corner. Fold, zip tie in place 2 units from the outer edge. Just enough zips to hold the flaps around. 

For the side pieces, I basically wrapped both sides overlapping the cloth by 1 unit. The overlap should be 2 units from the bottom. leave 1 unit of extra screen on each side for folding over when connecting the side pieces. 

I sat the base on top on the pvc supports to begin assembling the sides of the structure around it. It sits 3 units high, or 3 units sunken in, if you prefer to think of it that way. Leaving 3 units of the sides extending above it.

if I decide later that I need to raise the waterlevel, Id need to put down a layer of clay hydroballs. So I wanted to be sure that I could hide that hydroball layer for aesthetics. Small black aquarium gravel will go all around the sides to the top of the eggcrate walls where it will meet the substrate. 










I started connecting the side pieces. I wrapped the extra flap around the corners, one on the inside one on the outside, and Ziptie at the corners, one on top and one on the bottom. The ziptie will go through the multiple layers, this made a very sturdy corner. Once all of the main side pieces are connected, Ziptie the base to the side pieces at the top of Unit 3. 

For the Pump Tower, i wrapped them horizontally, or so the overlap is going vertical. I did this to leave extra to fold over for the cutout area near the bottom. This will fold out and lay on top of the base piece. Zip tie it all together. Putting alot of zipties up the tall corner to strengthen it since it will likely have horizontal weigh distributed against it from the substrate and wood. 

I then attached the pvc supports the the bottom with zipties in a pattern that was practical and would evenly distribute weight. Zipties weren't long enough, I just doubled them to make them longer. Insert one through the top and into the pvc, then use another and zip the two zipties together inside the pvc until 1.5" can be trimed off, then insert into end out the other side and out through the top, then connect on top. 

blue tape line is the minimum waterline, and the top of the sides is the maximum.
































































Then I lined the bottom of the pvc supports, and along the bottom edge of the with GE I clear silicone and carefully lowered in into place, pushing it to he rear left corner, and resting books to put downward pressure, and left it to dry. After that I flipped it on its back, and lines the edges of access tower to the back glass with silicone. This wasnt, really neccesary, but I wanted to ensure it wouldn't loose its shape when the foam expanded against it. or that it wouldnt bend forward and encourage the foam to seperate from the back glass.


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## TheDragonfly (Jun 12, 2012)

*Phase 2 of Construction - Wood-scaping and Foam carving
*

I got 3 large pieces, and 1 small not pictured, of mopani root at a local aquarium store. Around $40 total. 

















I put them in a 5 gallon bucket filled with warm water and let them sit for an hour, then changed the dark tea-colored water, sit for another hour, changed again, repeated until water was clear, then I let them sit in water overnight just to be sure. Then I put in 5 caps of bleach and let them sit for 30 minutes, and then washed them off with clean water. Then I put them in the oven at 350 for 10 minutes to dry them off and kill any other germs.

Test fit in the aquarium. I layed out the wood against the background to for reference. This is the time to think about the overall design. 










Next I layed the tank one its back and placed my wood wear I wanted. 

I then purchased 5 cans of great stuff. Pond & Stone, I sprung for the more expensive stuff because it is black. It seemed worth it incase their was any showing after I covered it. 










I lifted my wood up, sprayed underneath, then placed my wood back in into the great stuff. I then filled the other voids. I used 3 cans to ensure good coverage, as I will be shaping by trimming out most of it, and I wanted to have enough to work with. I had never seen this stuff before, It did expand quite a bit more than I had expected. 

You'll notice, I got two different shades of grey and black. Dont ask me how this happened, one can just came out grey. i think it was an older can and I didn't shake it enough. I actually found this useful and added depth and natural variation. 


















The great stuff just looked too much like "the blob" to me, and I want to shape the terrain more myself. I used a small paring knife and exacto, and need nose pliers, to carve out into the foam. I tried to bring out the grey shapes, as rocks by making them more angular, and the black as dirt by making them more smooth shapes then picked at them with the pliers to give them a random appearance.

