# The Cascade Build



## Haryeti (Feb 4, 2014)

I posted something very similar to this on Canadart but I thought you guys would like to see too. This is my first vivarium build. I decided to call it The Cascade. Not because of the waterfall lol but because of the roots.








A quick rundown of how it was built for those that don't care to read the details:

False bottom made from egg crate covered in fiberglass window screen
air circulation vents and water feature pump access channel made from plastic (not sure what kind. had it already)
Regular gaps and cracks great stuff background covered in black silicone then peat moss pressed into it
roots made from rope smeared with black silicone and glued into the foam background
glass lid made with custom silicone hinge
lit with a finnex ray2

It is a 18 by 20 by 48" 75 gallon tank that I got for free from a friend several years ago.

In preparation for this build my friend Tony (I don't think he's on this forum... yet) and I went out to collect drift wood. We brought it home, hosed it off, scrubbed it, hosed it off some more, cut it so it would fit in my oven, then baked it to make sure it was as sterile as we could get it.

After a lot of planning and decision making in my head, I started by making my air circulation vents and access channel for my pump out of this black plastic that I already had. I don't have pictures of it until it was already glued to the back wall of the tank. So see those below.

I then put together the false bottom out of egg crate then hot glued fiberglass window mesh to it.








I cut a hole out for my pump access channel and then glued the vents and channel into place with hot glue. The pump channel runs from the very top of the tank, down underneath the false bottom. I thought it was a nice compromise when I found out the tank was made of tempered glass that I wouldn't be able to drill. I also made it so I can fit an aquarium heater down under there to heat the tank during the winter months (it's in my chilly basement).








In this next picture the thing on the left is the air circulation vents and the one on the right with the log sticking out of it is the pump channel. The log has a natural groove to it that I used as a water feature. It was attached using hot glue though the spray foam will later be the true support holding it in place.








Where the log meets the channel is a little hole drilled to perfectly fit the hose that my pump uses.
















After trying out a couple layouts,








I laid down the tank and started spray foaming.

















After foaming, every last bit of foam had to be carved. The way that the foam dries, it creates a smooth skin on the outside that silicone doesn't really stick to. When the outer skin is carved away, it leaves behind a nice spongy foamy surface that the silicone has a better time sticking to. Notice I made some nifty ground roots? They all ended up being buried by the substrate later anyway. 








I then started putting together vines by hot gluing, separating, and combining lengths of rope. I used sisal rope, and it seemed to work fine. I took a picture of the vines placed around the tank to get an idea of where I might put them. I also made some thicker vines out of pink insulation foam.








My girlfriend and I then took the vines outside and coated them in a black silicone, oven dried peat moss, xylene mixture then rolled them around in more dried peat moss. Xylene was a bad idea. It seems like it made the silicone less sticky and it ate the first pink foam vine I coated (that's why you should test things before you do it ). It was meant to be a thinner to make the silicone more runny/easier to apply. I found it was easier to just leave the tube of silicone caulk in the sun to heat it up. It made it smoother to apply. I then hung them up to dry by tying them to the clothesline with brown thread.








I then poked holes for the vines into the foam then hot glued them into place. After that, I spent maybe 5 days smearing black silicone onto the background, pressing oven dried peat moss into it, letting it dry, going back over any visible foam, and repeating. I didn't get pictures of the process, only the final result.








If you're going to make a foam background, *USE BLACK FOAM*. I thought hey these other guys say use black foam... but normal foam is cheaper. Listen to them and get the black foam. Trust me that it would be worth it. I now have the experience to say if you were thinking like me and think black foam is just a luxury, it isn't. It would make the process way easier. Unless you're doing something smaller like a 10 gallon where it would be quicker to go over it a couple times to cover the foam, always use black.

After letting that dry a couple of days I went out to find something to put around the outer edge of the false bottom and in the pond floor. It had to be dark, small enough to fit in the tiny crack I left myself, but big enough that it wouldn't fit through the screen. I found it at Petsmart. Black national geographic brand aquarium gravel. I bought a 25lb bag for 25$
I rinsed it then added in to the tank. I also covered the mesh surface of the false bottom too because I thought it might help block dirt from falling through and I also bought too much of it, so..








