# 54gal Bowfront Build



## Tuckinrim8

I am putting together a 54 gallon Bowfront for my buddy and I figured why not do another build thread. A couple years ago I set this tank up for him as a reef and he finally decided to make the switch to frogs (who could blame him). We are not sure whats going in here yet but im thinking either a pair of tincs or a small group of terribs (ultimatly I think it will be the kids decision).

The tank:











Once I was sure the tank had been completely cleaned of any salt residue and all the coraline algea had been removed I began siliconing the back with a thin layer of black GE silicone. I use old business cards to spread the silicone out as smoothe as possible. I only ended up using a tube and a half for this step. 





































I used a couple washers, nut, screw, and a lid from a water bottle to make an area around the bulkead hole that would be clear of silicone.


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## Tuckinrim8

Ok fantasy fb is over for the day so I can continue my update..

Next I took a sheet of eggcrate and traced my shape for the false bottom with a permanent marker and cut it out with a pair of *****. 




















Once the basic shape was tested I made the riser portion of the false bottom. I cut pices that were 5 squares tall to run the length of the false bottom and zip tied them in place. For the front I cut the pieces a little longer to add more of a gradual slope for the pond up front.


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## Tuckinrim8

I used Grey window screen and zip tied it around the entire false bottom and then used a small bead of great stuff to keep everything in place and fill in the gaps between the false botttom and glass. I also used a little gs around all the seems of the eggcrate to make a little bit of a lip up front that will serve to hold some of the substrate back from the front pont section.


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## Tuckinrim8

This tank will have a water feature in it so I needed to make access for a pump as it will eventually need replacement. When i cut the false bottom out I left a section in the very back corner open which is where the pump will sit. The next step was to cut a piece of eggcrate that would run vertically up the back corner. I covered it in screen, zip tied, and gs'ed it into place. 



















I collected a bunch of manzanita the last time I went home and cut it up into smaller pieces that could be bleached and baked. I wanted to make a center stump with a slow trickle of water trunning down the center of the tank to a small front pond. After a few mock ups I decided this would be a good starting point..


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## Tuckinrim8

A few more pieces of wood and a small piece of screened eggcrate to create a shelf and cave on the left and another piece on the right to balance it out. I wanted to have a second level for more surface area and create some caves that will hide the coco huts a bit. 




























Oh I should add that between adding new pieces of wood I would carve a bit and gs a bit to begin to make everthing start to blend together.


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## Tuckinrim8

A little more wood, a little more foam, and a lotta more carving.. haha


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## drutt

Looking good...


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## RNKot

So far so good


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## dubvstudent

Looks good so far. I have thought about getting a bowfront alot but always stumble as to how to put a tight enough lid on it and light the thing. I can't wait to see how you tackle the issue.


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## SutorS

Can't wait to see how this looks. Making it look easy


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## SmackoftheGods

SutorS said:


> Can't wait to see how this looks. Making it look easy


Chris makes everything look easy


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## Tuckinrim8

Time for an update.. Sorry for dragging my feet with this one.

More foam and more carving.




















Next I needed to make the plumbing for the circulation fan the will force air to the front of the tank and keep the glass clear. First I had a piece of glass cut to fit the back corner of the viv and had them drill a 3 inch hold that will line up with the PVC Elbow. 

Here is the glass piece and my co pilot. She assists me on all my builds..










Glass in place










PVC Elbow (I know there is a term for the black stuff but I cant remember the name) before I trimmed it up a bit.










After trimming it up a bit to make it not stick so far out towards the front of the viv.










I used a pipe strainer to keep the frogs out and the air flowin'. I forgot to take a picture of the step where I placed screening on the inside of the strainer so that it would be ff proof.


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## Tuckinrim8

PVC in place and more foam and carving!










The vent for the fan is in place and somewhat carved!










Things are starting to take shape!


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## EPI

Looks good already...I like your co pilot


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## hydrophyte

This is looking great so far.

What a cute puppy!

Is there much distortion through that curved glass? I know that bowfront aquariums filled with water have an uneasy visual distortion and some people get nauseous looking at them. I have never noticed this looking at empty bowfront tanks so maybe a terrarium would not have this same problem(?).


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## Tuckinrim8

EPI said:


> Looks good already...I like your co pilot


Thank you! Ya she supervises every build and is quick to bark at me when I make mistakes.. 



hydrophyte said:


> This is looking great so far.
> 
> What a cute puppy!
> 
> Is there much distortion through that curved glass? I know that bowfront aquariums filled with water have an uneasy visual distortion and some people get nauseous looking at them. I have never noticed this looking at empty bowfront tanks so maybe a terrarium would not have this same problem(?).


Thank you!

I haven't noticed distortion on this viv and I don't recall noticing it when the tank was a reef either, I think the only time I have noticed distortion is on HUGE exhibits where the glass or acrylic is extremely thick or there is greater amount of curvature in the glass.


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## Tuckinrim8

Here I coated the entire surface of gs in brown silicone. You don't need to do this, but Im anal and hate to see an area of exposed gs once the viv is up and complete. I have a couple vivs where I've missed spots and it drives me crazy!


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## drutt

Looking good...


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## Froggyboy

Very nice ! Looking foreward to see the end result.


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## aurantiaca1

Wow nice! you do make everything look easy...


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## GRIMM

You consistently make some of the nicest and most detailed backgrounds out of anyone. Love the layout so far. Is that just a preliminary silicone layer before adding another one with peat or coco coating it? That is why I LOVE using black foam. Even if I somehow miss a spot, or just cant reach it, noticing it is almost impossible.

