# 55 Gallon Build - Photo Diary



## ProjectReptile (Mar 9, 2007)

Well, a customer in my shop dropped off a 55gal tank last week to be converted into a viv, I believe it's going to be a Christmas gift to his g/f. After being lazy for a week, I decided I better get started on this thing, as the holidays will be rolling in in a week. Before I got too far into the construction phase, I decided to grab my camera and post the progress on the boards here. So here we go.

Below is as far as got before I decided to make this project into a build journal. I am going to try something new here as the water feature will be powered by a new Exo-Terra Repti-Clear pump/filter. I hope this will work well as fittings are the same as the Exo-Terra Repti-Flow pumps (which I have used every time before now). The other perks about the Repti-Clear are #1 it includes a foam filter media which is a great thing to see as I ofter have debris block the intake of my Repti-Flows, and #2 it is a bit more powerful than the Repti-Flow (RF). The RFs have a flow rate of 45gph and the Repti-Clear is rathed at 60gph. The only downfall that I can see is that the RFs operate in as little as 1cm of water, and Repti-Clears pretty much have to be fully submerged, which is about 1 1/2" of water needed. This doesn't affect me much though as I have never designed a viv where the RF's run in 1cm of water. In fact, I always make sure they are submerged to achieve maximum flow rate. Back to the subject at hand. Below is a picture of my plumbing. The 1 1/2" PVC on the side is for the power cables to run, the clear 3/4" tubing is for my water feature. It is split at the top with a T and will operate two different functions:










And here is a close up of just the plumbing:


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## ProjectReptile (Mar 9, 2007)

I decided to make two seperate posts here, rather then one large one. I figured it will serve as a break for the reader.

On we go. The next step was the foam and decoration applications. I really had to game plan as such. The decorations that I found around my shop included 2 pieces of cork park, 1 larger piece of drift wood, and 1 branch of Java wood which I ended up breaking into 3 pieces. I also gathered up a few deli cups and vials to use as planters. I started foaming the side with the plumbing first. I covered the power cable port, then covered the tubing best I could. Below the outter-most water port, I foamed in a delicup which will fill with water and then serve as a waterfall once it over-flows. There will be some carving to be needed, but it's nothing I am not used to. The inner-most port was originally just going to be a dripper which I would create by almost completely blocking the port, which would just drip down the wall face. However, in mid foaming I decided to try making the drift wood fit into place whereas the dripper would now run down the wood. It took some rearranging but by god it worked. I positioned it as such that the water would drip in almost a stream-like manner down the piece of wood and empty into the same basin as the waterfall. On the opposite end of the tank, I randomly placed the Java wood and cork bark into place. Here is a close-up of the water feature side:

The water outlets are marked by the red circles.









And here is the other side of the tank with the Java and cork in place:









And last for today, here is two pictures of the entire tank. Sorry about the quality of pretty much all of these, but most were taken with me standing on my tippy-toes and pointing the camera down, not really being able to tell where I was aiming.


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## Mywebbedtoes (Jul 2, 2007)

Cool, I like your tanks. Looking forward to this one.


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## ProjectReptile (Mar 9, 2007)

Thanks Mywebbedtoes! Hopefully this one won't disappoint. Anyway, today there was nothing done to the tank. I'm allowed 48 hours for the foam to cure. Around noon tomorrow it will be silicone smearing time... yippie. :roll:


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## ProjectReptile (Mar 9, 2007)

*The pressure is on.*

I'm committed to finishing this diary. I'll try to detail every bit as it happens. In that spirit, I'll explain the days work.
I started carving away the foam earlier this morning. This alone is something new to me as I usually alter the spray foam very little in my previous constructions. In this new project, I did a great deal of sculpting I must say. I started off near the Java wood and drift wood. I decided to 'continue' the body of these wood peices into the background by carving their phantom parts. The larger flat piece of drift wood wasn't very creative, I more or less just brought the foam down to the wood's level. The Java branch, on the other hand, took some time. I continued the branch into the foam and I even added a split near the bottom. Aside from the split, I made the top of the branch into a "stump" which I then hollowed out and realized that I can get a plant in there. Heres a picture of the chaos:

I'd guestimate that I carved away around 20% of the over all foam.










