Western WA Native Tank 20G - NEW BG TECHNIQUE

[froggsong]

lol beck. all in good fun. I know you knew that though. :P

[beckdg]

Originally Posted by froggsong

lol beck. all in good fun. I know you knew that though. :P

don't get all wussy on me now. people might think you're soft.

[stimpy]

Merry Christmas
Your new viv looks absolutly stunning! I especially love that big old fungi !
Can't say enough about your moss collection.I am envious.I will have to try
a native viv some day.I think we have similar indigenous species in B.C.
Well done

[froggsong]

It's working out QUITE well. The tank has been set up for a couple of weeks or so now, and the mosses are all doing just fine. No drying, no fading. I have tree ferns that I threaded through the moss so that their roots were in the back, and they are putting out new ferns, even though the roots are in the GS. I am having quite a mold bloom, but I'm not terribly worried about it, it's just common white mold. I'll try to get to the old computer tower I have in a box and rig up the fan from it inside the tank to get the air circulating a bit better. I have a full glass top on it (made of two glass shelves I had sitting around) and I only keep a tiny crack between them for a bit of air exchange. I don't want the mosses to dry out. The little ferns (maidenhair something or other... Not maidenhair ferns... I can't recall atm moment what they're called) are even putting out fresh fiddleheads.

There are a couple of places that need touch ups with some extra moss. Either the GS expanded more than I expected over a few days, or the frogs/salamanders pulled some of the moss away from it at the seam between the two pieces of the BG from the ten gallon tank (the bit on the right side).

The frogs seem to be quite happy. The one that is heavily patterned is a male and has been calling fairly often. I've been feeding them moths for the past few days, and it is soooo fun to watch them go crazy over them.

[froggsong]

Wow, I NEVER posted any more pics to this? How unfortunate...

Because there wasn't enough air circulation, I ended up getting alot of mold/fungus growing in the tank. Also, because I was watering the moss with tap water, alot of it has suffered.
The plan is to pull the frogs out (perhaps tomorrow), clean the majority of the fungus from the tree 'shroom, then rinse all the moss with distilled water. If it wouldn't cost so much, I'd fill the tank with distilled water for a few minutes and then drain it all out again, but I'm not willing to spend 20 bucks to fill it for 5 minutes. I bought a lot of used PC fans from craigslist, and I'll be wiring one up for this tank. I'll also be making a humidifier to keep the air from drying out. I'll do that with a 2L bottle and an air stone. I'll have a small crack where the versa top doesn't go all the way to the tank frame in the front to allow for a bit of air exchange. I'll have to play with the humidifier to get the right humidity levels.

Hopefully I'll be able to work on this tomorrow. With my back injury I haven't been able to do much. If I do get to work on it, I'll make sure I take pictures of the process.

[Epiphile]

Sorry to hear that you've had a bit of trouble with this tank- I'm sure that after the upgrades it'll fare a lot better.

What were you using to light this tank?

[froggsong]

A 75W equivalent CFL (I can't remember the actual wattage, perhaps it's 15W?), I recently swapped it for a lower wattage one, but it's a soft white, and I don't like how it looks. I'll probably be going back to the other bulb.

I keep forgetting to pick up the distilled water when i'm at the store... I'll call my hubby when he gets off work and have him pick up a gallon or two so I can work on getting the tank cleaned up.

On a happier note, although I was planning to make an air exchanger, I found a Walgreens that still had a bunch of the travel humidifiers, and I picked up two more (I was tempted to get three!). I'll have enough of them to dedicate one to each tank now. I'm still going to wire up a fan (I have enough of them that I'll be posting them in the classified for sale, btw, if anyone is interested... I should have all my ads up sometime today or tomorrow), but at least the humidifier will also freshen the air some (it uses a fan to blow the fog out of the spout). I'll probably set it on low and have it run constantly, that way the moss will always be hydrated.

[froggsong]

so... I just took this apart because the frogs kept escaping from... somewhere... I still don't know where. When I was searching for the second frog, the BG just pulled away from the glass... I don't think it would have if I hadn't been tugging on it a bit, but what a bummer. I wasn't planning to do a new BG for the tank, I was just going to put in a FB and make it a palu. NOW, it's going to take me much longer than couple of hours to work on it.

To top it all off, unless he's hiding really really well, one of the salamanders is missing. He might have died and I didn't find him because they burrow, or he might have escaped too (they climb at night).

Oh well, I guess...

So, I guess I'll do something a bit more involved this time. I might try to reattach the BG to the glass, but I'm not sure. All I have is super glue, wood glue, gorilla glue, and silicone. The super glue will probably melt the foam, the wood glue will probably not hold for long, the gorilla glue might work, and the silicone will take longer than I'm willing to wait to cure. I do hope I get it back in there, the ferns were growing really well, and most of the moss was doing good too.

Also, I'll be using the lights that WERE on my fish tank for this now. I need to get new bulbs, but it's still better than what WAS on there.

[JoeG]

Go for the gorilla glue... it likes dampness to kick off the curing process and will bond glass, stone and all kinds of stuff!! You might have to clamp it overnight though...it'll cure in about an hour or 2 but not 100% till 24 hours if i recall. good luck, that tank is gorgeous and worth the effort if you ask me!

[froggsong]

I might try it then! How easy is it to remove gorilla glue if I decide to do something different with the tank in the future?