Coca-Fiber Covering Question?

[Studdlygoof]

Hey all...start of by saying im a newbie to this forum as well as to the "art" of the vivarium...i'm a big plant lover and after several years of depression during the winter due to lack of flora and fauna i decided to bring the plants indoors to me....i'm in the process of building a vivarium for my two RES...i took their current tank and have built a frame out of angle iron to extend it upwards another good 5 ft...i attached acrylic panels to the angle iron and am in the process of attaching driftwood to that to create the living space for the plants...inside the tank i am creating a fake rock background out of tile grout due to the constant water exposure...i've seen people attach the GS to their tanks and then silicone Coco-fiber to that...i love this idea because i believe that this would be the most natural stuff to grow a successful plant base...i bought one of those irrigation spliters that allows a single water tube in and splits it to 9 additional tubes....i'm gonna run this tube from my external sump under the tank to various parts of the wall and allow it to drip off of the driftwood in select locations...my real question is how well does the coco-fiber stay attached when it comes in contact with water...the last thing i want is the coco washing off the walls leaving them bare and a HUGE mess in with the turtles (they dont need any help making a mess!!)...just wondering if anyone had any personal experience with this type of setup and any opionions if it will work...suck....or another way to set it up....sorry for rambling on but i was in one of those flowing moods...thanks

[Tindomul1of9]

Hi, welcome to the board. Rest assured that water will not the dissolve the silicone. The coco fiber will not suddenly become unglued to the background. Mine stays wet alot because I spray the tanks so often. The bits that came off are the ones I pulled off because I didn't like the way they looked.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.
Whats an angle iron?

[twodogs]

Angle iron is a piece of iron bent at right angles as the letter L

[Landon]

id like to see pics if this enclosure. it sounds very interesting.

as Tindo stated coco will not fall off of silicone even with running water over it.

are you going to be attaching the coco with silicone though? or are you mixing it into your rock background grout? ive heard of people having trouble with the grout style backgrounds falling off after a while, but i believe those situations may have been due to improper mixtures. im not sure though as ive never used the stuff. i know there are successful vivs (and viv builders) that have been incorporating it for a long time. it must be able to stand the test of time if done properly.

[Studdlygoof]

For the plant section of the tank i was just going to use the silicone and coco fiber...i want to add a couple layers to give me a thick moisture substrate for the plants...i was a little worried about the grout falling off of the tank sides in the water so what i think that i might try is taking some thin pieces of 1/8th inch plastic and heating them up with a heat gun and bend them in natural shapes to simulate a rock wall...then attach some chicken wire to that to give the grout a rougher surface than the glass to attach itself...i want to photo document the whole thing so ill def post some pictures...right now im in the process of trying to figure out my plumbing schematic so that if i need to replace the hard plumbing on down the road it will be easy to access...thanks for the comments on the coco...its def the rout i'm going to take...

[Studdlygoof]

Here are a few pictures as I promised of what i have done so far...



This picture shows the frame i built for the 30 gallon tank with the angle iron...this will be filled to the near brim with water...the top half of plexi glass is where i will attach driftwood, plants and a waterfall...



This picture shows the rim i put around the bottom edge of the plexiglass to make sure that no water runs down between the glass and the outside of the aquarium

Sorry about the massive size...for some reason my computer is having trouble listening to directions and resizing the format today...More pictures to come...im off to the Depot to get some supplies so i can start roughing in the plumbing...comments/suggestions appreciated...

[harrywitmore]

This is going to be a cool setup indeed. My experience with coir is that if you use a thick mat of it, the parts that are not adhered to the silicon will eventually deteriorate and come loose. I believe most folks that use it in there vivs, use the loose stuff and most if not all is actually attached to the silicon. This stuff will break down very quickly in a very humid environment. So, using it as anything other than a surface dressing could be a problem.

[Studdlygoof]

I have read about the coco mats breaking down in the high humidty...what do you suggest...tree fern panels or the break apart coco blocks spread out over silicon?

[harrywitmore]

I believe the coir will be OK if used in the ground form. I think that is what the clocks consist of. The mats are the thing that is problematic. Tree Fern panels are great also but sort of pricey fir a large space.

[Studdlygoof]

Good stuff...ill go with the ground up form then...thanks a lot...enjoyed the website too...nice plants