Also, I find myself trying to make out the terribilis tank from the reflections in the glass. You should post some full tank shots in your other build thread. Its been over a year since the last update!


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## SmackoftheGods

Chris, I thought you were making a move to spray painting the outside of vivs to hide the GS. What gives?


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## Tuckinrim8

GRIMM said:


> You consistently make some of the nicest and most detailed backgrounds out of anyone. Love the layout so far. Is that just a preliminary silicone layer before adding another one with peat or coco coating it? That is why I LOVE using black foam. Even if I somehow miss a spot, or just cant reach it, noticing it is almost impossible.
> 
> Also, I find myself trying to make out the terribilis tank from the reflections in the glass. You should post some full tank shots in your other build thread. Its been over a year since the last update!


Wow, that is quite the compliment! Thank you! Ya, the first layer is just to give everything one good coat before I go through and do the coco fiber. I would use the darker foam but the only place I have found it locally charges twice the amount as the regular yellow gs. I guess when you think about it, its probably cheaper and more time efficient to use the black foam so I may give it a whirl on the next one.. I have some pretty special frogs coming next month so I've got some building to do!

Pics of the terribilis tank on the way.. 




SmackoftheGods said:


> Chris, I thought you were making a move to spray painting the outside of vivs to hide the GS. What gives?


Jake, I have only painted the outside on a few, most of the vivs in my house are siliconed because they stand alone and you can see the sides. In your case, it was going on a wall so it didn't matter and I just used black primer.


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## Dizzle21

Hahaa cool someone else is doin a 54g corner also. crazy how my hardscape looks pretty similar with the manzanita and I did it before seeing your build. Im planning on goin the paludarium route. Looking good tho cant wait to see it done and planted!


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## Tuckinrim8

The next step was to apply a second layer of silicone and press in the coco fiber while it was still wet. I do this step in small sections so that I get even coverage and don't miss any spots.
I also added, pea pebbles up front and turface towards the back and down the water feature.


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## Tuckinrim8

Leaf litter..


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## Azurel

The background looks awesome man....Good work.


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## Pumilo

Chris, you have thoroughly blown my mind on this one. I do not have the "vision" that you obviously have. Now I've seen your other builds so I knew you could see something I could not, but I have to admit I couldn't see quite where this was going. Sorry, but those early posts looked like a big mess to me. Again, I knew you had a plan, but this is amazing. It was really neat to see the "mess" it started out as, and watch you mold it into this work or art!


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## ktewell

This is one of the most natural looking viv setups I've seen. It legitimately looks like it's just a section of forest or riverbank that was removed and encased in glass. Can't wait to see it planted but I like how patient and thorough you are.


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## frogparty

You are really making the most of all the space in that tank. I love it. What plants are you going to use, and what "special" frogs are going into it?


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## Tuckinrim8

Azurel said:


> The background looks awesome man....Good work.


Thank you!



Pumilo said:


> Chris, you have thoroughly blown my mind on this one. I do not have the "vision" that you obviously have. Now I've seen your other builds so I knew you could see something I could not, but I have to admit I couldn't see quite where this was going. Sorry, but those early posts looked like a big mess to me. Again, I knew you had a plan, but this is amazing. It was really neat to see the "mess" it started out as, and watch you mold it into this work or art!


Haha Doug, im not sure about a "vision" as I usually just start and see how things take shape! I'll be honest, there have been several builds in the past where I've pulled everything out and started over because I wasn't "feeling" it... Im glad you dig the outcome, im pretty pleased with it! Thank you for the awesome compliment!




ktewell said:


> This is one of the most natural looking viv setups I've seen. It legitimately looks like it's just a section of forest or riverbank that was removed and encased in glass. Can't wait to see it planted but I like how patient and thorough you are.


Thank you, Its a combination of being both patient and overwhelmingly swamped for the holidays! (probably a little more of the latter) Thank you for your nice comments!



frogparty said:


> You are really making the most of all the space in that tank. I love it. What plants are you going to use, and what "special" frogs are going into it?


This tank is for my buddy and his kids, I sent them a slew of pictures and his kids chose yellow galacts so thats what we went with. Yesterday we added a probable pair after putting the first round of clippings. We didn't get too crazy with plants, adding a few jewel orchids, vanilla orchids, broms, wandering jew, oak leaf creeping fig, some pilea, and a couple peperomia and begonia cuttings. I am stopping by again this afternoon and will snaps some updated pics! Im glad you like it!


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## diggenem

That's a nice background man. I envy your creativity. I cant wait to see how you plant it. What frogs are you planning to put in there?


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## clwatkins10

Very good job on the backgound! You did a great job incorporating the manzy into to the scape. Love it so far!


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## wasatchtrops

SmackoftheGods said:


> Chris makes everything look easy


I could not agree more. After watching you build several different vivs (so I could learn from a master), I have tried to emulate this style, but never duplicated. 

Anyways, hurry up and get this one wrapped up! I hear you have a column to build next...


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## stevenhman

Very nice! I agree with Doug - at first I had no idea where this was going... now it looks a helluva lot better!


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## eos

The tank is looking awesome.... whoever you're building that for is one lucky dude!


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## jhmreeves

This is a killer tank so far. I've always wondered what to do with the depth in my 54 bowfront. Now I've got an idea.


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## Grrrit

too damn cool! last night i torched some pvc and bent it up attemping to replicate some of your work on a previous build. i gs'd it up and carved it up this morning. wish me luck ahaha


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