Riparium Waterfall Idea - Need Some Input

[Wy Renegade]

Trying to conceptualize this idea for my 30 riparium. I'll be using a canister filter as the source, pulling water from the aquatic side and transfering it over to the terrestrial area. I'm envisioning a waterfall coming down the side and flowing towards the water side over the barrier.

With the canister as the source I know I'll have to pool the water somehow prior to coming out of the waterfall, otherwise it will have enough force that it will simply blow the water across the tank. I'm thinking about piping into a piece of PVC pipe with a cap on the bottom and then overflowing from the PVC onto a rock structure, then using foam to create a river flowing toward the divider.

I've done some looking on the internet, but haven't really found anything that fits. Anybody have any experience with this sort of thing?

 

[kdpuffer]

I've built a water feature into my poison dart frog viv and I can say water doesn't always flow how you think. That being said I like your idea for pooling the water, not sure on how you envision building it but if you do ceramic balls on the bottom of the tank deep enough to cover the filter this can be your water reservoir. The balls will also add to filtration, the other option is a false bottom (google it to get details as I've never done one) with the outlet of the pump you will want to size some hose to fit it tightly (hose is easier to work with than pipe allowing more freedom and room for error) I would then build up a little mountain using great stuff expanding foam or the black pond foam. Another option is to use rocks and silicone them together. Foam will allow you to carve it out the way you want including your river. Then using black silicone you smear the foam completely and press in your desired substrate, soil or coco fibre or both are common and I would use small gravel for your river. The options and ideas are endless for this technique. Before foaming you will want to have your pump line and water feature planned out. As far as avoiding creating old faithful I like your idea of using a piece of PVC and a cap on the bottom to create a pool, I would take it one step further by putting a cap on the top to prevent spray out of the pool. I would conceal it with more foam and/or small stones and a fake plant- like a bonsai tree. Just keep the top cap removable and tinker with the size of the PVC before hand. You want to have a good sized reservoir and have an opening feeding your river sized to keep up with the pump, you can also split your river to run two rivers different directions. Have the river or rivers flow into a pool at the opposite end of the tank from your filter so you circulate the water fully, the pool is as easy as just making a depression in the ceramic balls if you go that route or carved foam if you opt for a false bottom. I would also size the pump to circulate the amount of water in the bottom to maximize flow and circulation while not over powering the water feature. White water rafting to my knowledge is not a sport pursued by animals.

 

[Wy Renegade]

So carving out the foam, you just carve it after it is dry or do you work it when its wet? As for the black silcon suggestions on type? Since this will house fish I obviously need something aquarium safe and the aquarium silicon I've seen is typically clear. Hhhhhmmmm does GE type I come in black? Sounds like another trip to Home Depot is in my future.

 

[TheCrazyFishLady]

I prefer to carve when it's dry. I attempted it when wet and failed miserably. It's pretty sticky and can cause a mess.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Ok, thank you - that was kind of what I was thinking, but wasn't sure. Saw your crested vivarium over on the vivarium forum. Seems a little slow over there?

 

[FishEggs]

You definitely want to carve after it dries. Use a hot knife made especially for carving foam. If you have a good soldering iron with replaceable tips you can make one by using a piece of wire instead of the soldering tip. I think GE silicone1 comes in black. if not use DOW 995 sealant (wont be available at HD or Lowes but amazon has it).
Looking forward to seeing what you come up with this time. I have plans to do one in the future too.

 

[TheCrazyFishLady]

I just used a razor, but it would make more sense to use a special knife.

I completely forgot about that thread! I actually finished it up. I had to put in a fake plant since I couldn't find any climbing fig that was grown out enough. Oh, and I picked up a crestie last weekend<3 I'll update it. Thanks!

 

[kdpuffer]

I actually prefer to carve the foam with a steak knife but either way works, I too am stoked to see what you come up with. If its going to house fish I would look into doing a false bottom with either foam or raised up egg crate material. The ceramic balls can be difficult to keep in place if you dig a deep pit. My viv only has a shallow pool so I got away with it. If you use foam I would cut it an inch small at each side/end then fill in the gap with gravel so its nicer to look at then foam. As far as the foam to use you will want an open cell foam like is found in a filter that will allow water to flow through, if flow is a concern you can cut a channel through it from your pond to your filter and plug up the end with filter floss so you don't suck up the fish. Again make the channel big enough to support good water flow so you can keep current in your pond down. The only issue I can figure with foam is concealing it in the pond, perhaps silicone and gravel are the solution.

 

[kdpuffer]

Here is a pic of my PDF viv with water feature, the pump is in the back left in ceramic balls and pumps up to the top drift wood and runs down to the second drift wood then onto cork bark and into the pool. The cork bark was needed to direct water flow or it ran everywhere. The plants have grown in really nicely now.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

I found this yesterday while I was doing some reading.
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/vivarium/vivarium.html
It shows a false bottom.

 

[kdpuffer]

Oh and the background is two pieces of cork bark carefully seamed together and the back gap is filled with expanding foam so nothing can go back there.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Wow tons of responses - thanks everyone! Your all jazzing me up to get this thing going. I've thought about the false bottom, but want to keep this similar to the existing bog so I'm going to stick with part water - part terrestrial. However you all have me rethinking the water portion in that I may decide to drill an overflow so I can do a sump on this one - just for hidden equipment and extra water volume. Hhhhmmmmm . . . .

I just used a razor, but it would make more sense to use a special knife.

I completely forgot about that thread! I actually finished it up. I had to put in a fake plant since I couldn't find any climbing fig that was grown out enough. Oh, and I picked up a crestie last weekend<3 I'll update it. Thanks!

I saw you finished it up - I'll have to check it out later tonight so I can actually see the pictures.

