Pro construction-55 lgal palu - Page 3

Biology · #21 11-05-2009, 07:10 PM

AHH sorry i havent been on here in forever! I just moved to a new city and started a new job at a different zoo. However I did bring my tank with me lol. 8 hour drive with a 55 gal in the back of my truck.

Ok the good news is it is up and running. I have no live stock in it, but it is full planted and the water is cycling I'm actually very impressed with it, it turned out better than i thought. ill post the rest soon i swear, I just got Internet installed in my new apartment last night! I hope you all will like it!

beckdg · #22 11-05-2009, 09:13 PM

patiently anticipating... beck

Epiphile · #23 11-06-2009, 08:53 AM

Yes, good to have you back. I thought you'd forsaken us...

Looking very much forward to seeing your setup.

Biology · #24 11-15-2009, 09:56 PM

ok heres some more ive been a lazy ass lately =p

Ok for the water part. Farly easy. I like using rocks I found out at the lake. Im not a big fan of attaching the rocks directly to the back of the tank and like to have them removable for moving the tank if need be.

So i basically cut two pieces of acrylic for the two "walls" of the water section. Same shape and size. Ive done with aquariums multiple times and works great, looks good, can be lifted out and lasts a long time.

Simple get larger FLAT rocks of varying shapes and sizes. First I try to lay all the rocks out on the ground on the acrylic put them together like puzzle pieces.

OH before you silicon any of the rocks i take some coarse sand paper and scratch the hell out of the side the rocks will be glued to really helps it stay in place. It feels weird to be scratching acrylic when Im used to buffing scratches out... but go to town!
So once you know were your rocks are going silicon them down
*hint* put the biggest ones at the bottom makes it a bit more natural. Also, i was using primarily "slate?" all the same rock but I toss some small different color/ type of rocks in the mix to make it look a bit less uniform. Really makes it look good.

The two pieces should fit in snug i did kinda overlapping rocks at the corner were the two pieces meet. But not that they are seperate and not glued together. To make sure they wouldnt fall down I used a roto-zip (drill that acts like a saw. To cut a whole through both the center piece of acrylic (dividing the water and land) and put a small screw and nut on it to keep it attached. Do this at the very top so it wont leak...

Also, u will notice the notch were the water should overflow the separation wall. I made a small piece of acrylic so the water wont huge the wall and go right down it has to "cascade" off something onto the rock work going down to the filter pool. (yea its hard to explain u will see.

Biology · #25 11-19-2009, 10:55 PM

Just thought i would toss in a couple pics. Its ALL DONE. But i dont have pics of it yet haha. Anyway heres a couple more things of stuff

If you look next to the background made of GS and the coco-concrete mix you can see a bark thing. This is my "tree?" If the Backgound mixture ontop of the GS is too wet it with flack and fall apart over time. Also, I needed access to the bottom under the "floor" and to the pump. Never not leave access to the botttem should you need to drain it, change the pump (which just sits at the bottom of my "tree") etc.

The tree is simply some big thick bark I found on a recently downed tree. Bark that thick and (i think it was cotton wood tree?) can last no joke years. So I found a piece of old plasic pvc gutter in the garage. cut the right length and literally nailed the bark to it. Short nails through the gutter side first so its not showing. I use three pieces and they overlap so no holes to see the back of the (conveniently) brown guttter haha.

slide it in place dropped my little pump into the bottom and the cord runs up the tree. Oh and the bottom of the gutter is all holey so water can go through to the pump. I like this set up cus it give some water movement through the bottom. ill take some pics soon and show you all im super stoked it all worked out. Ive built alot of others but nothing on this small a budget and in a 55.

alex_snake_gunit · #26 11-25-2009, 09:46 AM

looks good
will be something nice,im sure

froghobbiest · #27 01-27-2011, 05:32 AM

nooo wheres the finished pic??lol i was lookin forward to seeing it finished after reading everything...how did it turn out?

ARTemka427 · #28 03-20-2011, 03:46 AM

Yep)) 1 year passed, is it finished ?

timmac69 · #29 03-21-2011, 04:13 PM

I just built a 55gal Palu myself....would love to see how yours turned out...please post completed pics!