Two of my favorite reef aquarium blogs, Glassbox Design and Reef Builders have recently been showcasing some exceptional aquariums. I hope this trend continues, as it is a nice alternative to the usual gadget press releases, and it is a much more convenient method of finding beautiful and successful tanks than trying to parse the large forums.
After allowing the silicone seals holding the shelf installation to cure overnight, the final step in this project was to finish the landscaping. I began with the back wall above the land area, which I wanted to cover with cork. This required cutting three pieces, including a notched middle piece to sit over the divider between land and beach areas.
By doing some fine tuning with a jig saw, I was able to get these three pieces to fit flush and tight enough that adhesive was not required. The plastic rim of the aquarium was helpful with this process. This also means that I could remove and redo the land area without having to cut off the back panel, should future renovations be necessary.
With the cork in place, I filled the beach area with an inch of coconut fiber soil, then topped it with three inches of aquarium gravel. I added some mondo grass, Ophiopogon japonicus, a plant that is mistakenly sold as purely aquatic but actually does quite well partly submerged, as I will be using it. This species did particularly well in the early iteration of this tank. For the land area, I added a bottom layer of large gravel for drainage, and then filled it to the top with coconut fiber.
The final step was a layer of terrarium moss and a few more terrestrial plants for the land area. This looks good now, but previously I have had trouble with moss growing under the bright UV lights I use for the turtle. Additionally, he tends to claw a lot of it into the water when climbing around. I was willing to try it once more just because of how good it looks, but I expect that in the future I may be going back to regular lawn grass which roots better.
One thing I failed to account for when moving to wood for the construction of this shelf was the added thickness. As such the land area ended up being a few inches higher than I wanted, leaving little room for plant growth under the light fixture and glass lid. It is also harder to view. I'm looking into a few options, the most appealing being some sort of screen riser for the tank that will provide additional vertical height and ventilation. There are a number of pre-made options for smaller tanks, but I have yet to find one in the size I need.
I will add a final post about this project with finished photos and an analysis of what went right and wrong with the project.
Last night I drained the 40 gallon aquarium and moved the turtle into a temporary 10 gallon tank on loan from a friend. Needless to say much hissing, clawing, and snapping was involved in this transfer, and someone is completely irate over his temporary home.
The shelf dropped into the aquarium quite easily, leaving only a quarter inch of clearance between the glass and the shelf on either side, while fitting perfectly flush to the rear of the aquarium. This is much more than I could ever hope for given my limited woodworking skills, and I attribute the success entirely to slow and careful planning and measurements. I placed the half logs on the bottom glass of the aquarium and then maneuvered the shelf to sit on them. Currently only the weight of the shelf is holding them in place, but I plan on evaluating the possibility of drilling through the platform and screwing it directly to the log columns. It was not possible to do this prior to installing the shelf and still have it fit into the tank.
Once the shelf was in its final place I used a healthy amount of silicone to affix it to the sides of the tank, creating what will (hopefully) become a water tight seal. This involved filling the quarter inch gaps on either side of the aquarium. Since these are not load bearing seals, I'm hoping this will be fine.
I also hydrated a brick of ZooMed coconut fiber substrate. This is basically a freeze dried block of shredded coconut shells, the planting substrate I used in the previous iteration of this aquarium. It has the benefit over other soils of being completely organic and holding up well under constant moisture. Placing the brick of fibers in a bucket with some water results in rich, moist substrate material.
Tonight I will evaluate the strength of the silicone, and make any patches if necessary. Then I will cut and affix the final cork panels to the rear wall of the aquarium above the land area, and begin filling in with substrate. Hopefully I will be able to return the turtle to the primary aquarium and break down the temporary tank.
This weekend I finally got started in earnest on construction of the new turtle tank, building out the shelf that will form the land area. Originally I had intended to use plexiglass for this, but after cutting the pieces, I noticed they were bowing in the middle between the support columns. This would stress the silicone seals holding the pieces together, especially when the landmass was added. I looked into thicker plastic options, but they were both expensive and unavailable locally.
Instead I decided to go with wood. I was worried about well this would hold up when partially submerged, but I was assured by an accomplished boat build (dad) that it would hold up fine. Thinking back to when I worked on a lobster boat in Maine and traps were built out of wood slats, it made sense.
