# 80 Gallon vivarium-waterfall, misting system, 260W PC lights



## Guest (Oct 18, 2004)

Hey everyone,

This tank has been setup since early June but I just recently got motivated to get it going. When I first set it up I had some problems with the waterfall and the misting system. I was afraid I was going to end up with yet another tank that didnt work. Anyway, I dont want to bore you with my problems and Ill get right to the point. 

Hopefully, if everything goes as planned, Ill have some new pics every month to show how its going. Right now it looks kind of bare beacuse many of the plants died when the misting system didnt have full coverage. 





































The waterfall is made of lacerock and mortar mix and is powered by a fluval 104 canister filter. The misting system is powered by a shurflow RV water pump bought for 40 bucks on ebay. It puts out 60 psi-plenty for several pro products wide angle misting nozzles (or any for that matter, those are just the ones I chose). 

The lighting is a JBJ power compact fixture that has 4 65 watt 6,500K bulbs. It is mounted with 4 custom made clips that allow it to slide back easily. 

The pond has a few live plants but I want to add more. I may even run a line from the Co2 tank which I use for my planted aquarium to help them grow faster.

Ill try to answer any questions you may have. Peace.

-David


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## Guest (Oct 18, 2004)

What kind of "mortar mix" ? (would like to know the brand name etc..)


-Tad


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## Ryan (Feb 18, 2004)

I just love that piece of wood in the left hand said!

Great viv, btw, thanks for the site on concrete primer!


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## Moe (Feb 15, 2004)

I followed your waterfall post on another fish forum; it is truly amazing. Do you think its possible to create a whole background with that mix? Too much load to carry?

M.N


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## bradadams (Jun 3, 2004)

I also like the wood on the left side. What type is it? It sort of looks like grapewood. If it is, I'm not sure how well it will hold up. Also what type of substrate are you using and are you using a false bottom?


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## Guest (Oct 18, 2004)

*mortar mix*

PLEASE tell us how you made that waterfall. it is amazing!


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## mbrutger (May 23, 2004)

Nice tank! Add more plants and it is sure to be absultely amazing! Love the wood and the waterfall. What type of tincs are those?


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## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

Nice tank, could you explain how you used the mortor?


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## bgexotics (Feb 24, 2004)

Won't lace rock drive up the pH of the water? I know when using it in fish tanks you had to be careful and only use it with species like African Cichlids that like a high pH. I would think that darts could be sensitive to a high pH just like South and Central American fish? I suppose you could buffer it or use black water extract to bring the pH down. Anyone else have any thought about the effect of water pH on darts?


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## Guest (Oct 19, 2004)

bgexotics: I tested the pH right after reading your post, and its at 7.6. Too high? I dont see it as a major concern as the frogs are rarely in the waterfall. I may get some blackwater extract if you think I should for the sake of the darts. 

About the waterfall 

First an intro---

I had siliconed a large piece of glass to the back of the tank, angled towards the front so its open at the top, and had planed on using it for the land section of a paludarium a long time ago. That idea fell thru, so Im on to this one now. With this glass in place, I am using it as a second level in the vivarium. This glass made construction of the waterfall a lot easier and also makes the waterfall look a lot more natural and intricate (not just a boring straight up-and-down fall, but with many small drops). 

I had 2 major sections of the waterfall that I connected together; well call them sections 1 and 2 and I included a diargram to help you picture what Ill be telling you. 










Now onto construction---

***Note: With this kind of project, the majority of it requires your own creativity and vision, and therefore cannot be described (ie, the placement of rocks and how you want the water to flow, ect). So when I just say, for example, "I placed the second rock", I had probably toyed with its position and the use of that particlualr rock for several minutes, or even hours. Take your time holding various rocks in all sorts of positions to get a feel for the best look. It's worth all the trouble in the end.***

The very first part of the project was to route the pipe for the intake of the canister filter which would later be used to both filter the water, and power the waterfall. I used some 1/2" O.D. (outside diameter) CPVC pipe (standard PVC pipe is not avaliable in that size) and (7) 1/2" copper elbows to neatly pipe up-back-down-left-back-up-and down to the rim of the tank (see the detail in the diagram). A small section of the plastic lip of the aquarium was cut away so the pipe could be flush with the glass. I also cut an equal size piece of the lip away for the output pipe of the filter which, by the way, was was made with 2 elbows attached together to make a "U". All the elbow connections were made secure and waterproof with epoxy. Then I simply attached the fliter.