After that, I mixed up my soil mixture and added it to the tank. The mix consisted of crunched up leaves (boiled to sterilize), peat moss, coco fiber, charcoal, and orchid bark. I put some leaf litter on top, if you can even call it that. But I definitely need a lot more.

Oh! Feel free to ignore the plastic containers in the rest of the pictures. They're just housing some giant sequoia saplings. 







Now, the way that the fan vents and pump channel are designed, they butt up to the glass at the top. I needed this to be a perfect seal from the tank to prevent inhabitants from getting either to the fans, or outside the tank. I got a local glass shop to cut the glass for the lid. I put petroleum jelly on the glass so silicone wouldn't stick to it. Then I siliconed where the foam around where the vents and channel met the top and I just placed the lubed glass on top of the silicone.
















The reason for the ventilation butting up to the glass but being airtight is so I can later service/replace the fans if necessary, they just sit on a lip inside of the vent tube. The corner of the lid that goes above the pump channel didn't need to be airtight because the channel never leads inside of the open area of the tank, only under it (so no worry of fruit flies escaping). It did however need space for the pump and heater power chords to enter the channel so I got the glass shop to cut the corner for me. 
After letting it dry over night, I lifted the glass off. the silicone kind of stuck to it anyway but it wasn't cured all the way so I just had to do some clean up on the glass. Here's the resulting silicone seals:
















I'll be adding plants over the next little while. I'll also keep adding springtails and isopods until I notice them persisting/reproducing in the tank. Then I might add my frogs. I have a breeding pair of Epipedobates anthonyi Santa Isabel and their offspring.

The lid is currently being siliconed together now and I'll post about it when It's finished.
Here's the tank today:






For those of you interested in building something like this, here is my approximate price breakdown for what I used.

egg crate $20
window screen $15
3 cans of spray foam $25
4 tubes black silicone $30
glass cut to size $30
aquarium gravel $25
peat moss (more than I would ever need) $10
charcoal (more than I would ever need) $10
orchid bark $9
coco fiber $8
2 CPU fans $10
fan splitter and speed controller $6
Finnex Ray2 185$
Tank $FREE$
Pump $FREE$
Rope $FREE$ but probably costs $2
Total (if I didn't forget anything) $385
not too bad. I think

Big thank you to my friend Tony. I only mentioned him once but he helped a bit on almost every step along the way.
I also thank Grimm. I based a lot of what I did on his methods that he wrote about. The Peninsula is the best Canadian Vivarium that I know of 

This is obviously a work in progress. It only has 1 fern in it! I just put it in today. I was just excited to get it out there.
Feel free to ask questions about anything I didn't describe enough or just tell me what you think 

Edit 2021: None of the images were embedded anymore. I think I fixed that. I know this is an old post but I like looking back at the humble beginnings of my build.


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## Defica (Mar 5, 2013)

Very cool! I like that petroleum jelly approach with the seal. I've been trying to figure out a way to do something similar and this might just be the way to do it. I look forward to updates.


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## Haryeti (Feb 4, 2014)

Thanks! I think it might have affected how the silicone cures though. If I was going to try again, I'd try stretching plastic wrap smooth over the glass and then sit it on top. Or, find some other liquid or paste to prevent the silicone from sticking.


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## BR5 (Dec 7, 2009)

Very nice pictures and viv, keep them coming a it grows in.


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## mellowvision (Feb 6, 2009)

this is a great tank. it would be a very close to ideal habitat for Geosesarma crabs.


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## toostrange (Sep 19, 2013)

I used cooking oil on mine to keep silicone from sticking to glass. Worked out realy well.


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## Haryeti (Feb 4, 2014)

Alrighty! It's been a little while but time for an update.

I made the silicone hinges on my glass lid I was talking about before. I used Grimm's method of using electrical tape and silicone, remove the electrical tape, and be left with a beautiful silicone hinge.

















​
I bought a mist king system! It's timed to mist several times a day. It's a very nice luxury to have. I drilled the holes myself because buying the drill bit and doing them myself was way cheaper than the $32 a hole my local glass shop was going to charge for it.

















I added more plants to the tank. I have a begonia, pilea depressa and peperomia prostrata, thanks to Corndrunk. I also got a nifty looking water plant called a parrot feather plant.
























