[sm1ke]

Man, that looks so nice! Well done on the rescape

 

[minorhero]

Man, that looks so nice! Well done on the rescape

Thank you! It's nice to update the vivarium and fix some of the problems I've been staring out for literally years now. And I think it will look even better once I get the moss in and let it grow in a bit.

See? It's inevitable! Might as well use the entirety of the vertical space available. Especially since these tanks weigh nothing compared to aquariums filled with water.

A friend in the area there has some orange thumbnails I covet. Finally starting to produce eggs. Only a matter of time until they're successfully producing viable offspring. They don't take up much room at all. Cough, cough.

Seriously, though, it's always nice to have a spare system going even if you don't have frogs in it. Just having isopods with plants is fun on its own. Especially some of those cool ones from Isopod Source.

I have been seriously considering thumbnails for a while now. They were almost my first frog actually. A lot of thumbnail species are either super shy, or super loud, or both. Not good combinations for me. I want to both see my pets and not be woken up by them. Isopods are pretty nifty and I definitely employ them in all of my terrariums. But going forward I will likely stick to the boring (read: never seen) varieties like dwarf whites or dwarf purples. I have Porcellionides pruinosus 'Powder Orange' isopods in my current dart frog tank (along with dwarf whites) and unfortunately they are starting to get a bit out of hand population wise. The frogs won't eat the powder oranges when they get to be half grown, so unless they catch a juvenile out in the open, they are free to continuously breed.

My gecko on the other hand will definitely eat them, even at full size. So for a while now I've been picking off any adults I see on plants and dropping them off in their new home, the gecko tank.

I'm in the process of doing research on what thumbnail species I might consider... right now I am leaning towards Ranitomeya uakarii 'golden legs'. Which look like this:

There are some very real logistical challenges to stacking tanks, much more so when I go with a 3 foot tall vivarium in the mix. I need to have enough room under the vivarium for a drainage reservoir of some kind and enough room somewhere for a water reservoir and misting pump. And the vivarium stack can not be so darn tall that I can't see into the top vivarium easily, otherwise there's not much point in having it This viewing angle is complicated a bit since this vivarium is located next to the tv and my primary way of viewing the vivarium is when The Wife and I are sitting on a couch (so lower down as well). BUT, I am seriously thinking I can make it happen.

 

[somewhatshocked]

I still need to get photos of the friend's frogs but here are some of mine - R. sirensis and M. aurantiaca:

Maybe the Mantellas would be a good fit for you? They're not as orange as what my friend has but I've really enjoyed them.

 

[minorhero]

I still need to get photos of the friend's frogs but here are some of mine - R. sirensis and M. aurantiaca:

Maybe the Mantellas would be a good fit for you? They're not as orange as what my friend has but I've really enjoyed them.

I just love frogs! Yours are super cool! I seriously considered sirensis. I am leaning towards the golden legs based on aesthetics and other people's reports of their boldness.

I don't know if I forgot you had frogs or just didn't know. Where's your journal

My requirements for frog species include a quiet call, good in groups, likes vertical spaces and bold.

The mantellas I think all have loud calls? So unfortunately they are off the table.

 

[somewhatshocked]

I don't know if I forgot you had frogs or just didn't know. Where's your journal

Ugh. Guess I need to create one. And update my tank journals that I haven't touched in at least two years.

My requirements for frog species include a quiet call, good in groups, likes vertical spaces and bold.

The mantellas I think all have loud calls? So unfortunately they are off the table.

They meet all of your requirements. Definitely not loud. You can hear them when you're up close to the tank but across the room they're barely audible. Definitely can't hear them in the next room. Wouldn't wake you up if you were taking a nap beside them. They get really fired up when I add flies to their tank and they all come hauling butt to the front - almost like a cattle call. R. sirensis do something similar but they're more subdued and calm. The other (bigger, not pictured) frogs I have just kind of ignore me.

