Here it is my new viv

[mh32]

Please let me know what you think. I've been working on this for a few months now and am 90% complete.

You can see that big hole in the back and the hose running down that is supposed to be a water fall but changed my plan at the last minute and am rethinking what to do there. I was thinking of getting a hollow piece of bamboo and running the water through it and letting it fall into the hole in the false bottom.

This is for a small red eared slider. He has about 8 inches of water and can then climb up on the land. I know he will outgrow this but when he does I think it will be a cool set up for some firebelly toads and some fish.

I started with a 40 gal hex tank that was so scratched I wondered if I should even use it.

I covered the top half with silicone and GS and also siliconed in some brackets to hold up my false bottom.


I then created my false bottom using eggcrate, hot glue, and silicone. After I had the general shape I wanted I covered the platform with GS to be carved later.


This is after the carving to get a rock look.


Using a fake rock technique I covered the GS with thin set concrete several thin layers. After letting it cure I then painted it to give it a more realistic look. I siliconed the false bottom to the brackets and covered all the GS with silicone and then peat. Forgot to take photos during these steps. I drilled the tank (which I soon discovered was 1/2 inch glass) and set up a drain sump filtration system with the return being a waterfall.(not yet finished)

So here is the almost finished product.


Here are some of the plants close up. Thought I'd try out some carnivorous plants. Got a venus fly trap and a octopus plant. We'll see how those work out.



I'm still trying to figure out what to plant on the walls if you have any suggestions please let me know. Or if you have a suggestion about a drip wall or similar.

[Waterkeeper]

This is a good looking setup!

The only thing i can say bad is that I would never use anything metal where I know there is going to be water and humididty.(shelf brackets)

But it looks fantastic, I like the work on the GS. Are you filtering the water in any way?

[Jason]

yikes. a turtle! ... very cute and one of the most dirty pets you can own lol. not germ wise but man to thay cause a mess. i run dual Fluval 205's and two Fluval 4plus and i have to shut it down and clean them so damn often i sometimes think bout ploping my trio in the river. enjoy him/her at the size it is. once it grows up. it will be a eating / pooping machine. i also had a small fight on my hand between the 2 adults that ended up putting 45 gallons of water into my carpet because thay slammed a rock into the glass.... once these die in maybe 20 years ill never have another

[ReverendDirt]

Is that a yellow belly?

[mh32]

Thanks for the replies.

Yeah I thought for a while about the brackets and couldn't think of any other option except some sort of pillars or something but didn't like the look of that. So we'll see how long they last. They looked like they were sealed pretty good.
For filtration I am using a layer of filter fiber then a layer of carbon. I was planning on getting some bioballs but now I'm wondering how necessary they would be.
As for the type of turtle as far as I know it's just a plain old red eared slider.

[whitesarana]

Looks like ur tanks tall enough to mount some ferns or jewel orchids.

Where did you get your tank???

[mh32]

The tank I've had for about 10 years. My brother had been using it for some fish. When he finally got bored I had just discovered vivariums and snatched that thing right back.

Can you mount ferns and jewel orchids to the GS background similar to a brom or how would you do it.

[Waterkeeper]

hey, can you post up a full shot from the front? this looks a lot like what mine is going to look like shape wise and with the water all along the front. I'd love to see a "full frontal"

as for the brackets, you can use pvc mounted in with the GS, or siliconed to the sideds to. I didn't relize how strong the GS bond can be till we did this one for my buddies snake tank and I made a branch sticking straight out from the foam.

[Green Ghost]

Originally Posted by mh32

Using a fake rock technique I covered the GS with thin set concrete several thin layers. After letting it cure I then painted it to give it a more realistic look.

Can you tell me how you cured the cement? I've done the same thing but it seems I'm able to scratch the surface of the cement with my fingernail. The cement is long dried but the surface kind of powders off when I scratch it. I don't think it will hold up to being immersed in water.

I've painted the cement on about an 1/8" to 1/4" thick. It's been dry for at least a month. I've been told to cure with vinegar by continually washing it and then letting it dry. I haven't tried this yet because I've been so busy this month. I saw your post and wanted to ask you how you did it. You think curing it like that will make the cement surface much harder?

I used regular concrete for this.

[mh32]

From what I understood concrete cures by keeping it wet. If you let it dry out each time it won't cure properly. What I did was keep it covered with a plastic bag and sprayed it with water every few hours without letting it completely dry out for several days if not weeks.

From what I understand the vinegar is not necessarily for curing the cement but lowering the ph while the cement is curing.

The reason I used thin set instead of regular cement is because most thin set has an adhesive added to it to keep the different layer from chipping away from one another.

But I don't really know much about it just what I've read on other posts. So I'm by no means an expert. For all I know the whole thing my crumble next week.