And so it begins….

[sweetpoison]

This mess of a tank is finally draining!  Took me awhile to get it started to drain ~ I was tearing up and on my way here🥺 

I will come back as soon as it’s all clean ~ my  gravel and background comes tomorrow.  Everything‘s been clean and ready to put back in.

Still have to take out this sand😡 

I started a new discussion because I’m afraid nobody would find me in my old thread but moderators, feel free to bump me where this belongs♥️

[sweetpoison]

Almost done!  This looks like milk liquid milk🤢 It would’ve never cleared up!

Edited June 23, 2022 by sweetpoison

[sweetpoison]

My tank is empty and clean today the gravel comes and my new background👏
 

Talk about starting over!

I’m going to rinse that gravel until Hell freezes over, and that goes in first then plants go back in and then water last?

I’m going to hit that tank with prime, put the heater, filters with back on.  
 

And then I’m going to start the Ammonia cycle thingy. I have to go back and read my notes from you guys about the Ammonia…

[sweetpoison]

Making progress!

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Woohoo! Lookin good @sweetpoison! Can’t wait to see the new scaping soon!

[sweetpoison]

Just added my driftwood!

[sweetpoison]

Well this is a unmitigated disaster once I had it water 😢 The Driftwood which I soaked for a week or two and it NEVER floated in the tank I just took down, floated everywhere!

I want my mom!🥺

So you can see I put rocks on top of them all. They never floated when I buried them in sand maybe I just need more gravel? What do you think?  Do you think the Driftwood was out of water too long before I put it back in??  I wish I’d gotten the plates on the bottom because the owner of the company asked me and I said no don’t bother🤦‍♀️😩

And if you look closely you see the background I must’ve gotten water in there and I’m gonna take that off every time I mess with water and dry it?

I keep telling myself   “I’m having fun I’m having fun”😂😂

On a nice pleasant note the tanks’ clear👏👏

[Odd Duck]

Your driftwood will stand and stay better if attached to pieces of slate or ceramic tile.  I’ve soaked wood for MONTHS and still had it lift if not attached to something heavy.  You will get there, just need patience.  If you have tools and are handy, it’s pretty easy to drill slate with the right drill bit.  Slate is pretty soft.  Check my 14 G cube link in my signature for a little instructional with pics.

[sweetpoison]

I was just watching a video on that and I have a drill and I could drill holes and then this one guy had black ties and he just put it all together via the holes as you could imagine.  And then like you said somebody attached it to Slate or tile.

In this one video he drilled the driftwood and he had the rubber suction cups that we attached to the side for things and he attached to the wood on the bottom and stuck it to the glass!

I just can’t believe I have to soak this wood all over again😢

Patience is not one of my virtues😂

I remember thinking you have to have patience in this hobby….I guess I had forgotten hello

Thank Odd ~  I appreciate it♥️

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Eh just leave the rocks as they are.  The driftwood is not gonna float forever; it's just like this temporarily. Remember @sweetpoison, things don't have to be perfect!  Allow yourself some room for error.  Look at how great the other stuff looks.  Work on some other stuff in the meantime, like the ammonia. While you're doing that, the driftwood is absorbing water.  You're doing awesome!

[sweetpoison]

I had to take off my background because water got into it and it looked bad now I have no background and I have no driftwood.  I put it back in the container let it soak in the tub like I started. I was going to boil it but I don’t have have a pot big enough.

 I’m waiting for my ammonia strips to be here should be soon today and then I’m gonna do my test of all the perimeters and then meantime should I go ahead and hit it with the three drops of ammonia?

Might as start cycling this tank!

 

Thank you for your inspiration I appreciate it more than you know♥️

[Patrick_G]

I’m with @Odd Duck, take a piece of tile or slate and superglue the wood to it. I’ve had wood stay buoyant indefinitely (or so it seems). 
 

Those backgrounds can be tricky to apply. I put a frosted one on my 40gal and had the same problem you did. I’m choosing to not fix it for now, but it’ll get replaced with something else eventually. 

[sweetpoison]

Would you or @Odd Duck have a link to tiles or slates on Amazon?

Right now I have no background just my wall😂 let me know what you replace it with!

[Odd Duck]

On 6/25/2022 at 3:55 PM, sweetpoison said:

Would you or @Odd Duck have a link to tiles or slates on Amazon?

Right now I have no background just my wall😂 let me know what you replace it with!

I bought charcuterie boards that I found by searching for “black slate”.  The specific ones I bought showed they were no longer available last I checked but there were plenty others that were similar.  You might be able to use coasters for your skinny wood pieces.  The ones I got are thin, much longer than I need but I break them to suit the size and shape I need using a cold chisel and hammer to rough size, then I carefully hammer the edges until I get the shape I want.  I wanted black slate for everything I’ve done so far but you could likely find other colors of slate, too, to match your gravel better.  You could also search for a local rock yard and likely find slate in several color options.  They might even cut a piece for you or would likely let you look through for pieces the size you want since they would likely not really want small pieces anyway so they would probably be happy to sell you small pieces if you did the digging through yourself, were gentle with the pieces you don’t want, and restack for them afterwards.