Here's a shot of them with eggs this morning:

The plants with the white residue on them aren't actually in the tank - but outside. Dried fert salts on them. That little goblin was watching to make sure I wasn't bringing flies to them.

These two groups of frogs are right by my main desk and I spend 10-12 hours in the same room with them every day. So it's possible I'm immune to their calls. But I don't think they're loud.

Really didn't mean to hijack your journal like this. Just wanted to peer pressure you into more tanks. The karmic payback is that now I covet the InSitu systems and can feel my insides preparing for when I eventually cave and order one. That slanted base, premium glass, cleaner lines, modern look. Ugh. They're so nice.

 

[minorhero]

Ugh. Guess I need to create one. And update my tank journals that I haven't touched in at least two years.



They meet all of your requirements. Definitely not loud. You can hear them when you're up close to the tank but across the room they're barely audible. Definitely can't hear them in the next room. Wouldn't wake you up if you were taking a nap beside them. They get really fired up when I add flies to their tank and they all come hauling butt to the front - almost like a cattle call. R. sirensis do something similar but they're more subdued and calm. The other (bigger, not pictured) frogs I have just kind of ignore me.

Here's a shot of them with eggs this morning:

The plants with the white residue on them aren't actually in the tank - but outside. Dried fert salts on them. That little goblin was watching to make sure I wasn't bringing flies to them.

These two groups of frogs are right by my main desk and I spend 10-12 hours in the same room with them every day. So it's possible I'm immune to their calls. But I don't think they're loud.

Really didn't mean to hijack your journal like this. Just wanted to peer pressure you into more tanks. The karmic payback is that now I covet the InSitu systems and can feel my insides preparing for when I eventually cave and order one. That slanted base, premium glass, cleaner lines, modern look. Ugh. They're so nice.

Those are cool frogs and that is a TON of eggs. Is that normal for them? My tincs lay somewhere between 4 to 8 eggs at a time typically, usually once every 2 weeks in the summer-fall. Do you raise all the tadpoles or discard the eggs? I went through some trouble finding a way to sell off all my froglets but now fortunately found someone who is willing to buy them all off of me within reasonable driving distance (they resell to pet stores and convention people).

I will have to seriously consider mantellas then I have to admit, I am still leaning strongly towards Ranitomeya because the thought of having lots of tiny frogs is so appealing. And I think my kids would get a real kick out of seeing the parents carrying the tadpoles around.

I definitely do not consider it a thread hijack either. This is directly relevant to the development of my dart frog tank(s?) plus its cool.

The insitu tanks are in my opinion, the nicest out of the box setup for dart frogs in the USA by a WIDE margin. If you have the glass cutting ability and patience with silicone, you can make some really nice tanks that will at least equal (and potentially far exceed) the insitu tanks, but its a JOB to get it done right.

The insitu tanks are out of the box strongly fruit fly resistant. That's not to say 100% fruit fly proof, but 99% of the fruit flies that might otherwise walk right out of say an exo-terra or similar, will instead be stuck inside the tank where they belong. For that alone it's worth it to me to buy them. Plus they are the ONLY vendor selling fruit fly 'resistant' tanks in the USA. Soooooo options are limited if that is a priority like it is to me.

On top of that by default they have fantastic ventilation options that allow for a great deal of customization. This is what the top of the tank looks like:

They don't do a great job of explaining this on the website, but each of those 3 vents in the front of the tank has a plastic cover that comes with it. The cover is just a piece of plastic and not attached to the tank at all. So you can cover the whole vent, part of the vent, or remove it entirely. In the back of the tank is one vent that runs the whole width of the tank and comes with a piece of glass that is similarly not attached to the tank. You can use that glass to cover the whole vent, part of it, or none of it.

Since the humidity in my house changes throughout the year I cover or uncover more or less of these vents when I notice my tank either being too dry or too wet. Its a really good system. Plus it comes with the option to add fans into the corners in a very unobtrusive way (which I definitely did and highly recommend).

 

[minorhero]

Update!

