Dart Den

The foam that's a problem is polystyrene -- supposedly polyurethane is safe (at least at this point in time).

I've got drains in all of my tanks (and that's part of the reason for using the foam, since I use small drains that could easily clog without a strainer of some kind), but failing that, I suppose you could just stick a PVC tube through the foam all the way to the bottom, and hide it in your landscaping, and then stick a hose in it when you want to siphon it out.

after reading this i remember that people puts drains in their tanks. just wasn't thinking.
the background stuff i was talking about is closed cell. it is on the foam factory site. wonder how many people have used it for back grounds.

pa.walt Wrote:after reading this i remember that people puts drains in their tanks. just wasn't thinking.
the background stuff i was talking about is closed cell. it is on the foam factory site. wonder how many people have used it for back grounds.

I have no experience with that; sorry.

Initial planting done, isopods and springs seeded; I'll do some more planting after the broms get themselves anchored a bit.

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...and that pretty much finishes up this rack; need to get cracking on the other one soon.

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Looks awesome! They turned out great...lovin the cork tubes. Once those things grow in you are gonna have a rack full of showtanks. Only problem is now my rack looks lame when I compare it to yours

lol... I doubt that -- everything else aside, yours probably have frogs in 'em :-)

Looks like a slice of the jungle. Nicely done Chuck.

I think I am going to give that foam a shot. It looks so much easier than messing with egg crate and ties. I'm also of the opinion that any cost difference will be offset by the ease of use. I'm not sure how you beat measure, cut, and drop. I can't tell you how much time I've spent making little egg crate boxes that nobody will ever see...

Nice! You definitely make my vivs look good!!

Soon as more edging gets dropped of by the UPS man, the next 4 will get finished up.

haven't said this since last weekend at the club downtown, but....

NICE RACK !

IDPM Wrote:I think I am going to give that foam a shot. It looks so much easier than messing with egg crate and ties. I'm also of the opinion that any cost difference will be offset by the ease of use. I'm not sure how you beat measure, cut, and drop. I can't tell you how much time I've spent making little egg crate boxes that nobody will ever see...

Yeah, I hate building egg crate boxes (particularly cleaning up the mess after :-) ), and Hydroton isn't cheap either (and a lot heavier).

If you're doing enough of them (at least eventually) to justify a whole or half sheet, the price really isn't that bad -- maybe $10 - $15 per 18" square viv for the 2" 30 ppi foam, depending on how good you are at cutting a sheet for maximum yield. As a bonus, if you're using Exos, a thin narrow strip of this stuff stuffed inside the lower vent works great as a FF trap.

Ghostvivs Wrote:Nice! You definitely make my vivs look good!!

Soon as more edging gets dropped of by the UPS man, the next 4 will get finished up.

Excellent! Couldn't have timed that better!

Philsuma Wrote:haven't said this since last weekend at the club downtown, but....

NICE RACK !

lol! I bet you say that to all the froggers :mrgreen:

Better shots of planted Ghost Vivs -

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also a couple of quick camera phone grow-in shots of the rest -

top shelf (currently unoccupied)

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vanzos

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nominate amazonicas

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banded leucs

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Meh.. I think you could have done better.

You should probably let me take those eyesores off your hands before you damage your phyche.


Sean

heyduke Wrote:Meh.. I think you could have done better.

Heh... the sad part is I do too :-) I really kind of want to tear apart those last two and re-do them. The worst thing about plants is that they don't ever grow fast enough for immediate gratification :mrgreen:

Vivs look great Chuck!
Since you are through with what you have now...
I have 2 Exos still in the box in my dining room that need to be planted.
Will trade finishing them for frogs. :wink:

BcsTx Wrote:Vivs look great Chuck!
Since you are through with what you have now...
I have 2 Exos still in the box in my dining room that need to be planted.
Will trade finishing them for frogs. :wink:

lol... The planting is the easy part -- make a hole, insert plant :-)

Could maybe help doing backgrounds or something; I'm going to have enough left-over cork to build my own small cork grove. :mrgreen:

I was being completely sarcastic, they look great.

The first Viv I built I completely overplanted the thing in the beginning. When it started to grow in it was a huge tangly mess.

It's always fun to take pictures periodically and see how dramatic the change in them are.


Sean

lol... No, I got that; it's just that "whenever you look at your own stuff you see everything you did wrong" thing :-)

It's real easy to let them get overgrown, particularly since most of the stuff we're planting wants to grow far larger than works well for the scale of the little "boxes of nature" we're trying to grow, and the stuff that doesn't grow like gangbusters grows painfully slow.

If it wasn't for scissors, most of mine would end up with a handful of large leaves shading a forest of bare stems :mrgreen:

Hey Chuck, Casper told me that there was a link to your light build, I'm replacing all of mine and was wanting to see it, can you point me in the right direction?

Jerry A