BIG TIME Build log! - Page 2

raymondsmindjob · #11 06-27-2011, 06:37 PM

So I just ran into another fly in the ointment.

As the black paint on the back of my background was drying last night, the great stuff on the front started to shrink a little bit, which caused my background to start to warp. So I was intending on sawing it really quick to get ready to paint it later, but instead I had to weigh it down to flatten it back out, so I won't be able to saw or paint it until later on this evening.

In the meantime I went ahead and took a few more pics.
The first one is a pic of my 2 asian themed aquarium ornaments. Both of these are really small and I will be placing them at key locations on the background feature.

The second pic is of the plants I have bought so far, I got these at lowes and home depot. I tried to include the tags in the photos, but just in case the compression of the pics blurred the writing on the tags, from right to left there is a Golden Moneywart Plant, a Japanese Spurge, and some dwarf Mondo Grass.
I also have some java moss that I got on Ebay since no pet store sells any type of moss except moss balls, but the moss I received was 1/2 dead by the time I got it, so I have it soaking in a mason jar in the windowsill to hopefully revive it.

raymondsmindjob · #12 06-28-2011, 08:20 PM

Cut and painted my background last night. As I mentioned before it warped a little from the great stuff, so after I cut it there were a few sizable gaps in the background.
My plan to correct this is to put great stuff in the cracks after I install it in the tank.
I also attached the dragons head to the water feature.

Here are a few pics of the painted background. The first picture is of all 3 pieces, the second picture is of the water feature, and the final picture is a close up of some of the texture on the backgound.

All thats left to do is decorate the water feature a little, silicone some substrate to parts of the background, and I still have to paint the great stuff on my false bottom.

Then its time to install it all in the tank, which I hope to get done tomorrow.

raymondsmindjob · #13 06-29-2011, 04:36 AM

So I just finished applying the classic silicone/substrate layer the background for this project, and I took a few pics of this process. Now you can see why I painted the entire background brown, that way I didn't have to perfect with my layer of silicone/substrate, in fact I wanted to intentionally not cover some areas here and there and I also didn't put any substrate below where the water line will be.

To complete this step I used GE#2 brown silicone and Jungle Bed substrate. This type of substrate is really textured and has a lot of wood or coconut chips in it, so I put some in a bowl and picked put all the these chips and long stringy fibers.
To apply the silicone one should always wear gloves, but also I used a plastic spoon to spread the silicone out so my gloves didn't get as messy.

While I was at it I also siliconed some rocks to the sides of the water feature for an added touch.

raymondsmindjob · #14 06-29-2011, 04:48 AM

I also painted my false bottom today, but I am questioning the color? Not sure if I like it, but I didn't want it to be the same brown color the rest of my project is so I painted it beige.
Used the same process as all my other painting in this project with the mix of ingredients mentioned earlier in this build log.
Think I will start another thread for feedback on the color choice here. If anyone has some suggestions please let me know.

raymondsmindjob · #15 06-29-2011, 12:29 PM

Just got done repainting the problematic false bottom aand decided to go with a light brown color, should look more natural that way.

I also used the vacuum cleaner attachment to remove the loose pieces of jungle bed substrate from my background feature, and I vacuumed the tank out as well to remove all the dust and foam bits from the inside of the tank.

Didn't think it was super important to take any pics of this stuff.

The bonus was I got all this done in about 45 minutes while my 2 little ones were taking naps.

Now I'm off to clean the tank with some aquarium safe cleaner I got at Petsmart

Horray, after that all that's left to do is install everything into the tank, then put great stuff in the cracks and paint the great stuff filler, and I may apply some silicone/substrate to the filler as well to preserve continuity.

raymondsmindjob · #16 06-30-2011, 03:56 AM

Got a couple of updates on my construction progress to share, and I guess I will start with the less exciting of the 2 to keep everyone on their toes.

I decided to do a little plant collecting today, and I took my little ones on a walk in the monster double stroller down the local bike trail which is only about a block from my house. Didn't find much I could use, but I did find a few really nice patches of moss growing right on the side of the bike trail, so I picked a little of it, but not too much.

Hers a pic of what I collected...

raymondsmindjob · #17 06-30-2011, 04:34 AM

Now is when this whole process starts getting good!

I attached my faux brick walls inside the tank, which are used to hide the false bottom from view, then I attached my background inside the tank.

For any silicone work that would be visible I used black DAP silicone, and for anthing not visible I used GE 1 clear silicone.

As I stated earlier, my BG warped and it was actually worse than I anticipated, I had to slowly silicone down on side at a time of each piece of the background and wait for about an hour, then Silicone the other side.
Since I had 3 BG piecs it took seriously like 6 hours to get it to attach correctly.

After this process there were still some large gaps in my background. This was due to the great stuff shrinking after expanding as well as having to cut it to fit it inside thetank. But better to work outside the tank, as mistakes are more easily corrected and I caould be sloppy with my painting work.

Anyway attached are some pics of everything attached in the tank with the great stuff applied to the cracks in the background. For fun I put my 2 aquaraium ornaments where they belong on the background.
There are some closeups of those as well as a close-up of my future water feature. In these pics you can see the great stuff lids I used for planters on either side of he water feature.

jlk89 · #18 07-01-2011, 10:17 PM

any idea on the animals to put in there to keep the fat little buddha company?

raymondsmindjob · #19 07-01-2011, 11:36 PM

I am still thinking about what I want to live in here.
I think newts would work out very well in this environment, but they are a real pain to feed when they are smaller, and the local pet store hasn't had any in a while. Some paddle tail newts are more agressive eaters and might do well.
FBTs would also be good for this tank, but I have been unsuccessful in finding a lid for the tank and those toads are actually really good climbers.
Another thought would be a couple smaller reeve's turtles, but then I have to think about basking lights and really watching the temps more closely.
The weakest idea I had was just some comet gold fish, since I went with a water garden theme and they look like small Koi Pond fish. But wow, these are super easy to take care of.
Basically I am still weighing the pros and cons of my creature choice for this tank, and any way I choose to go I will still have to wait a few months while all my plants and mosses establish themselves.

raymondsmindjob · #20 07-01-2011, 11:39 PM

Speaking of which, I am open to suggestions about what should live in my tank.
And actually I should pick something colorful, there is a lot of brown in there and a dark colored animal would be hard to see sometimes.

Hmmm...what about making it into a butterfly garden? Now that sounds uniquely like a pain in the ass...