When things happen, they tend to happen quickly in my experience

Anyway, yesterday I went to my favorite place to acquire moss, the forest! I walked around and found quite easily some wonderful varieties. I harvested bits and pieces and put them into a 1 gallon ziplock bag then brought it home. I put all the moss into the freezer to kill anything that might be alive in it (hopefully) and then thawed it out. I tried then to gas everything by putting the moss in a smallish box, putting a bowl in the box with the moss and adding vinegar and baking soda to the bowl to create co2. This did not work (not big enough bowl to make enough co2? Box not closed up enough? Not sure, but it didn't work). I say this because I did find some ants still alive in one piece of moss. I tossed that one and looked over the rest not seeing anything... sooooooo I used it... We shall see if/how much of a mistake that was in time

Here is how the vivarium looks now with the moss added:

Historically I have bad luck with moss in this tank so we shall see if I got the kinks ironed out or not. Basically in the past I washed the moss really really really thoroughly before adding it which I think killed it. This time I left the moss and any attached dirt intact, hopefully that's all it takes to make it happy.

In other news I have begun designing the vivarium stand that will allow me to stack two tanks. It's a really basic design and so far looks like this:

I am still trying to decide how to change it up to make it.... better. Also I'm not necessarily sold on putting the tall tank on the bottom. So we shall see.

 

[somewhatshocked]

Those are cool frogs and that is a TON of eggs. Is that normal for them?

I assume (you know what they say about assuming) it's normal but have never really asked anyone else how their frogs are producing.

Do you raise all the tadpoles or discard the eggs?

Figure it's my responsibility to rear as many that will survive if I'm gonna have the frogs in my care. Would feel guilty if I didn't. Last year that meant more than 200 surviving offspring from my 5 frogs. Most went to two zoo programs. Or two zoos operating the same program, really. About 50 or 60 ended up in the hands of other hobbyists with one guy who took 15 for an absolutely massive tank. I've never sold any and instead have focused on just making sure they end up in great care.

I am still leaning strongly towards Ranitomeya because the thought of having lots of tiny frogs is so appealing. And I think my kids would get a real kick out of seeing the parents carrying the tadpoles around.

Have a feeling you'll enjoy them more than the kids! Ha. Honestly, that's one of the cool things about them. While the Mantellas are really small (an inch or less), the Ranitomeya are 3/4 to 1/2 their size. Have only gotten about a dozen froglets out of mine but admittedly haven't focused as much on their reproduction because they're not as critically endangered as the Mantella.

Plus they are the ONLY vendor selling fruit fly 'resistant' tanks in the USA.

Would be kind of exciting not to have to DIY solutions with No-see-ums material around every opening. So that is 100% a huge bonus.

On top of that by default they have fantastic ventilation options that allow for a great deal of customization.

Not having to cut things myself is another of the key selling points. I have some MistKing systems and a bunch of fans, humidity sensors, cool mist humidifiers and the like. But who the heck wants to create all those holes DIY? Not me. It's worth it to save up and pay for the convenience.

Have followed the company for a few years and am glad to see they've finally gotten their designs right.

In other news I have begun designing the vivarium stand that will allow me to stack two tanks.

This is the way! Have you given any thought to finish? Veneers? Paint? Color(s)?

I'm not necessarily sold on putting the tall tank on the bottom.

Keeping the tall ones on the bottom means you'll be able to see and easily reach everything with ease. Also won't have as much light glare to deal with from your couch.

 

[minorhero]

I assume (you know what they say about assuming) it's normal but have never really asked anyone else how their frogs are producing.



Figure it's my responsibility to rear as many that will survive if I'm gonna have the frogs in my care. Would feel guilty if I didn't. Last year that meant more than 200 surviving offspring from my 5 frogs. Most went to two zoo programs. Or two zoos operating the same program, really. About 50 or 60 ended up in the hands of other hobbyists with one guy who took 15 for an absolutely massive tank. I've never sold any and instead have focused on just making sure they end up in great care.