Overall I want it to look like a rocky river bank. I also carved out areas where I finally decided to use for my 3 main holes for planting. Im hoping they are not too close to the light . 










I sprayed the area around the holes for the pots to hold them in place, and around the top to hide their un-natural roundness. This would be fine, but I actually didn't like that the net pots were visible and the holes were unnaturally round. So I carefully carved them back out, leaving the void, and sprayed alittle bit around the edge to hide the roundness of the opening. I also wanted to considered drainage, so I made the bottoms angled towards the front so water wouldn't pool in the bottom and become stagnant.


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## TheDragonfly (Jun 12, 2012)

*Phase 3 of Construction - Plumbing and Water-slide design
*

the rear compartment alows me to freely insert, adjust temps, or remove my tank heater if necessary. I slide it under the false bottom towards the middle, but leave the adjustment knob within reach. 










Then I Insert and hooked up the pump, with a 1/2" hose and an angled fitting. I cut a hole in the foam where it would fit into and allow the water to flow downward with minimal splashing, and it wont be able to fall out of place. 


















The viv continued with a lot more spraying and sculpting and spraying and sculpting. OCD might have kicked in at this point. But the next thing I had to figure out was the water feature I wanted! 

My first thought was creating a nice big water-fall over front of the root, down to a rocky stream below on the ground level, and flow down to the left corner pool. 

I made an upper pool area above the root and tested it to see where the water wanted to go naturally, not really knowing how to control it yet. It just flowed over and spread out everywhere. Well I wasn't sure I wanted the whole backwall to be a drip-wall.

I probably could have made the original idea work, but I decided to changed my original "huge waterfall into a river" plan, considering the lose of valuable ground space, and the splashing of the central waterfall would create alot of noise.










I realized that was drawing my inspiration from an unrealistic scale, thats what you get for typing 'south american waterfall' into google images. I needed to think about how real water might behave in nature at this small scale. I remembered that after a nice heavy rain, I often see that runoff water will erode a windy little path down into a larger stream below. 

I looked again at my form, and saw a new path to follow along the rock. So I did some more spraying and carving, built up the front of the upper pool, and sort of raised it, completely burring that upper small piece of wood. There was a lot of testing till I started getting it to flow just right. The paper towel helped show where I think the water was going to go as I was building up the foam walls, and it kept them from over expanding and completely covering up the water path and having to carve it back out again. 

Because I moved the water pool up higher so to speak, I also found the opportunity to dig out another mounting hole right above the root, so now I have 4 holes for major background plants that should create a nice balance across the background. 










I learned that water can be ver tricky to control, and time consuming, which is why most avoid it. You've got to consider that if you have a straight line it will flow more slowly, spread out and flow over the next drop more randomly. If its a steep path it will flow fast and have a narrow stream. If your flowing too fast, you can make little "cups" which will fill and wait more water until it continues - creating more consistent flow. When turning a tight corner, you'll want a drop right before the turn, or else it would splash over a lot when it takes the corner. It also can flow upside-down, and downhill, because of surface tension. But If you want make it "drip", you've gotta force it to try to go upside-down and uphill, then gravity will make it drip.

After I got that much working I wanted to have it flow out over that root end I hadn't used yet. I also took a chunk out of the eggcrate on the backside of the pool area and did some more ziptie stiching, because I was going to be adding foam, and wanted to try to hide the squareness, and a more gradual slope for the frogs to escape, should the frogs realize they left their floaties at home. 



















So after more foam and sculpting and testing, its starting to look pretty great overall and the water feature works how id like it to. By making it a curvy line, and not a water "fall", but more of a water "slide", it has a very natural and subtle look. I like to think it would be a fun waterside. It'd be something like enter upper pool, quickly turn left while sliding down, quickly turn left, quick drop down, slowly go straight, slowly take wide left, quickly take a left and flow out onto root, and slide down to pool. Hehe




























And the root end also created a great little tunnel. Im thinking the frogs will appreciate the shady hiding spot. 


















