RestlessCrow

Hi Guys. This is my first time posting on here. I've been lurking and reading and lurking some more and this site has been a WEALTH of information to help me with this project that I've embarked on.... so I figured I'd start a journal up here, and maybe help keep someone from repeating mistakes that I have made while learning in the process.

This WHOLE project started.... (Drumroll please....) Because we decided to paint a room. (yes, you read that right.) It had this godawful flowery, stripey, yucky wall paper that my mother put up when this was her house. (she has since moved and I've taken over the house) It was her formal dining room, and we are converting it to a living room/family room type of thing.

A quick little bit about me: (this will prove relevant as you move through the thread.)

My nickname is McGyver. Anytime people need to figure out how to do something or fix something, I am always the first call. (Flattering, but sometimes annoying.) I spent sixteen years as a landscape Nurseryman, and can probably speak more latin plant names than all but one or two people in North Jersey. (Joisey as the New Yorkers call it... LOL) I got laid off a year ago and vowed never to back to the business, and my back thanks me for it. I now fix Glass. (Think fancy Waterford Crystal champagne glasses and all sorts of artsy fartsy stuff like that. Hey... It's paying the bills.) Now that all of that is out of the way.... Let me explain how this all really started.

"Honey... can we strip this wallpaper off and repaint the room?"

"Yes dear".

"When do you want to start?"

::::Mumbling to self:::::: (I don't really WANT to start) "I dunno. When do you want to?"

"Saturday?"

"Ok Dear."

So like any good man would... I made a godawful mess of stripping wallpaper, scraping Wallpaper Glue, Sticking my fingers together with said Wallpaper Glue.... and all that kind of stuff. Then there was the Spackling and sanding.

(I swear, this will get on to aquaria related stuff soon.!!!)

This is what I was left with:



While working on the room, I moved a few times, an old 85 gal aquarium. It was in my possession because I was asked to "Turtle sit" for two months, for friends that moved to South Carolina. That was two years ago. Way I look at it.... It's mine now. I had to let the Turtles go because they out grew the tank in six months. (and I told the folks that I did too.) So I said:

"Honey.... I want to set this tank up and make it the focal point of the room"

"OK. Now get painting."

::::Mumbling.... Grrrrr... Inaudible:::::

And so we went on painting.

And then it hit me! I'll set up a "Dog-Quarium!"



I don't believe Dear Marie was going to let me go through with that plan, but I DID get a chuckle out of her....

So.... I decided to set up an aquarium. I've had many over the years starting when I was just four. Then for my first job I worked at a pet store. I had Oscars then until my well meaning mother washed the windows directly over the tank and the overspray did in my Oscars.

Then I had a "Native aquarium" for years until my pickeral ate me out of house and home. I had him in there with some sunfish that were bigger than him... Crayfish.... etc....

But I've always dreamed of an aquarium with lots of gorgeous Cardnals schooling together, Kulhlies rummaging around......

So.... I like to do things right. First I was going to get one of those cheap photo backgrounds, throw some plastic plants in there and fill'er up.

But like the true Plant Geek I am.... I decided to go with real plants..... and THIS..... is where it all got interesting. I started researching lighting and substrate, and stumbled across "Concrete over styrofoam" backgrounds....

::::Wow. That looks cool. I can do that!::::

So then I spent a WHOLE bunch of time researching backgrounds.....

"HONEY!!!! Put the computer DOWN and come help me paint!"

"Yes dear...."

In the interest of not making this particular one TOO awful long, I'm going to stop here and continue with a new entry....

"FLYING STYROFOAM.... Or.... Pink Styrofoam tracked all over the house!"

RestlessCrow

Ok.... So here's where it got interesting.....

I did all my research.... learned all about applying concrete over styrofoam, and one day after finishing a coat of paint, I headed for the Man Cave to start. I already had a friend help me carry the tank and stand down, I already stripped silicone that the turtles shredded to bits, and I already fixed a crack in the bottom of the tank by using my fancy "glass repair bonding agent" to seal the initial crack or at least bond it back together, and then cut a plate of glass and siliconed it in just for insurance. The tank was then leak tested to make sure said repairs worked. (they did)

So I went out to the shed and dug up some pink foam that someone was throwing out where I used to work and I had always said to myself "That will come in handy for SOMETHING" so I grabbed it.

