39 replies to this topic

[Michael Wolfe]

I love the look that you are already getting... good job, I am really excited to see how this project works out.

[Evan P]

Hello everyone! At long last, I have some major updates!

 

Gluing

I began by gluing the two tanks together using Weld-On 16. I did so by applying the glue in the shape of an asterisk to the side of each tank, then quickly pushed them together and used clamps to secure them. When I say quickly, I mean very quickly. This stuff is runs at nearly half the speed of plain water, so it is really hard to work with. One must also be areful not to get any glue on the viewing panels. I was not aware of how it would move and got some on my front panel. I was able to remove the glob of acrylic, but not without a fair number of scratches. Luckily, it is easy to remove scratches from acrylic. Unfortunately, however, I am not patient enough to sand and buff and repeat when I could be aquascaping! However this running nature does make the second step much easier.

 

After the two tanks had cured together for 24 hours, I removed the clamps, sanded the inside edges flush, cleaned them off thoroughly, and placed some glue (That's a misnomer, actually. The materials are actually chemically fused together once this cures) along each of the seams. The running nature of the solvent allows it to fill the gaps fully. At this point you may notice the acrylic where you have glued appear hazy. This is due to the heat of the reaction caused by the glue. Fortunately, this panel will be covered by a 3D background, so it is not a problem. I did a water test and it all checked out, so on we go!

3D Backgrounds

I purchased all of my backgrounds from Universal Rocks, as well as a rock pile from Vivarium Works. The reason I purchased my pieces was actually because of their thin/hollow characteristics. This meant I would lose very little water volume and have plenty of room for my terrestrial plants' roots. I used Gorilla Glue to attach all of the backgrounds where they met the tank. The back walls of the water section were inched forward from the back of the tank to create a river bank. These pieces were supported with pop cans while the glue was drying. The back walls of the land section, the side walls of the divider, and the piece behind the intake bulkhead on the far right side of the tank were clamped to to the tank itself while the glue dried.

 

Any gaps were filled by laying down some Gorilla glue, then smothering it in the gravel I planned to use for the tank. When dry, I brushed off the excess and removed it from the tank, so as not to interfere with further gluing. The same goes for the top edge of the waterfall divider, but with Weld-On instead of glue. Although it is not intended to be an adhesive in the manner, it works quite well and dries clear. In the future, though, I would probably use cyanoacrylate. 

 

In terms of filling the inside of the background, I wanted to have substrate back there, but not stagnant water. To achieve this, I drilled numerous incredibly small holes in the crevices of the background. Then I built some small air-powered circulators.

 

I began by cutting some small sections (1-1.5") of 1" PVC and affixing craft mesh to the top.

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I drilled some holes in the side, with one large enough for airline tubing. I slid some black tubing in far enough that it just reached the center of the circulator.

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Using a hot glue gun, I tacked the tubing in place.

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Then, I put glue all around the bottom rim and pushed it to the bottom of the tank. The reason I am using a hot glue is that it is easily removable if I ever want to change anything about it.

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Finally, I pulled the tubing up the side, back corners of the tanks and also tacked them in place using hot glue. I had extra bioballs sitting around, so I put down a layer or two of bioballs. These work great because they are light and water easily flows through them. 

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The next layer is lava rock, and I used enough to build up until there was another 3 or 4 inches of empty space to the top of the ground section. These also have fairly good flow characteristics and are still relatively lightweight. 

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Then I put down some basic pebble gravel up to about 1"-1/2" from the surface of the ground. The plants' roots should be able to establish themselves in this substrate pretty well.

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Next I used the same gravel I planned to use in the main tank. I purchased this at my LFS. 

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Then I topped it off with some Flourite Red, which I will also use in the main tank. Sprinkle some of the previous gravel on top, and this part is done!

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Hardscaping

Then I was able to begin hardscaping! This is the beginning of aquascaping, when rocks and driftwood are set in place. I decided to use some rocks I found locally that I believe are limestone, as well as a few pieces of sandstone. They are a light white it color, and although it may not match the background, that seems to be how it looks in nature. The bluff-side streams in my area have dark colored walls, but light colored. I am not sure why this is, but the contrast is actually quite appealing to the eye.

 

Because I picked the white stones, I had to paint my Vivarium Works rock pile (which I received in black from a friend who decided he didn't want to use it) to match. This was done using a combination of off-white, gray, orange, and yellow and I think it turned out quite well. After I was pleased with the color, I clear coated it with an acrylic clear coat. I plan to let it cure for a week before it is exposed to water.

 

Hardscaping - Riffle Side

I arranged my rocks in a way that would make a shallow water area on the far left, near my spraybar (painted in the same way as the rocks). The rocks slowly ramp down, creating almost a stair-like setting for darters to navigate. I also used a Cichlid Stone near the bottom as a hide. Right at the base of both rock piles the water is fairly deep, hopefully meaning I will have a deepwater riffle, which several species are adapted to. The underside of the rock pile will be left open as a nice, large, open cave.

 

Hardscaping - Pool Side

Immediately after the waterfall I knew I would need some more rocks. Not only to tie the two sides together, but also to catch the flow of the falls. Other than that, I had a lot of options with driftwood. I knew I wanted a log jam of sorts, so I decided to put many pieces of driftwood next to one another to make it look like an upturned root mass. The places where they meet will be covered by substrate, so they should look like they are all one piece.

