Huenemedoe
Active Member
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2019
- Messages
- 114
- Reaction score
- 89
Hello Everybody!
I started this build for a few reasons.....
1. It was super fun!!!!!!
2. Space requirements
3. Higher nitrates for mushrooms and softies
I definitely encourage everyone to try a build like this at least once! With a little patience and organizational skills it was actually a pretty easy to do build.
I started with getting some double strength, 1/8th inch glass from my local Ace hardware. They had a professional grade glass cutting table there and cut it for no extra charge. I paid about 23$ for all five sheets (20x10 1/4, two 10x7s, two 20x7). The glass sits on top of the bottom and each piece is 1/8in thick. Also at Ace I got some number 1 GE 100% silicon, and of course some masking tape.
After gathering my supplies, I began masking. Two things to notice are the pattern which I taped and the distance from which the edge of the tape is away from the glass. I left about 1/4 of an inch of space near those edges I also put some extra pieces to hold the glass together once everything was together.
Moving to the silicon stage, I ran a rather thick bead along the bottom and up the sides of each piece (honestly I went a little overkill just to be safe). I then let it sit for 3 days because I was out of town, 24 hours would have been fine.
After the silicon had cured and the tape was removed I did a 24 hour water test with fresh water
Then it was ready!!! So I added a self leveling mat to the bottom, put it in its home, began with the scape and then went to adding the equipment.
For the aqua scape I super glued two pieces of super cool dry rock that I found at Aquarium City in Van Nuys and broke up some old dry rock I had laying around with a hammer for the rubble. I wanted a rubble bottom because this tank is going to be 80% mushroom specific. before putting the rock in, I used a nice corse pink live sand as a base. in total I used about 10 pounds of rock (6 in the water) and 10 pounds of sand. I did this because my only filtration for the take is water changes which I am guessing will be about ever 2 weeks but depends on nitrates. I aiming for somewhere between 10ppm and 20ppm.
For the equipment I found two cool little 80 gph power heads on Amazon, a 160gph Hydor pump, a 50w Aquaneon pre set heater and a new HD prime 16 light (which comes in later this week).
And this is what I ended up with!
I am still tinkering and like I said before, new AI Prime on the way
I started this build for a few reasons.....
1. It was super fun!!!!!!
2. Space requirements
3. Higher nitrates for mushrooms and softies
I definitely encourage everyone to try a build like this at least once! With a little patience and organizational skills it was actually a pretty easy to do build.
I started with getting some double strength, 1/8th inch glass from my local Ace hardware. They had a professional grade glass cutting table there and cut it for no extra charge. I paid about 23$ for all five sheets (20x10 1/4, two 10x7s, two 20x7). The glass sits on top of the bottom and each piece is 1/8in thick. Also at Ace I got some number 1 GE 100% silicon, and of course some masking tape.
After gathering my supplies, I began masking. Two things to notice are the pattern which I taped and the distance from which the edge of the tape is away from the glass. I left about 1/4 of an inch of space near those edges I also put some extra pieces to hold the glass together once everything was together.
Moving to the silicon stage, I ran a rather thick bead along the bottom and up the sides of each piece (honestly I went a little overkill just to be safe). I then let it sit for 3 days because I was out of town, 24 hours would have been fine.
After the silicon had cured and the tape was removed I did a 24 hour water test with fresh water
Then it was ready!!! So I added a self leveling mat to the bottom, put it in its home, began with the scape and then went to adding the equipment.
For the aqua scape I super glued two pieces of super cool dry rock that I found at Aquarium City in Van Nuys and broke up some old dry rock I had laying around with a hammer for the rubble. I wanted a rubble bottom because this tank is going to be 80% mushroom specific. before putting the rock in, I used a nice corse pink live sand as a base. in total I used about 10 pounds of rock (6 in the water) and 10 pounds of sand. I did this because my only filtration for the take is water changes which I am guessing will be about ever 2 weeks but depends on nitrates. I aiming for somewhere between 10ppm and 20ppm.
For the equipment I found two cool little 80 gph power heads on Amazon, a 160gph Hydor pump, a 50w Aquaneon pre set heater and a new HD prime 16 light (which comes in later this week).
And this is what I ended up with!
I am still tinkering and like I said before, new AI Prime on the way