First I cut a piece to fit the back of the tank:



And then I had to cut it into three parts to fit in the tank because of a brace that goes across the top of the tank. I then put it back in and considered where to put the filtration and all that jazz. I'm using two Fluval Cannister filters, one on each side of the tank, so I carved in a groove for the filter intake:



I was using an air powered angle grinder with a wire wheel mounted. FASTER than a hot knife through butter let me tell ya!!!! Why use knives and stuff to carve the foam when you can use POWER TOOLS! (Making best Tim Taylor Grunt)

I then bonded on strips of foam using West System Epoxy. I build boats as my other Hobby and I have used West System many times with this foam, and it works awesome. It was what I had laying around.... so I used it. I was going for a sedimentary rock formation type look, so I bonded the layers all Paralell, and had some of them overlap the adjoining pieces to lessen the look of the seams:



Then I carved all the layers to look like rock:



Then it was time to apply the concrete. I used QuickCrete Sand Topping Mix. I mixed it thin, brushed on a few coats allowing approx, 24 hours drying time (with misting 5+ times a day) in between coats, and applied my last coat with a color tint from QuikCrete.





I siliconed the foam background in, and weighted it down till the silicone cured:



and I then Used a thick layer of the Topping Mix to Make the seams invisible:



The background, now upright:



"Honey! C'mon.... we gotta get this room done!!!!!"

"Oh.... Uhhh.... Right. Be up in a few minutes hon! Just gotta take a few more pictures of the tank!!!!"

":::Grumble, mumble::::" From the top of the stairs.

Oh yeah... One more picture. The tank set up, background in, filled with water to Leach the lime out of the Concrete, and a piece of wood soaking to get the tannic acid out of it and help it sink. (I figured it wouldn't hurt and I could kill two birds with one stone.... The wood leaches Tannic Acid, and the Concrete leaches Lime which theoretically should cancel each other out.)



It is at this point that I need to post a disclaimer:

"I am NOT an expert and I am bumbling my way through this. Any questions, comments, or anything of the sort are highly appreciated, and will not hurt my feelings!!!!!"

The next installment should probably be termed "The minor complication"

Stay tuned folks for more info.

Dryn

Looking good. You'll probably have to change your water out several times. Personally, I would soak the wood in a bucket and cure the concrete without filling the tank up with water. When I did my rock wall - albeit in a terrarium but should still apply - I used vinegar in a spray bottle several times to "cure it" and then I sprayed it with water several times a day until the runoff reached a neutral pH. Sounds like you've already done a bit of this, so it should be easy. Of course, I have a python to help with the water part. Anyway, It looks very good. It would go well with large plants and large fish because the striations are so big. Smaller striations would look better if you want to "miniaturize" the aquascape - just FIY.

RestlessCrow

Dryn.... I've been testing the water just to see where it falls, and my Ph Test kit only goes up to 7.6. My tap water alone hits the top of the scale..... so I fill it with water, and add two cups of vinegar to it and retest. It then drops to approx. 6.0. At the end of the day (if I do it first thing in the morning,) It's back to 7.6+. I figure I need to get a better test kit so I can get the REAL values and see how things are working out. For now I've resigned myself to a few weeks of water changes until things level out.... Besides.... the room isn't fully painted yet, and we are considering new carpet which is a MUST before putting in an 85 gal tank that will sit on top of it.

I was planning on large plants for exactly the reason you mentioned. The scale is off but by time I realized it, it was already siliconed in. I should have done more detail.... but I'll deal with it for now. Maybe next round I'll add a little more detail to the rocks. I actually ended up blowing up the air compressor I was using to run the angle grinder, because the compressor was not really meant to run an angle grinder. (That was the real reason that I didn't add more detail. LOL) Sais La Vie.....

As things happen I'll post more pictures! Thanks for the advice!

RestlessCrow

Ok.... so I haven't gotten to this point yet... The Nuts and bolts of it all.

What I've got now:

(Now, mind you, all of this came with the tank except for the background I made)

One 85 gal tank with new background in the garage filled with water to leach the lime out.
One Fluval 205 Cannister filter
One FLuval 405 Cannister filter.
One "Stealth" heater that upon first testing, released a stream of bubbles for a minute and then crapped out.
Two aquarium hoods with 18" fluorescent lights. The tank has a brace in the middle that is a plate of glass approx. 12"x18", and the hoods sit in the two openings on either side of it. The hoods do not reach all the way from front to back.
One unknown ballast screwed into the inside of the pine cabinet.
One EXTREMELY patient and supporting girlfriend.

So here's where my questions start:

I was considering wiring the inside of the cabinet and possibly building shelves in there. My thoughts were to run one wire out to the outlet, and then run it in, and to two switches controlling different outlets. One would be for the lighting, and timers and all stuff like that (heater, etc...) and the other circuit if you will would be for the filtration so I could just flip a switch and shut it down for maintenance. Has anyone done something like this? Do you think I would be better off using a few power strips to accomplish this instead?

Now from all the reading I have done.... I can assume that these lights are going to be totally inadequate for plants. SO..... The tank is five foot long. In all my reading I've heard about T5, T8... Now instead of paying through the nose at LFS for an "aquarium" light fixture... can I go to the local Lowes or Dome Heapo and get a 4' Fluorescent light fixture and then build it into a custom cabinet? I don't know what to look for if I go that route. (I'm assuming the specs will be on the box somewhere.) I just recently purchased a 4' twin fluorescent fixture to use over my workbench, and I think I paid under twelve bucks for it.