I think I used 2 more cans of foam making all those changes since the initial spray.


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## hawks66 (Aug 7, 2012)

looking awesome. i hope that if/when i get my viv going it looks as cool! 

i didnt even know black GS existed! i will add that to my list. your rock carving looks nice as well.


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## ndame88 (Sep 24, 2010)

Looking good, interested to see how or if you cover the egg crate on the sides.


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## ndame88 (Sep 24, 2010)

hawks66 said:


> i didnt even know black GS existed! i will add that to my list. your rock carving looks nice as well.


The black GS Pond has some advantages, but it is almost double the price.


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## isoletes (Jan 4, 2012)

Looking good, I like the pump access.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

I love the rock carving you've done.


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## TheDragonfly (Jun 12, 2012)

*Phase 4 of Construction - Drylock and acrylic*

Using painting tape, I carefully taped along the top and the glass, near the edges of the foam, or anywhere I though I might drip, or touch with a brush when trying to get to the foam. Then covered up the wood as best as I could, using tons of small pieces was the easiest. 

Then lay the tank over, ontop of a sheet of plastic if your doing this indoors. 

The next thing to do was seal the foam with Drylock Masonry Sealant & Waterproofer. 










When you crack it open and stir it up good, it will be the color and consistency of a Wendy's Frosty. Mmmm latex smoothies.










I Scooped some into a little red plastic cup. Added black outdoor non-toxic acrylic paint, and stirred it in with a plastic spoon, until I got a dark gray mix. The acrylic will make the mix more watery, which is good for the first coat. Remember It would be very difficult to get a true black mix, since you are mixing white and black pigment. 










Using a combination of small and large cheap nylon brushes, dab it on evenly over all of the foam. I Let this dry for at least 5 hours. 









Next, in order to get a black color, you just have to but black over the dried gray. I mixed up a very small bit of black acrylic with alittle bit of water in another cup and brushed this onto the dried gray drylock. I Let this dry for 3 hours. 



















Then did the second coat with the dark-gray drylock like the first coat. The darker wash over the previous coat allowed me to see any spots I may have missed to ensure good two-coated drylock coverage. I let this dry for 5 hours. 

The next two steps only really needs to be done to the parts which will not be covered with eco-earth, and are going to take the appearance of rocks. 

I Mixed another cup of aprox. 1 part black acrylic 1 part light-brown acrylic, and 2 parts drylock until a lighter gray/beige was achieved. Using a thin fan brush you want to "drybrush" this final lighter coat. Dip your brush, then dab it on a paper towel, it soaks up any excess and just leaves alittle bit of paint. Lightly brush it on like your dusting furniture at a low-paying job, only getting it onto the main raised portions, but not getting fully into the nooks and crannies. The dark gray and lighter gray adds some contrast and makes the shapes look deeper than they are. Let this dry 5 hours. 










You can follow with a small mix of green/drylock to the tops of any portions which are rocks, or near any water areas, to give an algae/moss appearance and add some variation. I didnt want to over do the painting since Im planning on trying to get some live moss to grow anyways, so I didnt do this much. I let everything dry for 24 hours to ensure everything was dry.










*Phase 5 of Construction - ecoearth and woodglue, A sticky dirty mess!*

The next thing to do is to get some Titebond III - wood glue, and a bag of eco-earth or peat moss. 










Pour the titebond into a red cup, and mix in small handfuls of ecoearth and mix it up with a spoon. If its clumping up, you have too much dirt, just add more glue until it becomes like maple-syrup consistency. 










Fill another cup or bucket with eco earth and another small round brush. 










dap the glue mix onto the background in small areas, starting with any small crevices. 










take a big handful of ecoearth and throw it onto the glued areas. Press it in with your gloved fingers, and use the brush to press it down into any deep crevices. Don't clean the excess out just yet. Do several spots around the tank until you have mounds of dirt, well, everywhere. Then Let that dry for an hour. 










Come back with a vacuum and suck up anything that hasn't stuck by now. This should reveal fresh areas that need to be glued and covered in dirt. Continue this process until you have everything covered. 



