You definitely want to carve after it dries. Use a hot knife made especially for carving foam. If you have a good soldering iron with replaceable tips you can make one by using a piece of wire instead of the soldering tip. I think GE silicone1 comes in black. if not use DOW 995 sealant (wont be available at HD or Lowes but amazon has it).
Looking forward to seeing what you come up with this time. I have plans to do one in the future too.

Thanks for the tip, I'll look for both the removable tip soldering iron and GE silicone in black when I hit Home Depot this evening. Hopefully it will come out cool - I'm trying to do quite a bit of research on this one.

I actually prefer to carve the foam with a steak knife but either way works, I too am stoked to see what you come up with. If its going to house fish I would look into doing a false bottom with either foam or raised up egg crate material. The ceramic balls can be difficult to keep in place if you dig a deep pit. My viv only has a shallow pool so I got away with it. If you use foam I would cut it an inch small at each side/end then fill in the gap with gravel so its nicer to look at then foam. As far as the foam to use you will want an open cell foam like is found in a filter that will allow water to flow through, if flow is a concern you can cut a channel through it from your pond to your filter and plug up the end with filter floss so you don't suck up the fish. Again make the channel big enough to support good water flow so you can keep current in your pond down. The only issue I can figure with foam is concealing it in the pond, perhaps silicone and gravel are the solution.

Yeah, the whole flow thing is probably the biggest issue - keeping it from spraying water across the whole tank is a major concern.

Here is a pic of my PDF viv with water feature, the pump is in the back left in ceramic balls and pumps up to the top drift wood and runs down to the second drift wood then onto cork bark and into the pool. The cork bark was needed to direct water flow or it ran everywhere. The plants have grown in really nicely now.

That is very nice! You have a thread on that one somewhere? If so I'd love a link.

I found this yesterday while I was doing some reading.
Setting up a Vivarium
It shows a false bottom.

Thanks Mumma, I looked those over, I think they call those a paludarium don't they? There are some really nice ones around, but not quite the look I'm going for here.

Oh and the background is two pieces of cork bark carefully seamed together and the back gap is filled with expanding foam so nothing can go back there.

Build thread linky?

Thanks alot everybody - I'm off to see what I can come up with for supplies. Drilling tomorrow afternoon.

 

[kdpuffer]

I'm on my iPhone so I can't post the link but search on here for startup PDF vuvarium, I mispelled it when creating the thread lol. Your stoked to get started and now I'm stoked trying to think of how I can convince the wife to let me start another one lol.

 

[kdpuffer]

Here is a good link to check out
http://www.brianstropicals.com/pages/Caring-for-frogs.html

I found this really helpful on my build. You can see what I was meaning with the ceramic balls to create a water table. Doing that doesn't require drilling the tank.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Very cool - thank you for both links. The vivarium is awesome, I think you need to update that thread with some more pictures. The frog site has me considering a drip wall in addition to everything else - little too much for just one tank I think LOL.

 

[kdpuffer]

Ya I probably should update it.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Well if late night thoughts accomplished anything, this thing would have been done and working last night LOL ! I picked up a piece of 1 1/4" PVC pipe, some end caps, connections and black silicone last night. The pipe may end up being too small for what I want, but it was the largest size that Home Depot had precut, and I didn't want to buy an 8' piece, so we'll see what happens .

 

[Wy Renegade]

Trial #1

Alrighty then after some thought, discussion, more thought, research, more discussion and a lot more thought, here is what I've come up with so far.

The unassembled parts and pieces for Trial #1;

Few required glues and solvents;

And the assembled prototype;

Unfortunately I was incorrect on my estimate of the size of the tubing off the ZooMed filter, so for this trial I'll be using a maxijet powerhead. Should give me some idea hopefully. Just have to wait for the glue to dry and lunch time to come along now .

 

[Bschowa]

idk if you have already become set in a method but this could be a option

for a rip you probably dont need much water flow (gpd) as im guessing you only have 20g of water max. you might be able to get away with taking your canister filter outlet and creating a kind of soaker hose type circle that sets in the pool of water at the top of the waterfall in place of a spray bar, you could then use a shutoff valve to control the amount of water flow going out?

let me know if that makes sense, if not i can try to explain it better

 

[Wy Renegade]

idk if you have already become set in a method but this could be a option

for a rip you probably dont need much water flow (gpd) as im guessing you only have 20g of water max. you might be able to get away with taking your canister filter outlet and creating a kind of soaker hose type circle that sets in the pool of water at the top of the waterfall in place of a spray bar, you could then use a shutoff valve to control the amount of water flow going out?

let me know if that makes sense, if not i can try to explain it better

Thanks, if I understand you correctly, what you are proposing is pretty similar to what I came up with. I'm not using a spray bar (at least not in this area), the PVC will create a deep pool and the top of the waterfall and then will spill over into a lower pool. Water will be provided via the outfeed of either the canister or a return pump if I do decide to sump.

On a happy note, the 1.25" PVC was sufficient for the task. I get a little spill over just at start up with a MJ1200, but figure I'm ok with a canister as the reservior shouldn't bleed off. I cut to an overall length of about 12.5", and drimmeled out a small spout area. With the maxijet, the total volume of flow is enough to overflow the entire pipe rather than be contained to the spout, but I'm hoping I can throttle things back enough to keep it contained. Only time will tell.

Here's a picture to give you a bit of an idea of the overall direction this is headed (excuse the finger);

The pipe will be foamed into the corner and a rock waterfall created around it. the waterfall will drop into a larger foam pool and hopefully the pool will overflow into the larger water area.

With that, I'm headed back to the regular thread to track progress, located here;

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f24/wy-renegades-30gal-riparium-176932.html