With some sort of light fixture over it.... I'm assuming that I'll need to cover the two openings in the tank with glass to prevent splashing on the lights and escapees. I'm comfortable with cutting (controlled breaking) of glass, drilling glass, and acutally cutting (with a diamond saw blade), so I was envisioning a hood that has the front flip up, and then having a hinged piece of glass lift up for feeding, maintenance, etc... I could drill the glass and bolt in Stainless steel hinges or something like that. (would only take me five minutes...)

My thoughts..... are to do a Walstead style setup. 3/8" Pea gravel around the outside to contain substrate, topsoil, and the washed sand topping that seems to be working so well in my little temporary tank. The sand is very coarse, due to the base rock it was weathered from, containing a lot of quartz and silica. My area of North Jersey was a huge iron mining area during the revolutionary war and I have a minimum of five iron mines within three miles of my house, so I know there's a good amount of iron in it. The way I wash it leaves me with almost pebbles, much coarser than "sand"...

I am going to use that piece of wood, but boiling it is totally out of the question. It just barely fits in a rubbermaid 100gal stock tank.

I've got plenty of time on my hands because of two things:

I have to leach the concrete out yet and I know that that is going to take some time.

We've painted the room in varying shades of brown, and the carped is this awful pastel yellow kind of color. I am NOT going to set the tank up until we get the new carpet in for obvious reasons. It's going to be a while before we save up for the carpet too.... giving me even MORE time to DO THIS RIGHT THE FIRST TIME.

So.... I'm throwing it all out there.... I'm not looking for a fancy CO2 setup or anything like that... and that's what I have to work with, along with a willingness to make/build anything that I need to. Not quite a "Hillbilly, knock the supporting wall out and bring in an I beam" project, but big enough to keep me busy for quite some time....

Looking forward to your comments. Crow.

RestlessCrow

Ok..... SO here comes the unexpected twist. A friend of mine got himself a 55 gal and recently set it up. On impulse he bought a few plants and put them in... (against my warnings...) and he got a pair of Oscars. As I predicted, they dug them up, started playing with them, and even set up a fishie Volleyball court where they would whack them back and across the net....

So my Dear buddy (who knows about my plans and helped me carry the aquarium down to the Man Cave) calls me and says, "You gotta take these plants. The fish are killing them!" So he gave me the plants in a plastic shopping bag.

Now.... Mind you... I have NOTHING set up yet to contain water that I would put a living thing into. Next thing I know, I have a plastic shopping bag with an Echinodorus 'Ozelot' and a Cryptocoryne 'Cilata' in it, and nothing to put it into.

After reading all about Walstead setutps, I rummaged around in the garage and found a 2.5 gal (?) tank, and added gravel around the perimiter, filled it with topsoil, and topped it off with well washed COARSE sand dug out of a local stream. I then plopped the plants into it, gently filled it with water, and to my suprise it was already clear. Since I was doing all of this outside in my greenhouse, I let the water run gently to finish clearing it off and it was clear after about five minutes. I ended up throwing on a pair of boots and rummaging around in the stream and coming up with a few clumps of something that resembles anacharis and plopped that in there....

I brought it in, put it where it got a little sunlight and set up a desk lamp.

After a little more reading, I decided I needed a few more plants so off I went to LFS and came home with a fistfull of moss, and some un-labled low foreground type plant. (Gimme time. I'm a plant geek but this is a whole new palatte of plants for me to learn. I'll get better with names. I pick them up quickly.)

There was also a tank full of Endlers Livebearers that were labled as such "Endlers livebearers, Small" and no price. I inquired with the head honcho that informed me that they were indeed NFS, but then proceeded to ask how many I wanted.

"Two pair?"

"No.... Can't do that. One?"

"Sold"

Upon arriving home, I break up the moss and spread it around the way I like while acclimating the fish. I plant the foreground plants, and now I have two happy as can be Endlers, and observed the male do his little "You know you want me" dance today. (One full day after entering his new home!)

That's the end of the story for the moment except for the pictures that follow, but I will keep everyone posted.... and as before, I welcome comments and advice! I'm bluffing my way through this following the old addage: "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with BULL"

The new Small tank:



If you've got Eagle eyes..... you can see my little Endler girl looking right at you:



My new baby boy. (On the left):

Bunnie1978

Everything looks great so far.
For the power, if you can do it, you probably should. You never know how many power strips you'll need when it's all said and done, and there's always something to add. I have a 8 outlet power strip with two 3 outlet things plugged into it, and I'm full...

For the lights, the fixture isn't the most important component, it's the tubes. At least that's what I think... I could be wrong about that. You can't go cheap on the tubes unless you're comfortable with serious limitations on the varieties of plants you can keep. The other thing though, about household fixtures is that they don't have reflectors.

