The Interior:
The bottom is the same construction that has been described many other places. It is an eggcrate false bottom supported by slices of 2 1/2" PVC zip tied to the crate. Then there is some fiberglass window screen followed by a layer of airflo (small). Since I am growing orchids, I didn’t need a rich loam substrate, so I sprinkled on a bit of T&C Terrariums Rain Forest mix for effect and I was done.
The pump I used was the smallest I could find and this sucker puts out a ton of water. Even at it’s slowest setting it was still a ton of flow. It is a great pump:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=8&pCatId=6471
The pump feeds a waterfall that I built by gluing a bunch of small flat stones together with silicone. I then used expanding foam to fill in the back so that no water would trickle back inside the falls. This took a while to fit each stone and make it taper up, but I really like the effect. I was going for a mountainous cliff effect so that it would add some depth perspective to the tiny tank, and I think it works. I think it will look even better when the mosses and tiny plants start to grow on it.
The walls are lined with panels of tree fern bark that have been glued in place with silicone. I cut the panels in half to make them thinner, because of my limited amount of space. Cutting the panels thinner was a real pain, and I wouldn’t recommend it. If anyone knows of a good method to do this, I would LOVE hearing about it.
Lighting
I am using 2 13W Compact Fluorescents and 6400K bulbs from:
http://www.ahsupply.com/twox.htm
Very good supplier, good lights, no problems. I have a manual switch wired into the power cord, but I leave it on and let a plug in timer turn the lights on and off. I am currently running the lights 14 hours a day, and the plants seem to be doing fine {crossing fingers}