Since you have white gravel, you might look for ceramic tile in white or other light color to blend in better once covered with gravel.  I saw the other day on a Facebook forum where someone used hexagon tiles for a similar sunken forest grouping and epoxied the wood to the tiles.

[Patrick_G]

On 6/25/2022 at 1:55 PM, sweetpoison said:

Would you or @Odd Duck have a link to tiles or slates on Amazon?

Any piece of ceramic or slate tile would work. Big box home center stores like Home Depot have them for a few $$ each. Amazon has a huge selection but they want you to buy a multi pack so they cost more.  You might even try a ceramic coaster. That might be a better size for your tank. 

[sweetpoison]

On 6/25/2022 at 2:20 PM, Odd Duck said:

I bought charcuterie boards that I found by searching for “black slate”.  The specific ones I bought showed they were no longer available last I checked but there were plenty others that were similar.  You might be able to use coasters for your skinny wood pieces.  The ones I got are thin, much longer than I need but I break them to suit the size and shape I need using a cold chisel and hammer to rough size, then I carefully hammer the edges until I get the shape I want.  I wanted black slate for everything I’ve done so far but you could likely find other colors of slate, too, to match your gravel better.  You could also search for a local rock yard and likely find slate in several color options.  They might even cut a piece for you or would likely let you look through for pieces the size you want since they would likely not really want small pieces anyway so they would probably be happy to sell you small pieces if you did the digging through yourself, were gentle with the pieces you don’t want, and restack for them afterwards.

Since you have white gravel, you might look for ceramic tile in white or other light color to blend in better once covered with gravel.  I saw the other day on a Facebook forum where someone used hexagon tiles for a similar sunken forest grouping and epoxied the wood to the tiles.

Break, chisel and hammer??  Deep down you’re really hate me don’t you😂

I did check into coasters like you mentioned!

On 6/25/2022 at 2:26 PM, Patrick_G said:

Any piece of ceramic or slate tile would work. Big box home center stores like Home Depot have them for a few $$ each. Amazon has a huge selection but they want you to buy a multi pack so they cost more.  You might even try a ceramic coaster. That might be a better size for your tank. 

Ceramic coasters!  I just found these on Amazon what do you think? I only need six. But they have that cork backing can I just peel that off or does that matter?

[Patrick_G]

On 6/25/2022 at 2:32 PM, sweetpoison said:

Ceramic coasters!  I just found these on Amazon what do you think? I only need six. But they have that cork backing can I just peel that off or does that matter?

Looks like a good deal to me. It’s worth a try in my opinion. 

[sweetpoison]

Yes!  Patrick what if I can’t peel off that back corking just leave it on?

[Solstice_Lacer]

Would something like these slate cheese markers work for you? Idk if you could wedge them into your pieces of wood at the base. Or just break off the sharp parts and super glue them on.

Edited June 26, 2022 by Solstice_Lacer

[sweetpoison]

Boy it sure looks like it might work!  And the price is great.  Having said that I already ordered the coasters and superglue. But if that doesn’t work I’ll be back!  Thank you so much♥️

[Odd Duck]

On 6/25/2022 at 4:32 PM, sweetpoison said:

Break, chisel and hammer??  Deep down you’re really hate me don’t you😂

😆 😂 🤣 Sorry, all the girls in my family were raised to be able to do all kinds of things for themselves including basic drywall repairs, cutting brick and stone by hand for small or large DIY projects, change our own oil and filters in the car, you name it, there’s a good chance I may have done it or seen it done/made at some point.  The boys were also expected to be able to cook at least enough to survive (they are all good cooks as it turns out), and clean a house, do laundry, and other things that were considered to be girly stuff back in the day. There were no gender specific tasks on the list of chores to be done around our house growing up.  Everybody took a turn doing dishes, gardening, helping with DIY, whatever it may be.  I’m pretty good at lots of artsy craftsy things, too.  😆  We had a multilevel yard and the whole family worked together to build the backyard retaining walls out of concrete rubble.  Plus many took part in building cinderblock base and reclaimed street brick planters all along the west side of the yard.  Railroad timber retaining walls in the front yard, too.  All of it DIY.

If I ever make an assumption about skill or experience levels, just call me out.  I’ll work on another idea that does work.  The coasters should be good, but I would pry off the cork because you want sinking and any floatation is against the goal.  Plus the adhesive may not be fish tank friendly.

