well i suppose i should have asked BEFORE i started

[Athen]

well there i was starting construction on my first FBT in preparation and practice for when i get my tank for my CWD built this FBT will be for my ball python and i ran into a wall so to speak i got it all planned out and decided where i wanted my water and where i wanted the land and cut out my egg crate and everything was going great until i went to place my screen on the egg crate... i dont know how to attach the screen to the egg crate how do you guys go about getting that done? please any help ASAP will be very much appreciated!

[froggsong]

I've seen pics of people using silicone...

[Jason]

I used Fishing line to sew it to the eggcrate around the outside edge. no messing with silicone or aquarium safe glues but takes a bit of time.

[froggsong]

You could probably also make holes in the mesh big enough for a tiny zip tie and zip it to the egg crate.... Just think how I feel, I didn't get any egg crate at all!!! I don't know if I want to try to make a FB or if I just want to put in the substrate... I'm mainly doing this one to practice with the GS. The bottom and the sides up to six inches are press board from an old bookcase, lol.... I couldn't get the epoxy paint w/o special ordering it, and I couldn't afford the pond liner right now because of a mix up at the bank, so I'm not sure HOW I'm going to do the bottom, lol. I'm going to apply a layer of silicone to the inside surface of all the boards, hopefully that will be sufficient... I'll probably have to just do pebbles on the bottom for drainage... The water feature will be completely contained, so I don't need the false bottom for the water. Anyway, good luck with yours. You're keeping a picture log, right?

[Athen]

lol ya ill be keeping a picture log as soon as i get enough progress to take some pics of it as of now all i have is my eggcrate cut to the shape i want it to be and one of my walls for the FB has the screen sewn on with fishing line it was a small piece about 10"x3" and it took me 2.5 hours to sew on ill give that zip tie mthod a try on my other piece as for the layer over the top part of my FB i decided to use some poly cotton.. but if the zipties are easy to work with i might just do that and as soon as i at least get some of the FB done ill take some pics it might be a couple days though as i have Duty tomorrow... ahh the lovely duty 24hours of being at work with nothing to do im stationed at a shore command and i still have duty! oh well could be worse. and then i need to get this tank finished before the end of the month cause im going on a training mission with the army for like 2 months.. fun fun!

[Rainfrog]

Originally Posted by froggsong

The bottom and the sides up to six inches are press board from an old bookcase, lol.... I couldn't get the epoxy paint w/o special ordering it, and I couldn't afford the pond liner right now because of a mix up at the bank, so I'm not sure HOW I'm going to do the bottom, lol. I'm going to apply a layer of silicone to the inside surface of all the boards, hopefully that will be sufficient... I'll probably have to just do pebbles on the bottom for drainage... The water feature will be completely contained, so I don't need the false bottom for the water.

You might be heading for disaster with the bottom of your tank here. I would advise you to find a plastic tub that fits into the bottom of your tank and silicone it in place around the edges. you can build a sort of safe and easy temp bottom that will work out until you can do what you wanted the right way. Once you get the liner or epoxy you could somply cut your silicone seal around the tub and remove it to find a perfect clean surface underneath to work with.

[froggsong]

Why wont the silicone work to waterproof it? It should work the same way that the epoxy paint does, or am I wrong? I'm spreading a nice thick layer of it with a putty knife. I don't think they even make a plastic tub with the dimensions I need. Oh well, we'll see I guess. I'll fill the bottom with water for a couple of days before I put anyone in it to make sure that it holds water just fine. I'm not planning on it actually holding water anyway, just the excess from misting the tank all the time. The water feature will be in a glass part which is a ten gallon tank turned on end, with a plexi divider. This is really meant to be a sort of experiment anyway, once I build the new tank for my dragon (properly waterproofed) they will be going into the tank that he is currently in, which is glass (and much larger than what I am building).

[Athen]

im not sure if you saw this one but this looks like a pretty good epoxy paint it even says on the can aquacultures =) a little pricey though

Aquatic Eco-Systems: Epoxy Paint, 1 Gallon

[froggsong]

I have a list of some that might be cheaper, and are perfectly safe, but no one carries them around here. I'll have to have it special ordered (or order it offline). I know one thing, I don't want to ever have to spread silicone on something for as long as I've been doing it today. That stuff puts out enough fumes, when you spread it thin, to kill an elephant. I can't even smell it anymore I've been working on it so long... But I get to do the GS next. I'm all done with the silicone. I used almost three whole tubes of the stuff! I'll only have to use it again when I install the plexiglass. I was trying to build it so I wouldn't have to cut the plexi (a total pain in the butt), but I miscalculated and now I'll have to cut it... Arrrgh... I might start my log thread sometime tonight.

[Athen]

yeah miscalculations rly sux how much did your plexi run you and what were the dimensions? im glad that my tank can ake a little longer to complete so that i can order all that stuff i figured out today that my wood for my tank will run me about 70 which isnt bad at all