Remove the blue tape, and do the ecoearth process very carefully around the wood. Leave everything to dry at least 48 hours before adding any water or humidity or the glue wont dry properly. Do a final vacuum of all extra dirt that has fallen off.










Then fill with water and test your water feature. I found a spot wear water collects and drips over the edge of a rock caused by the change in thickness of the drylock. It runs down and causes a small drip from the rock under the tunnel. I kind of like it, but I could go back with foam and drylock if it became a problem. Drylock is still easy to cut through with a razor, so technically, everything is still fixable if you find that your water feature was a leaking disaster. 

I think Ill call this tank, "Dripping Rock". Here is a quick video of the water test. Click Here for Video. 


Spray the background with some water to remove any excess dirt/glue vapor. Then empty out all this water as It will be filled with the very fine dirt particles. I dont want to start with dirty water right off the bat.


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## TheDragonfly (Jun 12, 2012)

Thanks Y'all. 



ndame88 said:


> Looking good, interested to see how or if you cover the egg crate on the sides.


It will be hidden behind aquarium gravel. You'll see later if you cant visualize it. The question is, should I use more natural looking tan-colored gravel, which will give it that layers-of-the-earth kind-of-look, because it will contrast with the dark brown ABG mix substrate on top of it? Or should I use all black, which will be more subtle and blend into the dirt from a distance, but maybe seem more fake? Opinions? 



ndame88 said:


> The black GS Pond has some advantages, but it is almost double the price.


When I realized Id be covering it all in drylock, which was also expensive. I realized I should have bought the cheap yellow stuff. But It is nice to not have to worry about yellow edges showing through anywhere over time or anything like that. 



isoletes said:


> Looking good, I like the pump access.


It seemed quite important to me to be able to change pumps, heaters, hoses, have a place to put a big siphon hose, add or test water without disturbing the terrain, etc. I forgot to mention I actually made an earlier eggcrate construction with a much smaller pump access, basically it had a 3" expandable drainage tube, thinking I was all clever, until I got the pump and heater and realized that you cant easily put square pegs down round holes - duh. I didnt want to permanently install them under the construction, and got my arm stuck once, so I scrapped it all and started over. That why I came out alittle scatterbrained with my wood placement and water feature - because I very quickly had to change from an earlier design I had envisioned. 



Pumilo said:


> I love the rock carving you've done.


I kept seeing flat temple-wall-like stacked rocks in backgrounds, so i wanted to go for a more naturally mixed in look. I hope it looks good when its all grown in, Im really hoping to get some moss growing onto of some of the rocks for effect.


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## Dendrobati (Jul 27, 2012)

Very nice job! I love the background!


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## ndame88 (Sep 24, 2010)

Looking Great!!


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## TheDragonfly (Jun 12, 2012)

*Update: Phase 5 of construction: more glue and ABG mix this time*

After getting my ABG mix, i really liked its dark color, better then the redish brown ecoearth I used for the background. So I decided to add abg on top. Haha This may have been counter intuitive, but thats just how I do things. 

The abg mix has alot of large chunks of charcoal, bark, spaghm, so I stole a colander from the kitchen and sifted through small handfulls of abg mix, until i collected about a quart of just the smaller refined particles.



















Next i prepared the background by scrubbing at it with the vacuum brush tool quick forcefully, to get any semi-loose stuff off and vacumed it up. I was surprised how little actually off, mostly the big hairs, but the fine particles held on good, and did not create any bald spots. titebond method works good. 

Following the same procedure as before, I mixed it in with some woodglue, spread it on, and sprinkled more abg ontop and pressed it in and let it dry. I do like that I used two colors, becuase I could see any spots Id missed, ensuring a good second coat. 

you can see the difference in the abg and the eco earth here, left the light off for less distorted colors. 









I think the abg mix on top looks alot better because of the overall darker appearance, the variance in color from little bits of sphagmn. It will definetely blend in better with the ground plane once its filled in.


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