# Azurel's 60g cube build



## Azurel (Aug 5, 2010)

This has been a project in the waiting since I got my frogs(Varadero imi).

OK here we go with some pics.......The overflow for the reef was removed this way the water will drain for the water feature down to the sump.
Here is a pic of the new bulk heads installed and water line for water feature









This pic is the false bottom cut and supports that were cut....









Here is a pic of the false bottom in tank. It is about 22 1/2" the front will have river rock pebbles to cover the false bottom. I will be able to see the water level and hide the ugly look of the false bottom. I just need to glue screen to hold back the pebbles.








Here is a pic of the cork bark tube that will be used whole, I plan to cut some of it like it had broken in the jungle. It will be filled with some GS and egg create to A. stop frogs from getting to the structure B. The egg create will be about halfway up the tube with a drainage pipe and filled with substrate and veins and plants filled in.









Here is a pic of the sides and back structure that will be GSed and I will also have it trimmed so Half the back and sides will be clay as well.. The back panel is on an angle this way I can create the look of changing elevation instead of having everything straight up and down.








Here is a picture of the cork tube in some what where it will be placed, I have a 3-3 1/2" egg create base that it will sit on and be GSed. This will push the cork tube almost to the top, but once cut and made to look broken down the cork tube will reveal plants and vines that will hang down.









The cork tube is about 12"+/- across and about 20" tall I had to gorilla glue the split in it so it is solid. It was a beautiful day today so most of the work was done outside now I am going to take it down to my basement for the rest of the work. This way I can work on it later tonight. I hope to have everything done tonight so that it can cure for the next few days in a warm basement as it is supposed to get real cold the next few nights.

The water feature will be on the left and spill into a small pond feature, the pond will actually be made out of 2 part epoxy with rocks pressed into it before it cures. Then I will drill small holes into it for it to drain into the false bottom. I know most people just cut the egg create and fill with rocks and pebbles. I wanted something done a little differant that would be level with the substrate and not just a hole cut into the false bottom.....The pond will be about 4" around or so it won't be a perfect circle, maybe more like a kidney bean shape.


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

*Re: Azurel\'s 60g cube build*

Great size tank to start out with, but what is up with all the egg crate on the sides?


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## Azurel (Aug 5, 2010)

*Re: Azurel\'s 60g cube build*



Julio said:


> Great size tank to start out with, but what is up with all the egg crate on the sides?


Most of it will be cut down and GS applied to it.....Most of the background and sides will be clay. Instead of adding a bunch of silicone to the glass I will only have to have the edges siliconed to hold the egg create and then the GS will go onto the rest of the egg create and give it something to hold on to and fill in....The outside of the tank I have black contact paper/plastic to hid the structure...


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

*Re: Azurel\\\'s 60g cube build*



Azurel said:


> Most of it will be cut down and GS applied to it.....Most of the background and sides will be clay. Instead of adding a bunch of silicone to the glass I will only have to have the edges siliconed to hold the egg create and then the GS will go onto the rest of the egg create and give it something to hold on to and fill in....The outside of the tank I have black contact paper/plastic to hid the structure...


Ok, but that can be applied with out the egg crate on just plain glass


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## Azurel (Aug 5, 2010)

*Re: Azurel\\\'s 60g cube build*

Yea I know, I just wanted a more solid structure to hold up the clay that will be applied above it....


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## fleshfrombone (Jun 15, 2008)

*Re: Azurel\'s 60g cube build*



julio said:


> great size tank to start out with, but what is up with all the egg crate on the sides?


get out of my head!!!!


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## Azurel (Aug 5, 2010)

*Re: Azurel\'s 60g cube build*

Got some GS sprayed today 3 of the 4 cans were junk.....Foam squirted out the black rubber neck instead of the tube. One can I let sit over night and tried it again today and it worked so 3 out of 4 are total junk and are duds.....Gonna take them back to see if they will exchange them. Once I get some more should have it done by tomorrow as far as first layer. Then I will get some clay going.......