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I also had to compensate for my filter intake. I have a 1" bulkhead in the base of the tank. I cut a piece of PVC around 9" long and taped it off around the 3"-3.5" mark. I did this to make  sure the intake wouldn't draw in any substrate. I put it on my scroll saw and cut some slits on the longer portion down to the tape.

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The problem is that the end of the pipe is now quite flimsy.

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To make this more rigid, I cut down an endcap and tried to put it on the end. Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned filmsiness, the endcap does not fit.

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To push out the sides of the pipe, I wrapped a 3/4" piece of PVC in electrical tape to use it as a ramrod of sorts.

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To increase flow, I decided to drill holes in the side. The reason I didn't do this prior to cutting the slits was that the vibration of the saw would have cracked the pipe between the holes. With the ramrod still in pipe, I began to drill the holes.

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It's also a good idea to drill some holes in the end cap to ensure flow.

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Here is the intake with 30 PPI Poret foam over it. This can be bought at Swiss Aquatics. This prefilter is my primary form of mechanical filtration, but it will also add to my biological filtration.

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Pictures

Now, without further ado, pictures!

 

Whole tank shot.

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The waterfall divider.

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Rocks catching the flow of the waterfall.

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Riffle Side

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Pool Side

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Tomorrow I will be posting about substrates on each side of the tank. I hope you all enjoyed the long update!

[Michael Wolfe]

Glad to see you sticking with this almost a year later! It is looking very nice.

[Moontanman]

Thanks for the update, i really look forward to seeing this up and in action! 

[Evan P]

Yeah, it has been a long time. It took a lot of saving and piece gathering to get here, but I'm finally at a point where I may be able to have it up and running in the next week or so! Thank you both for the compliments, I can't wait to show everyone more of this wonderful tank!

[mattknepley]

Love it! Can't wait to see the finished product.

[Chasmodes]

This is a very cool build!

[Evan P]

Thank you, Matt and Chasmodes! 

 

So, I have an update. Unfortunately, I only had enough sand for the riffle side, so the other half will have to wait. Anyways, here is how I did my substrate for the riffle side.

 

Substrate - Riffle Side

To begin, I knew I wanted to have the option to put a couple plants in the deep portion of the riffle, so I had to put down my planted tank essentials. To keep the front of the tank clear and uniform, I used a piece of cardboard at the front of the tank to divide the plant substrates from the sand while I was putting everything in place.

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To begin, I put down a light sprinkling of muriate of potash as well as a little bit of peat. 

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Then I put down a very thin layer of my sifted, locally sourced, potting soil. From the nursery it has a good deal of perlite mixed in. Although perlite is perfectly fish safe, it has a tendency to float, which is pretty annoying, so this time I decided to sift out all of the larger pieces. Here are the resulting products. 

The sifted soil.

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The removed perlite.

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Now I can remove the divider between the sand and soil. Below you can see why this is desirable from the front of the tank.

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Next I put down a LOT of sand. This filled most of the gaps so uneaten food couldn't sink too far down in the substrate, like it could with gravel.

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Over that I put down a few more rocks, then my first layer of gravel.

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Finally, I put down the Flourite and sprinkled more gravel over it.

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Pictures

Here are some more in depth pictures. I hope you all enjoy!

 

From just above the spraybar.

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From the waterfall.

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After the substrate of the pool side I will cover the plumbing, which could easily be a thread of its own! Again, thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it!

[Michael Wolfe]

Looking good... just be prepared for the water to do a little hydro-scaping for you.  When we did the big tank at the nature center, we thought we had it all laid out in layers and such and when the current got really going a few things got moved around (sand exposed where we thought we had enough gravel, etc.).  It actually looked very natural, cause it was in a way.  But just know that it is going to happen a bit.

[Evan P]

I am sure it will, and I am excited for it to do so! Like you said, it gives a really great natural appearance.

[Chasmodes]

It's really shaping up nicely.  I bet you're having a blast with this!  I love the look of your riffle side and am looking forward to seeing your tank up and running.  Nice work!!!!

[Evan P]

Thank you! It really has been so much fun. I love scaping on this scale. It's just right for me. i hope I can have it up and running in the next week or two, and I will continue updating as I accomplish more.

[Evan P]

Sorry for the wait, everyone! My computer wasn't working for a few days. I have finished all of my dry aquascaping!

 

Substrate - Pool Side

Again, I put down a light sprinkling of muriate of potash over the whole tank bottom.

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Then I put down my clay layer. I used laterite because I had some left over, but red clay from your backyard, another aquarium purpose clay, or even natural terra cotta clay would work. I relegated this to where my plants would be located so it wouldn't be as likely to be stirred up.

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As I did before, I topped off the supplement layer with some peat, again placed only where I will plant, this time so as to prevent making the water too acidic.

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Then I put cardboard in place again, placed dirt inside, and sand outside. The dirt was kept in an area in roughly the same place as the supplements. Then I covered the dirt with sand, sprinkled some gravel, decreasing in amount from left to right. Then it was complete!

 

Pictures

Here are some pictures of the pool side.

 

Full pool side.

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The wall where the waterfall spills over.

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A view of the root mass from the top.

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Thank you all very much for reading! I am hoping to get the cutting and gluing of the plumbing done tomorrow, so I will show everyone what that looks like. This weekend I plan to get everything mounted, and maybe even fill the tank! I will keep you all updated.

[Chasmodes]

Looks awesome!