The first rock I attached was at the very top of section 1. I used epoxy putty, silicone and a couple clamps from reptile clamp-lamp lights to securly attach it to the glass. 

Once that "base" rock was secure, all I had to do with the rest was use epoxy putty to fasten them to it. Although for the others which touched the glass, I used a few pumps of silicone for extra support. I kept attaching rocks untill they were resting on the top edge of that angled piece of glass and some were jutting out over it.

Unlike in Section 1, for Section 2, I worked from the bottom to the top. I placed a standard red brick at the bottom to rest the first piece of lace rock. I did this because the bottom 3 inches or so of the pond would be filled with view-obstructing gravel anyway, so it would be a waste of the beautiful/expensive lace rock. 

Then, improvising with many clamps and levers, I was able to hold the next few rocks against the glass long enough to be siliconed/puttied securly. I worked up till I got to where Section 1 ended. If you are having trouble holding a piece of rock with clamps, you may just want to get comfortable and hold them in place for 15 minutes till the putty gets hard enough to hold it on its own. I did that a couple times. Be prepared to cramp up.

With all the rocks firmly in place and the filter attached, I was able to move onto the next phase. I mixed some *Rapid-Set concrete grout* to a toothpaste-like consistency, poured a good amount into a standard ziplock sandwich bag and snipped off a tiny piece of one of the corners. This acted just like a cake frosting squirter (you know, the kind they use to make the fancy flowers and polkadots). I used my bag of grout to fill in all the cracks between the pieces of rock. That particular grout dries almost the exact color of lacerock, so you can barely tell its there. I got the grout from Lowes in the area where they have concrete. You can find epoxy putty anywhere you would buy other vivarium elements; hardware store, Lowes, Home Depot.

Once all the grout was dried, I was itching to take it for a test run. I filled the entire bottom of the tank with about 4" of water (enough to submerge the intake pipe of the filter) and, from the output pipe of the filter, siphoned the water into the filter to prime it. This proved to be much more difficult than doing it in a standard filled-to-the-brim aquarium. Due to the low waterline, my face was turning red, and I thought I might collapse a lung I was sucking so hard. But the filter finally did fill with water, and I was ready to go. I plugged it in and there were leaks everywhere, so then it started. The part of the project that made me second guess starting it in the first place. I pondered over this problem for a day or two untill I just decided to try plugging all the leaks with a bunch of spray foam and silicone. I used "great stuff" spray foam for the open area below section 1 (as shown in the diagram) and waited for it to dry. I did another water test to see how the foam would hold the water by itself only to discover that I would have been just as well using wadded up toilet paper. Im still glad I used the foam just because it prevents the frogs from getting under the waterfall now that the tank is done. Quickly dispatching my first idea of sealing every square inch of the foam with silicone, I decided to use a piece of plexi glass for under the foam, and silicone for the sides, simply because it was flat on the bottom anyway and would be way easier. By the way, Im going to all this trouble to get the leaks out because I want NO water leaking from the waterfall into the land section of the vivairum. I have had way to many problems with waterlogging in the past, and I refuse to let it happen again. So once the piece of plexi-glass was siliconed in place, I moved onto sealing the left side of section 1. For that, I just slathered a ton of silicone all over every exposed section of foam and rock. This will be covered with more rock later in the project, so appearance was not a concern. Okay, so confident that I had the leak problem conqured, I plugged in the filter a third time. There were still some slow leaks seaping out of the foam where I had missed with the silicone. I patched these holes. Tested it again to discover even more damn leaks so I marked them, patched them and tried again. Once again, I still had a leak so I decieded to kick it up a notch. I mixed a bunch of epoxy, grabbed a cheap paintbrush and painted it all over where I had siliconed. I let that dry, then before trying the filter again, I did another layer of silicone over the epoxy. If it leaked that time, I was going to explode. But finally, I had stopped every leak, and the only place water was flowing was over the rock where I wanted it. Now, Im having a problem with water splashing out from where it hits the pool over to the land section. To stop that, I added more rocks around the base to block the splashes. 