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## Azurel (Aug 5, 2010)

Update went and traded the bad cans for good ones.....Got some GS sprayed last night and today.....Here is some pics.....

















Made some changes...To the cork tube.....Built a pedestal for it to raise it up a bit...

















Cut some out this way I can put a false bottom in it with some substrate for plants and vines....

Didn't like the cut on the cork tube so I made some more with a rotozip

















Got the GS sprayed on all sides still have some to do but ran out....


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## HunterB (Apr 28, 2009)

Good start so far  I love cube vivs


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## Azurel (Aug 5, 2010)

Viv is in place and planted the only things left is to hook up water fall and hook-up the Mistking system with the 4 head nozzel.

Here are some pics over the last 2 days......

Clay is done.....

















































Added some moss









Added substrate....The gap is where more stone has been placed....









Planted....


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## Hornet (Sep 29, 2010)

that looks great  How do you make the clay wall? I have heard it mentioned but found no info bout how to make one myself


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## Azurel (Aug 5, 2010)

Hornet said:


> that looks great  How do you make the clay wall? I have heard it mentioned but found no info bout how to make one myself


Thanks.....As far as clay goes
I bought a bag of Dr.Elsey's 100% natural kitty litter soaked it for about an hour in water about an inch over the litter surface. Then came back with a drill and mixing bit. The litter is pretty fine so it doesn't take long for it to hydrate. After about 10 min of mixing it turns pretty smooth, then I add coco fiber and Sphagnum cut up and mix again. Then applied that to the glass and Great Stuff it sticks realy good I applied it about 2" thick most of the way around....Really, really easy background to make and you can form it any way you want.....


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## Azurel (Aug 5, 2010)

I am going to add a vine or two that hangs across the center view from one side to the other.....I think it will add a nice little touch and give the frogs something else to climb across.....


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## Azurel (Aug 5, 2010)

I seeded it from multiple springtail cultures(3 varities) and added white and orange Isopods.......Here are some pics

OK so look I couldn't wait any longer....So I added the frogs the other day after I added about a billion springtails(3 varieties) even more then I seeded the first night. They hid for about 45min and were out and about the rest of the day, I saw them more the last few days then the 2-3 months I have had them. They were all over threw the waterfall up the glass checking out everything.....One of them has a fascination of getting on the misting nozzles....

























Here is a pic that shows the vines I added....Got a few more I might add way in the back...


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## Azurel (Aug 5, 2010)

UPDATE:


Here are some updated pics now that it has started to grow in....


































Thai Beauty Calidium(finally getting another colored leaf)









Full tank pics...

































Frog pics.....Really good at hiding(3 of the 5)


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## Okapi (Oct 12, 2007)

Its growing in very nicely!
Btw, what is this plant:


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## frogface (Feb 20, 2010)

Okapi said:


> Its growing in very nicely!
> Btw, what is this plant:


I agree! Looks great, and, what is that plant?!


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## Azurel (Aug 5, 2010)

Thanks for the compliments....For my first build I am quite happy with the outcome and the frogs seem to be happy as well.

That is called a Persian Sheild (Strobilanthes dyerianus).........The old leaves were scraggly and had very little purple, but under 6500k CFLs the new leaves are really shiny purple as you can see in the pics. I was told to get it to bush you pinch it back.....


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## Vagabond324 (Jan 13, 2011)

Really nice set up, thanks for explaining the clay set up, seems as though it might be a bit heavy, is it better to give it a foam base? I also like your misting system. I have been thinking of installing some onto my tanks but worry about having to much water, how do you collect the excess water, through the drains you show in your first pic? Also what kind of pump do you use to supply the misters? Thanks for sharing.


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## chesney (Jan 18, 2007)

What am awesome tank that turned out to be!


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## Azurel (Aug 5, 2010)

Vagabond324 said:


> Really nice set up, thanks for explaining the clay set up, seems as though it might be a bit heavy, is it better to give it a foam base? I also like your misting system. I have been thinking of installing some onto my tanks but worry about having to much water, how do you collect the excess water, through the drains you show in your first pic? Also what kind of pump do you use to supply the misters? Thanks for sharing.