On 6/25/2022 at 8:26 PM, sweetpoison said:

Boy it sure looks like it might work!  And the price is great.  Having said that I already ordered the coasters and superglue. But if that doesn’t work I’ll be back!  Thank you so much♥️

Superglue is fine but epoxy might get into texture better (thinking of the wood part of the glue up).

[Brandon p]

On 6/25/2022 at 3:01 PM, Odd Duck said:

Your driftwood will stand and stay better if attached to pieces of slate or ceramic tile.  I’ve soaked wood for MONTHS and still had it lift if not attached to something heavy.  You will get there, just need patience.  If you have tools and are handy, it’s pretty easy to drill slate with the right drill bit.  Slate is pretty soft.  Check my 14 G cube link in my signature for a little instructional with pics.

 

On 6/25/2022 at 9:52 PM, Odd Duck said:

😆 😂 🤣 Sorry, all the girls in my family were raised to be able to do all kinds of things for themselves including basic drywall repairs, cutting brick and stone by hand for small or large DIY projects, change our own oil and filters in the car, you name it, there’s a good chance I may have done it or seen it done/made at some point.  The boys were also expected to be able to cook at least enough to survive (they are all good cooks as it turns out), and clean a house, do laundry, and other things that were considered to be girly stuff back in the day. There were no gender specific tasks on the list of chores to be done around our house growing up.  Everybody took a turn doing dishes, gardening, helping with DIY, whatever it may be.  I’m pretty good at lots of artsy craftsy things, too.  😆  We had a multilevel yard and the whole family worked together to build the backyard retaining walls out of concrete rubble.  Plus many took part in building cinderblock base and reclaimed street brick planters all along the west side of the yard.  Railroad timber retaining walls in the front yard, too.  All of it DIY.

If I ever make an assumption about skill or experience levels, just call me out.  I’ll work on another idea that does work.  The coasters should be good, but I would pry off the cork because you want sinking and any floatation is against the goal.  Plus the adhesive may not be fish tank friendly.

Superglue is fine but epoxy might get into texture better (thinking of the wood part of the glue up).

I have a piece of driftwood that has been soaking since I started in the forum. Some will know. It’s a old piece of cypress wood it’s over a year. 

[Torrey]

I put together the T4' tank for my spouse May of last year. Wood had been soaking since January. One piece still hasn't sunk all the way (most of the way, one end hangs out just below the water line).

Josh Sims has done similar vertical wood forest tanks for ADA competitions (fun nerm fact: he was the first aquascaper to use vertical wood in his scapes), He zipties to rocks, you can watch one of his videos on the Green Aqua if you need functional, proven to work, different solutions and want to watch them done. He's got a great sense of humor, and reminds folx to play and have fun.

I took the "I'm going to work with what I have" approach, and let the fish push the wood around for the past year. In the end, they are the ones who have to live in the tank, so I figured I should let them have some creative license.

I hope the coasters work for you! And yes, this hobby provides plenty of opportunities to learn patience. And then some more... and then a few hundred more for good measure.🤣

[Georgiapeach88]

On 6/25/2022 at 11:12 PM, Torrey said:

I put together the T4' tank for my spouse May of last year. Wood had been soaking since January. One piece still hasn't sunk all the way (most of the way, one end hangs out just below the water line).

Josh Sims has done similar vertical wood forest tanks for ADA competitions (fun nerm fact: he was the first aquascaper to use vertical wood in his scapes), He zipties to rocks, you can watch one of his videos on the Green Aqua if you need functional, proven to work, different solutions and want to watch them done. He's got a great sense of humor, and reminds folx to play and have fun.

I took the "I'm going to work with what I have" approach, and let the fish push the wood around for the past year. In the end, they are the ones who have to live in the tank, so I figured I should let them have some creative license.

I hope the coasters work for you! And yes, this hobby provides plenty of opportunities to learn patience. And then some more... and then a few hundred more for good measure.🤣

Found that vdo a while back. Love watching him aquascape. Always looks amazing. 

[sweetpoison]

On 6/25/2022 at 6:52 PM, Odd Duck said:

😆 😂 🤣  

If I ever make an assumption about skill or experience levels, just call me out.  I’ll work on another idea that does work.  The coasters should be good, but I would pry off the cork because you want sinking and any floatation is against the goal.  Plus the adhesive may not be fish tank friendly.

Superglue is fine but epoxy might get into texture better (thinking of the wood part of the glue up).

Odd ~ I already ordered superglue. On my other form I was also told I could use gorilla sticks and a glue gun. Also no worries about making assumptions about skill.  This time around I’m going simple🤗 thank you for answering me about the cork I hope it comes off easy. There was some coasters that came with the cork and you just peel back and put it on but I don’t need 25 coasters. Only six😂

Thank you I appreciate it more than you know♥️