Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Sorry, I am sure all of you have answered tons of questions about waterfalls, but I need some help. I built a 136 gallon hexagon tank that will have a waterfall about 2.5 ft tall. I used sphagnum moss as the background and I am afraid to let the water run off on it, (it might rot in the long-run?). I was thinking about making a surface (using a mould) out of some material (epoxy?) and fasten it up on the back wall. My question is what material can I buy that can be formed into any shape and is safe with the frogs.

Sincerely,

Arpad Csay Jr.

A lot of people on this forum swear by "Great Stuff" spray foam by DOW. I have just used some for the first time and am pleased. You can get it at Home depot for less than 5 bucks per can. It is light, adhesive, and water proof

Hope this helps
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Matt

I would love to work with a tank that size. Good luck with it, Black Jungle has a great description of setting up large tanks. Check it out.
Black Jungle

I'll give you a description of what I just finished doing on the inside of my 90 gallon. I coated the entire back wall and sides with Great Stuff, foaming around the wood and lace rock, making them a true part of the background. One grouping of lace rock will serve as a waterfall fed by a "stream" at the upper part of the enclosure. Besides this, there will be 3 other seperate water features, 1 ghost wood drip log and 2 drip walls. I coated the foam background with a mixture of 3 parts water, 3 parts concentrated Weldbond, 5 parts organic mix (spaghnum moss, peat and coconut fibers). The slurry should be creamy, very thick, but workable, and white. If my measurements don't work exactly for you, modify them (that is what we did). We used latex gloves and spread the mix on by hand, doing each side one day at a time. Outside here in the Arizona heat (105 the past few days) it drys in a day (I'd give it about 3 or 4 more to cure). The side that is completely cured and dry is extremely solid, more than I expected it to be, and looks more "natural" than I could ever have imagined. Now that the boring technical work is done, its time for the PLANTS...
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David Knight
Tempe, AZ

D. imitator
D. leucomelas
P. terribilis
D. azureus
D. tinctorius (Alanis)

Do you have any pictures? I would really like to see this before it is finished. I am hoping to try something simaler, but it has been delayed since I had to put a transmission in my van.
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Kyle
www.kylesphotos.com
1.2.0 D. leucomelas
0.0.2 D. azureus
1.0.1 D. imitators

I'll try to get some pics up before I put in the plants...just a matter of borrowing a digital camera.
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David Knight
Tempe, AZ

D. imitator
D. leucomelas
P. terribilis
D. azureus
D. tinctorius (Alanis)

I made my waterfall out of fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin which was a little more trouble than many people may want to go to. It took some time and was tedious but i'm glad I did it. It's 22 in. high, three tiered and fit's in the right hand corner of my frog tank.
I started by nailing two pieces of plywood together in the shape of a "corner" as a model for the corner where the waterfall would go so I would have something to build the waterfall up against. I used a framing square to square it up, nailed bracing to keep it there, then tacked some wax paper up against the wood so nothing would stick to it. I then used several buckets dirt and mixed H2o untill it was the consistancy of clay and used this to model the waterfall making little side pools, over-hangs, etc.
Anyway, I formed fiber glass over cloth it in small pieces and coated it with Marine Epoxy Resin. Applying the fiberglass was the hard part for me...it would buckle out in places but I was able to press it back down once the resin became more tacky as it dried. After a 2 or 3 coats of epoxy resin I applied another layer of fiber glass cloth and then a couple more coats of resin. Once this dried I removed the "shell" from the frame, laid it down on a work bench and thinly coated the entire thing with a mud like consistancy of epoxy resin and peat moss. I wore rubber gloves so I could use my hands to "mash" the mixture, lump by lump, forming it over the entire shell of the waterfall. I didn't coat the bottoms of the pools, since I intended to put gravel in them, just where the edges sloped into them. The epoxy / peat moss hardens like rock, look like earth and is water proof. Lightly sanding it with 100 grit easily knocks off any sharp spots.

I bought a bag of slate ( small thin pieces varied from from 1/4 in. wide to 2.5 wide ) at a local nursery and "glued" them onto parts of the waterfall by using the epoxy / peat moss mixture.
You can get very creative with these slate pieces by stacking them together to make rock outcroppings and I found that sometimes gluing the slate pieces together with silicone to form these stacks and then bonding them to the waterfall all at once worked out really well.

Whew! long post, I'm done.

Gus

I am definitely going to try to use some of your ideas, thank you to all who replied again!!!

RP