I followed the same plan, modifying the measurements to take into account the extra thickness of the wood over the acrylic I had planned to use. Construction went as smooth as you could hope for when doing woodworking in your city apartment kitchen. The three pieces (shelf, front edge, and divider) were assembled with stainless screws and Gorilla Glue. I sealed the joints with silicone.
Next I cut some cork paneling to fit across the front. I had bought two 18x24 pieces, so two 6" strips sufficed to cover the front panel. I made a diagonal cut in beach area piece to disguise where the divider piece is. The beach area will be slightly below water level, making it easy for the turtle to haul himself out. This area will be filled with gravel and rocks for basking.
There is a bit of a seam between the two pieces. I should have put a bevel on the edge so the fit more seamlessly, but I think when the cork is in the water it will swell up and close this gape somewhat. Below you can see the shelf on its half-log supporting columns:
Next step is to get a small temporary aquarium to hold the turtle, so I can drain his current tank and get this shelf placed in. I need to silicone the edges of the shelf to the glass to create a seal separating the land from the water as much as possible. After that comes the fun part: landscaping!
This weekend I finally ordered the materials for building out a new turtle vivarium. The goal of this project is to match the aesthetic appeal of the original tank, while also increasing swimming room. The original construction consisted of a simple divider between the land and water area, resulting in an 8 inch deep land mass that was for the most part a waste of volume.
With this second design I'm intending to create a shelf, leaving the area under the land mass open for swimming and lurking. The intent is to use two artificial logs as columns for supporting the shelf. Here you can see a front and top rendering of what it will hopefully look like. The shelf and back wall will be covered with cork bark as in the previous tank.
On the right is a cut in the front panel. The water level will be even or slightly higher than this, to make it easy for the turtle to pull himself out on land. This area will also have a large flat rock, and light will be concentrated for basking. Think of it as the equivalent to a chaise lounge in the shallow areas of a swimming pool.
This project will need only three pieces of acrylic: a front, bottom and divider panel. These will be attached together with silicon, and then attached to the walls of the tank and the supporting pillars.
A little over a year ago, on my first trip to San Francisco, I stumbled into a temporary aquarium space for the California Academy of Sciences. They had an enormous, two-story coral reef setup, along with an aquaculture facility for propagating more corals. Talking with the staff informed me that the tank was a test to see if coral could be grown in captivity at extreme depths, and the propagation facility was for growing out colonies to populate a much larger tank that would be located in their permanent building, scheduled to open late in 2008.
Being out there for business this week, I took advantage of a few spare hours to get over and check out the finished tank. Unfortunately there wasn't much stocked in the form of corals yet. I'm not sure if they are adding species in slowly or what. There was an enormously large and diverse population of fish however, along with some other innovations. A large sand bed with a full grown mangrove tree was attached to the aquarium. A walled off section for sharks and rays, as well as a shallow lagoon area was also attached to the tank. The reef tank is impressive in size and ambition, but as all reef keepers know, it will take several years to reach it's true potential.
The california coast tank was also quite large, and featured an enormous wave box. From what was visible, it appeared to work on the same principal as the systems common to home aquarium. But check out the size of these waves:
My favorite section of the aquarium was the staff picks. Here small aquariums and terrariums were set into a wall, featuring a favorite species or biotope of each staff member. There was an incredible reef tank here, with a coral wall built along the left hand side leaving dramatic open space through most of the tank. Very cool.
Below are some photos I snapped, and there are a few more to be found on my Flickr account.
My favorite tank design:
Primary viewing window for the reef (there are several others):
Some of the reef lighting. There was another tier of lights above this, as well as natural sun lighting through the roof:
I find it interesting how often a career in design seems to intersect with a hobby for reef keeping. Certainly when browsing reef hobbyist related websites and communities, there seems to be a much larger percentage of designers than one would expect to find.
Design and Reef is the blog of what appears to be a very talented industrial designer working in Manila. The aquarium related posts are interesting and unique to this blog, but also be sure to check out the sofa that the author designed and had built. I imagine in Manila it is much easier to find affordable craftsmen capable of brining a designers plans to reality.