The hand made glass canopy sounds great. Try to make your hinges as unobstructive as possible.

For CO2, I spent about $60 on my DIY set, and just ordered for $165 a pressurized system... just still need the cylinder. With your skills, you may be able to get away with DIY, it's just inconsistant, which helps algae out alot.

Can't wait to see more.

RestlessCrow

Hi Bunnie. Thanks for the reply! I've actually been checking the forum twice a day because I want to move forward with the project but don't want to go off half cocked and have to re-do anything. I talked to a future brother in law who is an electrician, and he told me to go with a few power strips all tagged together. (I think he didn't wanna get sucked into the project) That's FINE with me... Makes my life simpler.

While I'll agree with the fixture not being as important as the tubes... It kinda is, because if I have the fixture, I can start moving forward. I can always buy the tubes later. I cant' start building anyhing without the fixture first however. I forgot to mention that I've got full access to a metal fabricating shop, with a sheet metal brake so I can bend and fabricate a reflector for inside the fixture for simply the cost of materials.... (Told ya I'm a McGyver. You should see some to the things I've built for my little wheel horse garden tractor! LOL I can pull a 16 foot log 24" in diameter with a log hauler I built for that little bugger.)

One issue I'm trying to figure out how to deal with: Most fixtures are either four, or six feet long. My tank is five. If I go with a four foot fixture I'm worried about dark spots at the ends. (I've been reading all the forums.) With all THAT being said....

What are the benefits of T5 over T8? I haven't done enough reading yet I guess.....

I'm anxious to get the fixture so I can start with the more "mechanical" building part of it.

You mentioned making the hinges "unobstructive".... which gave me a genius idea that no one other than me would probably notice! LOL. If I use double thickness glass..... (1/4 in) I could flush mount the hinges like you would in wood. (Mortice them in.) I have the capability to grind the glass just enough to make the hinges fit flush with the surface. I'm sure that NO one other than myself or perhaps my father who is in the glass business would notice.... but it would be a nice touch of craftmanship to say the least.

Now..... I was leaning more towards a low tech Walstad type setup than going towards CO2 but then again.... I'm so far into this.... I might as well do it right. I make my own wine, so DIY CO2 sounds fun.... (and may lead to interesting by products.... ) My other pets feed me breakfast.... (Chickens) so why not my fish?

To anyone else reading out there in wonderland.... Keep this in mind:

I'm good at working with wood. I build wood boats for a hobby.
I'm decent with any kind of metal and have full access to a metal fab shop, and if anything is beyond my ability, the owner of the shop loves tinkering projects such as this, so the sky is the limit.
I'm bad with electricity, but have a future brother and father in law who are electricians.
I work with glass for a living. The thought of drilling a pane of glass and then enlarging the hole to five inches to me.... is as nerve wracking as making a PBJ sandwich for most other people. (No one ever told me I COULDN'T.... so I just DO it.. )

Thanks again for the reply. Looking forward to more comments.

Bunnie1978

Did you know that you can actually get the electrical components to build your own fixture? If you're going to build your own stand/canopy, that might be the most awesome way for you to do it. then you can have as many tubes as you like, and it would be scalable... you can just add another tube if you need more light. And you can stagger them...
Here are two forums that illuminated the possibilities to me... It's all greek to me though. It might help you out.
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...tro-light.html
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...nopy-done.html

I don't know much about the T5 or T8 bulbs. I use CF. 4 x 65 watt for a 75g tank, and I've got way more light than I know what to do with. I'm using a coralife aqualight fixture with 2 x 10000ks and 2 x 6700ks. The 6700ks are what my plants really like... they make bubbles almost immediately after turning them on.

DIY CO2 is easy, cheap cheap, but there are some drawbacks. It can be messy, and the CO2 is not consistant, so it's not controllable very easily. Algae LOVES that about DIY!! I took the recommendations of several people here and called Orlando. He makes the systems himself. It's greenleafaquariums.com.

Tex Gal

I've enjoyed reading about your project. How great to be getting back in to plants - aquatic nonetheless.

For you light I would recommend T5 bulbs. They are much more efficient and last longer. A friend of mine built my light for me and it is amazing. He is also a McGuyver type. (You'd get along well!) If you look on pgs. 53 and 55 (http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...escape-53.html), you can see some current pxs. of the tank.

Here is a link for my light build.
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...new-light.html

As important as the bulbs, are the reflectors for them. Geisseman bulbs and reflectors are really amazing. People have told me that the Geisseman bulbs will last for 7 years, where as others must be replaced anywhere from every 6-9 months. I used the Geisseman midday and you can see from my pxs the amazing color I get.

Good luck on your project. I'll be interested to see your progress.

BTW- there is NOTHING like real plants!!!