Here's a picture after cleaning. You can see the carving of the branches.










Aside from the branch sculpting, i decided to use that technique on the fly with the water tube that will be dripping down the driftwood. My original idea to hide the pipe didn't work out so well. What the new plan is, is to sculpt a small section of a 'root system' into the foam and have the tube be a 'branch' of the roots. Hopefully, when finished it will look as if a root is dripping onto the wood. Here it is:










With all of the sculpting and carving finally finished and the scraps cleaned up... it was onto the silicone. I decided to put down one layer of just silicone with no dirt, then later add another layer to which the bedding would be applied. I'm not sure why I decided to do this, and for that matter, I probably wont do it again. I have made quite a few vivs now and I normally don't put down this base layer of silicone, and they have all turned out time. I new feel it was a big waste of time and product. None the less, here is a picture of the progress:










Lastly for this update, below is a picture of the "root system" where the water tube is conceiled. With the silicone put down, I'm able to picture it a little better and I'm a bit more optimistic about the possibly end result.


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## Mywebbedtoes (Jul 2, 2007)

Don't you hate the silicone process? I have a sweet looking tank all foamed up with wood and all, just sitting there because I dread the silicone process.


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## Obliv79 (Oct 31, 2007)

I hear ya when it comes to silicone stuff is messy and not fun to work with. Plus at 7 bucks a tube can get a bit pricey on a bigger tank. Nice work so far really looking forward to the end results


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## ProjectReptile (Mar 9, 2007)

Yeah, I don't think anyone out there really enjoys the silicone smearing. I wish there was some kind of 'frog-safe' solvent that could thin the silicone down making it paintable. If it was a tad bit thinner, it wouldn't be that bad at all. I hate getting it all over my hands and trying to get it into the nooks and 'caves' the foam creates. And the ultimate slap in the face is when you THINK you're finished and you step back and see a half dozen patches of yellow foam shining through.


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## Raymond (Aug 26, 2006)

Tank looks good! 

I've found that the concrete binder/flevapol method is a good deal less messy then silicone. It doesn't give off those potent fumes either :wink:. Much more pleasant to apply overall imo. Anyways, just some info, and I actually don't bother with either anymore. I do not like silicone.


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## ProjectReptile (Mar 9, 2007)

Thanks Raymond! Go on about this concrete binder and flevapol method..... I'd love to learn about it.


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## zBrinks (Jul 16, 2006)

The flevapol method is the way to go! 

I use 4 parts ACE (from Ace Hardware) Brand Concrete Binder and Sealer, 4 parts substrate (coco bedding or peat for dirt look - peat is cheaper and a lighter brown color - or leveling sand for a greyish rock look), and 1 parts water. Mix it all together, and smoosh it on! Make sure to rough up the gs with sandpaper for better adhesion, and use gloves. I aim a fan at the tank and let it stand for about a week, spraying it down with water every 24 hours or so, until the water runs clear when its coming off the background. I then let it dry a final time for 3-4 days, and its good to go.


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## ProjectReptile (Mar 9, 2007)

Hmmmmmmmm very interesting. This sounds like the method in the "making fake rocks" thread that HX has mastered. I tried it once so far using Acrylic concrete binder and tile grout. I would imagine this is the same principle. My only question is, doesn't the finished product appear glossy or something of the sort??? Or do you stick dry bedding onto the mixture after smooshing it on??


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## zBrinks (Jul 16, 2006)

With cocobedding, it can be slightly glossy, but increasing its texture (say, adding orchid bark or sphagnum moss) decreases the reflectiveness. Leveling sand has no glossiness whatsoever.


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## ProjectReptile (Mar 9, 2007)

zBrinks said:


> With cocobedding, it can be slightly glossy, but increasing its texture (say, adding orchid bark or sphagnum moss) decreases the reflectiveness. Leveling sand has no glossiness whatsoever.