Have a feeling you'll enjoy them more than the kids! Ha. Honestly, that's one of the cool things about them. While the Mantellas are really small (an inch or less), the Ranitomeya are 3/4 to 1/2 their size. Have only gotten about a dozen froglets out of mine but admittedly haven't focused as much on their reproduction because they're not as critically endangered as the Mantella.



Would be kind of exciting not to have to DIY solutions with No-see-ums material around every opening. So that is 100% a huge bonus.



Not having to cut things myself is another of the key selling points. I have some MistKing systems and a bunch of fans, humidity sensors, cool mist humidifiers and the like. But who the heck wants to create all those holes DIY? Not me. It's worth it to save up and pay for the convenience.

Have followed the company for a few years and am glad to see they've finally gotten their designs right.



This is the way! Have you given any thought to finish? Veneers? Paint? Color(s)?



Keeping the tall ones on the bottom means you'll be able to see and easily reach everything with ease. Also won't have as much light glare to deal with from your couch.

Being able to link up with a zoo to provide rehoming for all frogs is NICE! I honestly don't care much about the money I am getting for the froglets. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to have, but I was REALLY excited about finally having an avenue to offload all the froglets I had. I was raising everything possible and just assumed I would be able to find homes for them, but it turns out the particular morph I have is not in super high demand. I would have been better off with either Azureus or if willing to accept the dubious origins of, the Tumucumaque morph which is now quite popular.

So instead of offloading my frogs when they were young, they were almost a year old before I linked up with the current person who buys everything I have for resale.

The stand will be made out of hardwood. Of that I'm certain. Which hardwood is a bit more up in the air. I think I am going to make it out of cherry because its actually pretty affordable near me. Like all good plans, wood choices rarely survive contact with the hardwood store Sometimes when I go there with a firm plan in mind I find myself changing it up last minute when the particular wood species I want is not instock in the right dimensions. For instance, if I know if I have a number of pieces in this build that will require wood 3 inches wide and .75 inches thick. If I go to the wood store and their 1" thick boards are all 5 inches wide, that will be a problem. Because I pay for those wasted 2 inches of width that I won't be able to use in this project.

It might be that the store has Black Walnut boards 7" wide and 1" thick. In that case I can cut that board down the middle and get two 3" wide pieces out of it even considering wastage from the milling process. If black Walnut costs a little more, (but not twice as much more) it will actually be cheaper to buy Black Walnut. Etc etc etc.

As for finishes, unless it ends up being made out of a really ugly hardwood I will be finishing it with a clear protective finish of some kind and leaving the natural wood color.

Stacking these tanks is not a totally new idea (it is for me, but not for other people). Insitu sells a stand that stacks the tanks. It looks like this:

You will notice that this stand looks like the tanks itself is providing the load bearing capacity for the tank above it (it's not) and that there is no support in the front for the tank above.

According to their website, this stand is actually made out of steel and welded together. Their is then wood panels that cover up the steel stand.

This kind of design is NICE because it does not block any of the view into the tanks. My design by contrast does block view into the tanks

I now think I might want to try some kind of cantilever design that allows for this kind of design. Unfortunately I can't weld. I will likely use some kind of rack system incorporated into the stand itself (but hidden from view). Probably not this exact model but something like this wood rack:

 

[minorhero]

Update

More design stuff!

I did end up buying the same model of wood rack as previously shown. It's my hope that with a bit of modification I should be able to make it work for me.

To that end I also made a new sketchup design. The Wife had substantial opinions regarding the legs on this one but eventually I made something that satisfied her.

Here is the overall design:

If viewed from below and at an angle you can see how the wood rack would be attached to the back of the unit and have one set of arms going through to support the shelf:

And here is how the whole thing would look with some random vivariums (that I definitely did not make) thrown on there.

I think this design is an improvement over the last one if for no other reason then that it does not block the view. Also integrating the hoods into the stand brings more consistency to the stand. Now once I build it, I get the joy of figuring out if its actually structurally sound

 

[minorhero]

Update!