Thanks Vagabond....

I think it would have been really heavy if I didn't do the foam on this size tank I went through about 1 1/2 bags of litter with the foam I am sure it would have been 3-4 without to get the look I wanted....My original plan was just the foam and silicone/coco fiber, but after looking at the clay backgrounds I wanted that....Yes the drain collects the water from misting and my water feature, into what is my sump(old reef tank). I got the misting system from Mistking.com so it is what ever pump they supply with the premium system.

The Mist King also comes with a seconds timer so you can set the time for misting down to a few seconds or minutes multiple times a day....So I realy don't have to mess with it now that I have it set-up and figured out how much I have to mist to keep the humidity at around 95%....Hope that helps..




chesney said:


> What am awesome tank that turned out to be!


Thank you Chesney.


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## AaronAcker (Aug 15, 2007)

Great tank! And great plants as well!


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## Saviorself (Jun 29, 2010)

I really love the cube vivs for some reason. Tank looks great!


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## Azurel (Aug 5, 2010)

Here is an updated pic after almost a year









The main man...


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## BethInAK (Jul 12, 2011)

this is really nice!! I missed the original - glad you posted the new pics so I could see it!


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## ConFuCiuZ (Jul 13, 2011)

Nice Tank!!!!


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## arielelf (May 23, 2007)

Looks like a jungle!! Nice job! Is the vine that is going across one of the original vines that you had placed? If so it has really bulked up!


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## Azurel (Aug 5, 2010)

Thanks.....I had to clean up some of the over growth....

That is a zoomed vine.....I had to remove the others since they didn't make it, I think the clay was to moist at the time I added them. But there are a few vining plants that are starting to get long enough for me to attach to the other side so there will be some live vines going across the valley.


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## Azurel (Aug 5, 2010)

Updated pics of the cube.....I have a 24w LED spotlight now as the main lighting source...










Here is a pic of it under the spot and a CFL that comes on for about 5hrs a day.









Breeding trio that live in there....So far this trio has produced about 30 tads/froglets









Picture of Momma and baby meeting.....Last week I found 2 froglets I didn't know were in there.


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## oneshot (Mar 5, 2010)

Damn you people with artistic talent......

Amazing tank and amazing frogs...


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## Azurel (Aug 5, 2010)

oneshot said:


> Damn you people with artistic talent......
> 
> Amazing tank and amazing frogs...


Thanks Oneshot.....Been a lot of trial and error over the last few months with plants but has grown in quite a bit....


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## Neontra (Aug 16, 2011)

Azurel said:


> Updated pics of the cube.....I have a 24w LED spotlight now as the main lighting source...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


WOW! AMAZING! How are those 2 lights doing for you? In my tank I only have 2 13w bulbs but feel like I need more but this reminded me how little light the forest floor/under story levels get......

I really thin k tanks with little lighting look the best


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## Azurel (Aug 5, 2010)

Thank Neo...

The spotlight has only been on the tank for a week so still to early to tell to be honest but I do think that it will be a great addition to lighting the viv. It just seems more natural to the eye at least to me.....I will keep this thread updated a bit more now that I have a really decent camera to use.

On a side note I think in the long run I might just end up replacing the T-8s I have on the frog rack and have a 15w or more of the 24w spot lights like one spot per tank.....They seem to be really built well and great quality the LED spotlights.


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## EverettC (Mar 9, 2004)

Very nice tank Azurel! I'm curious, can you post some closeups of your water feature? Do you have any construction pictures of it specifically?


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## Azurel (Aug 5, 2010)

I didn't get any pics of it infact I didn't take pics cause I wanted to wait till I knew it was going to work long term.....It only lasted about 4 months and has since cracked and the permastone that was used has since started falling off......I will someday fix it with a better more stable product....I can say that permastone is not Habacrete and needs to be sealed or forgotten all to gether.....Much better stuff out there to be used. Sorry.


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