10g viv for crab/brackish stuff ... lol HELP!

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PufferFan

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Jul 15, 2006
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Hi this is my very first viv and i dont quite know what im doing lol.

I have tons of questoins and i will have pictures up tomorrow

Today i got some egg crate and great stuff. i had some fake rock structure that took me like 3 hours to cut up.

QUESTIONS!!

  • Will great stuff seal to the glass through the egg crate?? im kinda depending on it.. i need it too because i am hoping to seal the water off from a land part with it. i cant take it back out to put silicone down.
  • Do i need to put anything on it before i paint it??
  • What paint do i use??
  • Im not covering it with sand so i wont be using the epoxy.. do i need it anyways?
  • Im using very very fine sand and im really worried about the filter. the filter is a 10gallon in tank filter that is made bye whisper i will set it on the bottom behind the rock and the water will trickle down it.
 

PufferFan

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Jul 15, 2006
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the foam now has a film on the top and it kinda feels like a really thick ballon filled with jello.

I'm kinda confused on how this stuff is suppose to dry.. does it get hard like Styrofoam? I planned on sanding and cutting.
 

calivivarium1

Finished the fight
May 5, 2008
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DO you have any way to post some photos? I am not quite sure I'm tracking exactly what it is you are trying to do in all of your questions. I am hardly an authority on this stuff, but here is what advice I can give you:

- Check out Ohbly's thread on his saltwater vivarium on this forum. Its good stuff. I believe there are a few other good threads w/ photos, I just can't think of them at this time. Also, check out dendroboard.com. I am a lurker on there, they have good stuff....

- Have you placed silicone behind the GS on vertical surfaces? If not, I highly recommend that you start that part over and place silicone behind the GS. I would not worry about the sealing on the water line, just cover the GS with silicone and I would imagine that would do...

- I suppose you could paint GS, but I wouldn't. Use black or brown silicone instead.

- Epoxy? If no sand, I don't think you would need epoxy for anything (I know some people who use sand and just press it into silicone).

- As far as the filter goes, if you have it behind some sort of barrier and just do your best to not put sand near it, it may work. Maybe you want to try one of the fishy forums for that? I say try it out and see how it goes.

- Yeah, the GS kinda feels like Styrofoam after it cures. Once cured, you should have no problems cutting/sanding it however you like.
 

PufferFan

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Jul 15, 2006
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Well turns out the GS sealed great and i will be putting some silicone where it meets the glass just in case. All the foam im thinking will be cut down and sanded as close to the rock as i can and the i will use white silicone to put white sand on it. so it will just look like sand is sitting on the rocks. I still have one thing i have to do. i need to hide the filter some how

The filter runs great with no sand in and there is a small "Dam" that over flows into the filter area i'm thinking this will keep sand out and will also pull the water towards that area. I have a bunch of pictures just the laptop wont read the memory stick. So i have to use the PC but right now my moms sleeping in that room :(
 

ohbly

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Feb 9, 2006
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sounds like its going to be good:)
I think you should carve a cover out of foam to hide the pump.
Oh and one thing to think about if you are sticking sand onto the foam is capillary action- water can wick up and over the sides between the sand particles and slowly drain the water section into the dry area behind.
this happened to me, so what I did was paint a line of epoxy around the waterline to stop it.
 
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