The realm of 'maybe' has solidified into the realm of 'oh yeah, I'm doing this'.

The Wife has given her approval to make the stand and acquire the new tank. Sooooo here I go!

My plan calls for the 4 legs to be made of stock roughly 2 inches by 2 inches. In the woodworking world this is known as 8/4 (pronounced 'eight quarter'). Wood is sold by the board foot. A board foot being wood that is 12 inches by 12 inches and 1 inch thick. Since rarely do trees supply us with lumber so precisely dimensioned, lumber yards do some maths to figure out how many board feet are in any given board. A board that is 5/4 (five quarter or 1.25 inches) and 6 inches wide and 8 feet long has 5 board feet of wood in it.

The thicker the stock, the more expensive it is to buy by the board foot. So for example, the regular price for cherry for 4/4 (or four quarter aka 1 inch thick) stock in my area is around $6.30 per board foot. On the other hand, cherry that is 8/4 is around $8.60 a board foot.

All of this is my way of saying that my plan to have those thicker legs on the stand was going to cost me more. Especially since there would definitely be waste wood since its pretty hard to find a board that has enough material to get what I want out of it without it being larger.

BUT, I can cheat a bit as well. Instead of buying 8/4 stock, I can buy 4/4 stock and glue together 2 pieces of wood to make my own legs that are roughly 2 inches by 2 inches.

And THAT is just what I did.

Additionally, one of the lumber yards near me was running a special where they were selling 30 board foot packs of 4/4 cherry 'shorts' at a price of $4.10 per board foot. A 'short' is a board that is ... well short. A lot of lumber is sold in 12 or 16 or even 20 foot lengths. Not everyone wants such a giant board so lumber yards that get in say 20 foot lengths might cut off 8 feet to make a 12 foot long board which is far more manageable. That cut off board is then sold as a short, and typically at a good discount.

Since this whole stand is only going to be about 6 feet high, a 'short' is all I will need or want.

Or to put it another way, I got a good deal on my wood for this project with the cost of the lumber coming in a bit under 150 dollars.

Here is what hauling around 30 board feet of cherry shorts looks like:

After I got it home, I selected one board for the legs and rough cut it to width with my bandsaw. Then I used my jointer and my planer to flatten the two wide sides of the board before gluing the two halves together. This is how they are now while they wait for the glue to dry:

Once the glue dries I will be able to finish milling the wood to final width.

Meanwhile I selected 3 of the boards (which might be all I need) and began milling them flat on both sides. This will be the wood I use to cut out all the various pieces for the stand. I 'should' have enough with just these 3 boards, but if not, I can also mill some more.

Here is what those boards look like now:

And because this is a frog journal so there should be some darn frogs in these updates here are some pictures taken with my phone of the frogs doing their thing.

That's all for today, tomorrow or the next day I hope to be able to cut out the pieces for the stand and finish milling the legs.

 

[minorhero]

Small Update:

Progress with the new stand hit a brick wall a few days ago when The Wife and I both came down with COVID. We were feeling pretty rough for a few days but thankfully we are now on the mend. I just have not felt up to standing in my garage operating power tools though (maybe by tomorrow? not sure will have to assess then).

In the meantime there have been a few projects that have needed my attention.

The first is the light in the dart frog tank. When I built the original light I managed to do a truly terrible job with my soldering iron and have had connection issues ever since. I actually spent the better part of a year with only 2 of the 3 rows of lights actually working.

So when my 30cm twinstar light got freed up, I ended up using that. And in fact the twinstar is whats in use in all the latest pictures of that tank.

Well I finally took some time to break out the soldering iron and try to solve my connection issues once and for all. Or at least, I hope it's once and for all. Having resecured all connections on the faulty row, here is how the tank looks now with the diy light:

Sorry not the best picture with the glass not being clean, but hopefully you can see the difference in colors and fill.

Anyway the other project that needed doing is replacing the fans.

