A different type of tank build

I recently got a 18x18x24 terrarium. I have started my PDF build on it and thought you guys might like to follow along. Here is where are are so far:

False bottom. I put in 7 support PVC doodads for the false bottom. The false bottom is an area that water can drain down into keeping the substrate moist but not soaked and helping maintain humidity.I made mine out of egg crate in a manner that is actually pretty similar to a plenum in the salt world. It's a bit of a pain in the butt to cut but its so cheap.

I think I over engineered it a bit after reading some horror stories about false bottoms that collapsed I didn't want to risk that. Each pipe has four holes drilled into the bottom for water to move through them. I also drilled holes in the top and zip tied the supports to the egg crate so that they wouldn't slip while I moved the tank around. I was going to glue them to the bottom but this was surprisingly easier and less messy. There is a pond in the bottom right and the water fall tower hole in the back.



I've also got the back and sides siliconed for the Great Stuff expandable foam. You do this so that the foam has something to stick onto when you spray it. The foam is sprayed to create a 3D background that you can carve when dry. This was more of a pain in the butt then I thought it would be. Silicone does not spread easily like paint!

You can also see I have the barrier on the false bottom and the waterfall tower is placed in position. The barrier keeps substrate out of the false bottom making sure it stays put.

The tower will act as housing for the waterfall pump as well as for a small fan I'll put in for air circulation. It goes all the way to the top so that I can change the pump or fan if I need to later on. I put barrier block on the bottom of the tower to stop messy floaties from getting to the pump and clogging it. At the top 1/3 of the tower you can see another barrier wrapped around - this is for the fan. I'm going to leave a space that is open to that mesh for the fan to blow out of.




View from the top down:



Things to do:

1. Tweak the transition between the pond and the bottom. Need to figure out how to keep the substrate out either via great stuff or egg crate.

2. Spray the great stuff on the back

3. Cover the GS with coco fiber and silicone.

4. Modify top to be a glass top to keep the humidity in.

5. Plant.

6. Frogs.

Nice Adam! What are you putting in it?

Update time!

UPDATES:

Did some more work on it this week. I'm doing my masters degree and some certification courses at the same time so time tends to be limited these days. Trying to work on it at least an hour or two a night. My wife has been helping a ton as well.

So I decided to start with the foam. Before I could do that I need to make sure I could keep my "floating" piece of wood a float before I used the GS. Here is what it looked like:



Masking tape was my friend. I really like the Malaysian drift wood piece that is in the corner. And the floating branch is pretty awesome. I plan to make some vines that go from that branch to the water fall/fan column.

Here is another pic with some pots in place as well:




I had an interesting challenge with the floating branch. I would have preferred to place the tank on it's back and spray the foam that way. However with the branch I couldn't figure out a good way to do it and keep it where I wanted. So we decided to spray with it upright. This actually had the unintended effect of making some pretty cool looking places in the wall. Here is the first pass with the GS:



You can see that the waterfall/river is the mess of GS that is on the left hand side. I also used GS to foam in part of the pond and to create a barrier for the substrate to prevent it sliding into the pond.

Next we carved:



I carved the back and the water feature. There is a cave you can kinda see in the back as well. It's hard to also see but there are several shelves on the background for frogs to do well frog things on.

The falls/river:



You can see a straw going through the GS that's actually where the water will come out then the water splits around a "rock" in the middle of the stream.

Next we will paint the falls and river in drylock to give a rocky look and then cocofiber/silicone the background. Not sure how far I'll get this week as we're leaving on Saturday to spend 10 days in Disneyworld. When we get back I'd like to get it fully operational and at least plants in as soon as I can.

Thanks Mike! It's been a pretty fun learning experience so far.

I had used some tin snips and it went pretty fast. Had to dodge some flying plastic bits at times!

Very cool. Enjoy Florida.

That is cool!

Viv update!

Got all my plants in over the past two weeks, got the waterfall working, got the glass top installed, and got my froglets! They are a trio of fine spot leucomelas that are two weeks out of the water.

Here are some pictures:

One of the three fine spots:



A different one in the viv right after I placed it:



And the last one who did not want to come out of the cup and then wouldn't let go of my hand:



Close up of two:



Some pictures of the plants:








Full Viv Shot:

I actually have a fan that goes off once per hour for five minutes to dry the plants. The violet sits right under it so it should be fine.