I am 100% going to try that on my next build. Anything to eliminate doing the silicone smearing. Speaking of that; I put the second round of silicone on today and applied the bedding. Here's a picture update:


This is a picture of the waterfall section. I realized I haven't covered this side of the tank too much in this build diary, so here's a peek. The water tube is concealed right above the "cup" which will in turn fill and overflow.










Here is a shot of the root-system which is actually the second water tube. It looks a bit better with the bedding applied. The picture is upside-down, for your references.










Lastly for today, here is a picture of the branch sculpture. This too is looking better with the bedding applied and I think it does, indeed, look as if the branch is continuing on a bit.


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## ProjectReptile (Mar 9, 2007)

Progress, Progress, Progress. The following work updates actually took place on Saturday, but I haven't gotten on the computer until now. Anyway, saturday was a pretty good day for the build as I accomplished alot. The background was all ready to go so it was onto the bottom/floor of the tank. The steps that I did not take pictures of was 1) cutting some PVC pipe segments for the flase bottom, and 2) cutting the sections of egg crate for the bottom itself. I am going with two 'level' design where the lower section will be roughly 3 inches tall, and the higher section being 6 inches tall. Here are some pictures..


Here is a picture I took right after getting the pvc pipes in place and cutting the egg crate to fit:










You can see a cut out on the lower section where the pond will be. The plan at this point was to use some GS foam to create the "face" of the cliff between the upper and lower section. I was then going to carve and apply silicone and bedding to the cliff face just like the background. However, do to a stroke of luck and my hatred of smearing the silicone, I found a piece of corkbark that fit PERFECTLY between the levels. I decided to use this cork as the cliff face. Here it is:










And a wider view:










Here is a close up of my pump section. I sectioned out a piece of egg crate large enough to access the pump if needed to replace or unhook:










Being that a huge hole in the false bottom wouldn't work out too well, I then cut a "door" piece to go over the pump access. Here is it closed off:










My plan for the pond was to use GS foam to create the banks/walls of it, but then I realized I need a way for the water to drain into the rest of the reservoir. My solution was to silicon a section of screening that would tightly fit between two of the PVC supports. Here is a picture, you can make out the screen stretched between the two pipes:










I let that cure for about 2 hours, then I cracked open a can of GS and filled in the gapes. I sprayed the pond walls into place first. I gave extra detail into this task because I had to make sure there were no gapes where the frogs could sqeeze through into the reservoir, which would most like lead to certain death. Here it is:










Here is what I was hoping would be a better view of the pond drainage area. This is taken below the false bottom and looking through the tank of what would be the back side of the pond. the foam did a great job of locking this screen down:











Being that I didn't like the flat "saw cut" finish to the top of my cork bark, AND I had a can of GS in use, I decided to use it to top off the cork and also it filled in the sides of the bark, making sure no creatures can again access the reservoir. Here is that area:










That's all for this update right now. This foam will be allowed to cure for 24 hours until any further construction is done. Here is the tank at the end of the work day on Saturday:










**PS - Today is Christmas Eve! I hope everyone has a great and safe holiday. Merry Christmas!


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## ProjectReptile (Mar 9, 2007)

*The Home Stretch!*

Alright, I've got alot of pictures, so I wont talk much. After letting the foam cure overnight from the last update, it was on to carving it. The following construction took place on Sunday (Christmas Eve's eve). Here we go:


Here is the pond foam carved out:










Here is the "cliff" foam carved:










Here is a view of both:










Then was onto everybody's favorite part, silicone spreading.