The fans for this tank are an insitu kit. I have the original version of this kit which frankly has some pretty terrible fans. They are a weird size too at 35mm by 10mm. The problem with these fans is that they are noisy. I can hear them running halfway across the room (if I listen for them) which is really not tolerable in such a tiny fan. That said, I've lived with them for years. Well when I redid the tank I managed to get something in one of them and now its REALLY making noise. So it was time to take them apart and replace them.

The fan module just unclips from the tank, once off the tank they look like this:

To replace them I bought 40mm Noctua fans. The pins holding the fans in place are plastic and bend around the 5mm difference in size reasonably easily. After some soldering here is how the replacement looked:

This was sooooooooooo much better. Whereas before I could hear the fans across the room. Now I can't hear them running with my ear placed next to the fan itself.

My understanding is that Insitu have stopped using the original model of fan I have in favor of something quieter. I hope that is the case, but if not, I will definitely replace the fans in my new Alto vivarium before I bother even planting anything. These little 40mm are such a big quality of life upgrade, they are totally worth the price and install.

Meanwhile I have actually purchased the new vivarium and am currently waiting on shipping. I also purchased various supplies for the new vivarium. The tank itself comes with a light and fans. For the background I bought a 5lb box of cork flats. I bought a bunch of plants on both etsy and a dart frog/vivarium website called Frogdaddy.net who was having a sale. And my local fish store has finally (it's been months) refreshed their supply of Malaysian driftwood. I totally raided that supply and made off with enough that I should hopefully be able to make an interesting tree/root/thing for the frogs to climb on.

Here is what all that wood looks like:

And because no frog update would be complete without some frogs. Here is a picture of my frogs getting ready to make more frogs. Mating behavior for these guys involves the female getting behind the male and patting/rubbing his back.

 

[minorhero]

Update!

It's been a few weeks but I have not been idle.

I recovered from COVID a few days after my last post. Since then I have been puttering away on the stand. I originally thought I wouldn't need all the wood I purchased, but that is why I purchase more then I 'think' I will need, cause I definitely used almost all of it

The first thing I did was make the legs. I cut the wood to length and width and then laminated two pieces of wood together to make legs roughly 2"x2". After I did this twice I cut my dados into the legs where the two shelves will go. I also used a tenoning jig to make parts of the shelves so everything would fit together. Frankly these joints I made are not the strongest since I was gluing end grain to edge grain for almost every single joint. BUT, I don't need a lot of strength out of these joints anywhere given what everything is doing so I'm ok with it. Here is how it looked at the time of the first glue-up.

Given the nature of the build everything had to be done over the course of multiple glue-ups rather then one big glue-up.

24 hours later I did the next glue-up in the form of adding the aprons to the shelves and also for the bottom shelf adding the legs:

24 hours later I could put the stand on it's own feet for the first time:

It was at this point I tried to implement my plan for reinforcing the upper shelf with a wood rack. This failed.

The wood rack turned out not to have a true 90 degree angle for the shelf which is a problem. I thought about it for a bit and decided the best way to deal with it is to add a shelf bracket like the kind you would use for a bookshelf attached to a wall. Frankly the shelf is actually pretty strong as-is, but I want to never worry about it so I decided to add the bracket.

As part of that process I added additional support in the form of more wood that runs the full length of the stand to the back:

24 hours later I was ready to finally add the hood for the top tank.

Now it was finally looking like a stand.

Next I wanted to add additional support to the back of the stand so the whole thing wouldn't bend over when weight was added to the top shelf. To that end I glued on some more wood on the back 90 degrees from the orientation the rest of the stand is built. This should add more rigidity so the top shelf doesn't bend the back 2 legs (if that makes sense):

And that brings me up to current!

Still to do is a LOT of sanding and then adding a few layers of finish. I also need to add magnets to the aprons under each shelf/hood so I can attach the front apron piece to each. I built it this way with a removable front apron piece so I could easily install (and when needed, remove) each vivarium without having to do wacky things like tilt the whole vivarium sideways to get it in and out of the stand.