I also added some frogs. They're all Epipedobates anthonyi offspring of my breeding pair. I put 5 froglets in and a bunch of tadpoles in the water feature. Just a couple days ago I noticed some tiny brown frogs so apparently the tadpoles can morph out in there just fine.









This frog is 104 days old since hatching. (I have a spreadsheet keeping track)









This frog is only about 4 days out of water. 82 days since laid. This clutch took a lot longer to develop.​
And here's a full tank shot. It's slowly looking more lively! 








​Edit 2021: I fixed all the broken links for the images.


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## KarmaPolice (Apr 25, 2012)

I like the build so far, keep it up and keep the plants coming 
I have a pair of Anthonyi myself, they should redden up as they get older. Hope all goes well and will be awaiting progress snapshots in the future.


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## toadstoool (Feb 3, 2013)

Nice tank man im looking forwad to another build (if the wife lets me)......


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## McBobs (Apr 26, 2007)

Looks great! You really have an eye for design!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Haryeti (Feb 4, 2014)

It's been a little while, here's what the tank looked like the other day. Thanks for the kind words guys.









And here's a pretty little mushroom


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## Y0urbestfriend (Jan 31, 2014)

The tank has grown in very nice, I really like the red in your plants.


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## JuanBlack (Feb 15, 2015)

What water pump/filter did you use?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## SMenigoz (Feb 17, 2004)

What happened to the parrot's feather? I was curious when you mentioned that plant as I put one little sprig in my outdoor koi pond in the spring and by summertime was pulling literally pounds of it out.


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## Haryeti (Feb 4, 2014)

JuanBlack said:


> What water pump/filter did you use?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk



I just used a cheap fountain pump that I already had.



SMenigoz said:


> What happened to the parrot's feather? I was curious when you mentioned that plant as I put one little sprig in my outdoor koi pond in the spring and by summertime was pulling literally pounds of it out.



The parrot's feather didn't do too well. It was growing long and spindly and only underwater. It was ugly so I removed it.


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## chillplants (Jul 14, 2008)

The tank looks nice. It has a very natural feel to it.


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## Passgad (Apr 6, 2015)

Great source of inspiration Haryeti ! This is almost what I had in mind...

One quick question though, how do you keep the water clean ? Do you do a water change here and then ? Or just the fact that there is a little water movement with the pump and dripping keeps the water clear?

Despite all the warnings surrounding water features; why did you end up adding one in your viv ? I am still debating if I include one or not in my current project (early stage)...


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## Haryeti (Feb 4, 2014)

The water drips through a log at the top and it filters through a ton of moss. I wanted to make the viv as low maintenance as possible so I tried to make so that the plants take the nutrients from the water and it just worked out that the moss provides mechanical filtration aswell. As far as warnings go, the only one I heard was that frogs can't swim, so I just made sure the water wasn't too deep. The frogs can reach the bottom when they fall in the water. I've even seen one sitting in the water once. He did it once and a while for a week then stopped. I don't know why.
The reason I ended up adding it is because I like the idea that they can reproduce and live completely within this glass box. If there ever ends up being too many frogs in the tank I'll obviously remove some though.


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## Igot99problems (Jun 20, 2014)

Looks very good! Quick question, do you know what type of wood it was that you collected?


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## Haryeti (Feb 4, 2014)

Igot99problems said:


> Looks very good! Quick question, do you know what type of wood it was that you collected?



I have no idea, Haha. I figured if it rots away, oh well. It'll look natural.


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## Igot99problems (Jun 20, 2014)

Any updates on this?


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## smoosh (Oct 25, 2014)

Incredible build! Would definitely like an update!


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## Haryeti (Feb 4, 2014)

Igot99problems said:


> Any updates on this?



Sure! This is what it looked like 5 minutes ago.


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## chillplants (Jul 14, 2008)

Looking good. The FTS really doesn't show the depth of the plants. I was floored at all the growth from the side view.


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## Haryeti (Feb 4, 2014)

chillplants said:


> Looking good. The FTS really doesn't show the depth of the plants. I was floored at all the growth from the side view.



You want depth!? Hope you have some red/blue 3d glasses handy. ;P


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