[dewalltheway]

I ventured into the world of Ripariums and found that it is quite interesting and fun. Not only do you get to have submerged plants but able to work with emerged plants as well.
I started my journey about 2 weeks ago when my daughter who has some goldfish in a 20 gal tank told me she didn't want them anymore so that opened the door to have a tank to start one. Here is the tank and stand.

Stand...nothing spectacular I know.

So I dove head first into the project by first cleaning up the tank. I wanted to do a rimless style and didn't have the money to buy a new tank so Hydorphyte had a thread to where he used a block plane and cut down the plastic on the top rim to the glass to remove. Here are some pics of what I did

I then replaced the 1/2" plywood on the stand for 3/4" plywood and then sanded and put on a new coat of varnish

Next, I cleaned up the tank the best i could (even used CLR) but could not get the water spots off around the top so I will have to live with that for the time being. I then removed the silicone from the corners because whoever did the silicone job on the tank was very messy and it looked bad so I re-siliconed the edges.
The cleaning

Still water spots

Removed silicone

New silicone

Ready to silicone

All done siliconing

I then re-painted the back only 2/3 of the way up where the water line will be.

Finished and on the stand

With the light hung

We will now pause for a brief intermission.....

 

[Tex Gal]

It cleaned up really nice. I guess taking the rim off is fine since it won't hold much water...

I love you DIY guys! You're all so talented!!!

 

[GlitcH]

Lookin good!
I'm looking forward to seeing this mature.

 

[dewalltheway]

Back from the brief, ok long, intermission....

On Sunday, 1-3-10, I did a test fill-up, and I found a couple small leaks so I had to redo some of the silicone and then wait for 48 hours before another test. Well Wed. 3-6-10 arrived and I did my test and......no leaks! So, I am using MTS on this tank so I had a mixture of brown & black gravel and flourite that I had used in my 90 gal tank sitting in a bucket so I washed it and edged the bottom..

put my dolmite and potash in.....

Lets stop there for a moment. As some of you may notice, I forgot to put the potash and dolmite in the bottom before putting in the brownie mixture so I had to take it back out and that is why you see some soil on the back glass.....now, let's continue...

I put the brownie mixture in and set the oven for 350 for 15 mins, I'm sorry, kind of hungry..

and then cap and fill...

After 24 hours of filtering....I have clear water ready to go..

Thx to Hydrophyte, he sent me some beautiful plants along with the planters, trellises, and substrate and got that on Friday 3-8-10. I just put the plants in the planters at lunch and here is how they came....

Friday night started in planting and arranging and here is how it all shook out...

and the finished product as of Friday night 1-8-10

 

[doubleott05]

try vinager(sp) on your calcium that usually works for me.

 

[doubleott05]

nice tank