 

[Bootsy]

Glad you’re feeling better! Looking forward to seeing how this progresses. Those frogs are beautiful.

 

[Interpolean]

This is great to follow, so keep it up!

 

[rzn7z7]

Totally totally awesome! I'm enjoying all of your projects @minorhero and this looks like a really great build/addition....congrats!

 

[minorhero]

Update!

Big things have happened!

Since I last updated I sanded the stand and then added two layers of Arm-R-Seal (which is generally my preferred indoor finish). After a bunch more sanding and rubbing down with steel wool the stand was essentially done with the exception of the front aprons. The original plan was to use magnets to hold front aprons on allowing for easy removal as needed. To that end I drilled holes and epoxied in magnets.

I also drilled holes in the ends of the aprons on the stand to attach sympathetic magnets.

Tests done at this point showed that the pull of four 10mm rare earth magnets was not going to be enough.

I attached four more 12mm rare earth magnets on top of the apron on one of the boards but even this was not enough. At that point I decided to cheat a little. The magnets would do fine to hold the board against the other apron parts, but they couldn't fight gravity by themselves. So I attached a small screw on the end of each removable apron piece and drilled a small hole where that screw head made contact on the non-removable apron ends. In this way the screw head would go into the hole and thus provide just enough 'grip' for the board to otherwise be held in place by the magnets. It was kind of a hacky way of doing things but it worked and this furniture is just for my use. If I were going to do it again I would find some kind of metal mortise and tenon system to hang the apron pieces from on the ends.

Anyway, here is how it looked actually completed:

The eagle eye observer will notice the bookshelf brackets also got added by this point as well. For the attachment to the shelf I just used some small screws, but for attachment to the vertical back I drilled holes all the way through the wood and used bolts that went all the way through and then used nuts secured in the back to hold them in place. Each bracket is rated for 275 lbs so it should be good to go.

Here is a random close-up of the joinery:

Now that the stand was sorted, it was time to consider the tank itself. For any vivarium the first thing to consider is background construction. There are many methods but my favorite is by far the cracked cork mosaic which I just used on my other tank. I first laid out all the cork pieces inside the tank, then I one at a time picked them up and applied clear silicone to the back along the raised edges, then put them back in place. Here is how that looked when done:

I let it dry over night and then the next morning got out some dried sphagnum moss put it in a bucket and added water to rehydrate:

Then using small handfuls I stuffed the sphagnum moss into the cracks between the cork pieces. Here is how it looked when done.

I am pretty pleased with how nice it came out. Ideally I would have had larger pieces of cork to work with but it simply wasn't in the cards for this build.

Now I just needed to move everything around!

Here is the new stand next to the old one:

Getting the old tank off the old stand and onto the new one was a thing. Its not filled with water so its light enough for me to pick up. BUT its only mostly light enough . It's still got about 40 lbs of substrate in it and another 10 lbs wood, rock, and plants. Sooooo it was heavy.

Anyway I got it placed and then put on the new tank on the bottom. Here is how everything looks now:

Tada! Now I just need to scape and plant the new one and I'll be in a pretty good place to get frogs.

That said, I am going on another vacation in a few weeks so I will likely wait till after that is over to actually order anything.

Overall though I am very happy with how its turning out.

 

[deeda]

Beautiful job! I was worried the white metal brackets would show but they don't so

It's also great to hear you are feeling better and looking forward to more updates as you get your purchases in to finish it up.

 

[somewhatshocked]

Overall though I am very happy with how its turning out.

You should be - it looks awesome!

Really glad I wanted a few weeks to read the updates because this is terrific. Can't quite put my finger on it but something about them forces your eye to the center of each tank in a way that doesn't otherwise occur.

A magnet nerd thing: have you considered trying neodymium bars instead of smaller magnets? They may be worth checking out. In order to make the apron lighter, you could also try to machine out some of the wood on the back side of each piece.

 

[Asteroid]

Wow that's amazing! Wish I had your DIY skills.