Here is the cliff with the silicone on it. I used Exo-Terra riverbed sand to stick to it:










Here's the reverse side of the cliff










The next problem I came across was getting the waterfall to fall somewhere that wasn't going to mix with the soil and turn into mud. What I did was took a 16oz deli cup and cut the bottom out. I will fill this with stone and it should keep the soil seperated. Here's a pic:










And here with the rocks in place:










I then realized I needed an area to syphen or drain this tank. I took a 4 inch piece of conduit and got a little crazy with my chop saw. I cut slots in the bottom for water access. here is a pic:










And here it is put in place. I will hide the pipe under a coconut hide and plug it with a sponge. Here is my water access port:


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## NickBoudin (Nov 3, 2007)

Impressive, similar.. VERY similar to my 55 gallon. How's the filteration going to go? (sorry if you posted already didnt read the whole thread)


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## ProjectReptile (Mar 9, 2007)

Sorry to randomly end that last update. I kept getting busy and never got back to it. To answer you question Nick, there isn't MUCH filtration involved in this tank. The only thing that I would consider to be true filtration is the fact that I used a Exo-Terra Repti-Clear pump. It's basically the Repti-Flow water fall pump, but it has filter medium attatched. Anyway, on with the update:


This was all done on Saturday as well, btw. Now that the waterfall issue was fixed as well as the drainage system I was ready to start adding bedding. I added three more bricks of plantation soil to my tub that already had 2 bricks broken down. That brings me to 5 bricks all together for the project:










While that was expanding in the water, I added some moss around the edges of the screen to help secure any gaps that might have let some moss slip through. It served as a good way to kill time while the bedding was breaking down.










Now came the dirt:










Below is right after I added just about all of the plants. As far as what plants, I'd have to come up with a list as I randomly grabbed some from my green house. I am set up with a large green hous in Gettysburg which I randomly get my plants from. 










And here it is finally with some finishing touchs, such as some ground moss and leaf litter:


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## flyangler18 (Oct 26, 2007)

I'd love to know what greenhouse you use in Gettysburg! I'm only about 15 minutes from there 

Good looking tank, but plant the heck out of that back wall


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## ProjectReptile (Mar 9, 2007)

*Yippie!*

At last, the tank was finished. It was done around 8:00pm Christmas Eve's eve, which was cutting close since it was to be picked up the next day. I forgot to mention one step that you could see on the last picture of the last update, and that's that I applied the black vinyl to cover up the false bottom and any other ugly stuff. What a difference that makes. Finally, here are some glamour shots:


The finished product:










A crappy top view:










A top view of the far end of the tank:










The drip wall and pond:










The pond:










The waterfall:












That pretty much concludes this build diary. Thanks to everyone for reading through it and the kind comments and suggestions!


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## Kentanner11 (Sep 30, 2007)

wow!
1) love the idea of covering the water access pipe with a coconut hut!!
2) the 2 tier waterfall is GREAT!!!


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## vortexofhate (Jul 23, 2007)

Looks good.

What type of moss did you end up using in it?


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## Kentanner11 (Sep 30, 2007)

also what black stuff did you use to cover up the false bottom from view?


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## ProjectReptile (Mar 9, 2007)

Thanks for the comments! To answer Vortex's question, the moss I used was a local moss that a lady brought me in a couple of weeks ago. She lives near a lake and said she finds it all over on wood mostly as well as some rocks. Out of all the mosses I've tried native to north east PA, this species by far does the best. I'll really have to looking into learning what species it is and do some research on it. 

Lastly, to answer Kent's question, the black stuff is vinyl, the same stuff people put on their car windshields to spell words and such. It does the trick, and it's easily removeable!


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## Quaz (Nov 13, 2005)

that looks really good but the plants you chose will out grow the tank quik and make it look very unkempt. I also think you should cut some holes for planting in the background. Also, try pinning moss to the back ground with tooth picks. It will need to stay really moist to grow and attach. have fun


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## EricT (Nov 10, 2007)

Well done...


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## ProjectReptile (Mar 9, 2007)

Thanks for the comments and suggestions. There are a few things I would have changed up if I could do it again, one of which is planting the background a bit more. I am eager to see this tank a few months from now though. Hopefully the new owners will stay firm on the upkeep and it will grow into a gnarly looking viv!


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## HappyHippos1 (May 7, 2007)

Be careful with that much weight on top of that hex. Also great looking tank, I"d maybe add some more plants on the background.


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