The final steps were adding gravel, rocks and plants to the pond section, and planting the waterfall itself with java moss and anubias.

mbrutger: Thanks. They are Surinam Cobalt ticns.

bradadams: Yes, it is grapevine. And Im aware of its incapability to survive in most dart frog habitats. But I dont soak it with my misting system and it has a chance to completely dry out between sprayings. Ive only noticed mold in one spot between the branch and the neo. fireball. If it happens to rot completely away I will just replace it with something else, but I highly doubt that will happen to me. The substrate is a vivarium mix talked about in reptiles magazine--->http://imageevent.com/audiomaster/soilrecipies

Moe: Good to see you again, I remember one or 2 of your posts on the planted tank also. I would imagine you could make an entire background with that method, but you would most likely have to brace it with something somehow. Just attaching that much rock to a completely vertical pane of glass with no support seems like a recipie for disaster.

Ryan: Thanks, its actually 3 sepearte pieces of grapevine connected together to form a rootlike structure joining to one solid trunk-like piece at the top. I actually used my "flevopol" mix on that top section where the 3 pieces joined to fill the spaces between them. 

Heres some more pics. Thats all for now.

-David


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## Bry (Feb 18, 2004)

That's an awesome waterfall. I really like how you went about putting it together, although it sounds rather frustrating. Looking back on the overall construction, what would you have done differently to improve on the waterfall and/or make construction easier?

Bry


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## Guest (Oct 20, 2004)

Good question Ray. The only thing I definately would have done differently is made the filter up-lift tube extend deeper into the water. The way I have it now, the water has to remain very full all the time or the filter will stop and I have to re-start it, which is a major pain. Other than that, despite how complicated I made it sound, it was really not that bad and I am very happy with the overall result. 
-David


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## Guest (Dec 4, 2004)

Want to bump this back up to the top. I must say that this give me good insperation to what I hope to accomplish on my custom viv. I have a couple of question in reguards to your fluval 104 external canister filter. How long has it been running for and have you had any problems in requards to the water output. I went to petco looking at caniters filters to try and decide which would be the best one to use. I was asking the lady there and see said I would be wasting money with a caniter filter because of the water volume total. She said I would burn the pump up before to long. The only ones they had where for about 240 ghp or more and I will only have at the most 10 gallons in my cutom viv. I need something that will be able to push the water about 3 ft up to the top of waterfall and she reccomended a powerhead instead of canister filter. I wanted to get your opion on your fluval 104 and then decide. Thanks

Mike P.


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## Guest (Dec 5, 2004)

I havent had any problems with my Fulval, its been running fine since I got it. I do however have to re-start it every now and then because it somehow looses it's syphon. A powerhead would also work fine but you would either have to install it inside the vivarium or use a sump which would involve drilling a hole in the tank. I wanted as little equipment inside the vivarium as possible and I have no way or desire to drill the 3/8" thick glass that comprises my tank. A canister filter is somewhat like a fully-contained sump. Also if you go with a powerhead in a sump, make sure it will be able to pump as high as you need it too. Youll need one with pretty good power to pump 3' plus the distance from the bottom of the tank to the sump. If you check around at your local fish stores, chances are you could come across a used canister filter for cheap. Let me know if you have any other questions. Ill post some updated pics of my vivarium soon.
-David


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

bgexotics said:


> Won't lace rock drive up the pH of the water? I know when using it in fish tanks you had to be careful and only use it with species like African Cichlids that like a high pH. I would think that darts could be sensitive to a high pH just like South and Central American fish? I suppose you could buffer it or use black water extract to bring the pH down. Anyone else have any thought about the effect of water pH on darts?


I haven't seen any data on darts and pH, but, I've read that golden mantella tadpoles do best with a pH between 6.0 to 6.3. The water in my mantella tank runs over 7.6 (my test kit only goes that high) and they do fine. 
There is something in the substrate that buffers the pH up that high, I can lower the pH to 6.0 with drops for aquarium use...and the pH goes right back up within a day...the powdered pH down "buffer" powder will keep it down about a day longer than that.
It makes more sense usually to acclimate the animal to you're water the way it is in the tank, than to constantly adjust and moniter pH. If I were to try and maintain a pH of say 6.3, I'd have to add buffer everyday, and while the pH might well be perfect, do you have any idea how much phosphorus that adds up to?
Evenually :roll: I plan on redoing the tank, with subrates (more spagnum, and or tree fern fiber) that will buffer the pH more in the ballpark.


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