OT: My vivarium project........

[waverz]

Decided that we couldnt afford to setup the 38 gallon as a reef tank so we decided to make it into a vivarium. Its gonna be real cool when its finished. I have been working on it for te past few weeks and it should be done next week or so. Basically what i did was take an ordinary 38 gallon tank (thanks Dan) and made a backround out of great stuff spray foam. Behind the spray foam is a 1/2" hose that splits off into 8 1/4" feeder lines. I thencarved out holes in the foam for pots and each pot gets watered via 1/4" line. The lines are fed via maxi jet which is under the false bottom of the tank. Basically i just took some eggcrating and propped it up on pvc about 3.5" high.

Here is a pic of what it currently looks like.

Heres a pic with some driftwood.

Im planning on covering the foam with black silicone and then while its still wet coat it with coco fiber to give it a nice natural look. It will also have a water fall and a small pond. I broke down the other day and even got a fogger for it.

Heres one with the fogger, man that thing is coool!!!

All the plants and mosses will be here on monday. Ill be getting 2 green tree frogs next week sometime as well.

You know, by the time i get this setup and running it will probably cost just as much as a reef tank. Just dont tell my girlfriend.
I cant wait to tell her i just spent $250 on a pair of poisonous frogs and that we have to feed them crickets.....shes gonna freek.

:eek1:

 

[phishcrazee]

Cool! Can't wait to see it finished! Do the frogs make a lot of noise at night? Your gf might have wished you HAD gotten the reef tank set up in there instead

 

[waverz]

Im not sure how loud they churp, i've never had frogs before. Just gonna start with the green tree frogs cause they are cheap, maybe someday ill get something cooler. Didnt really realize how many cool types of frogs there are.

 

[iaJim]

If they're anything like our wild tree frogs, they'll make lots of noise at night. Cool looking though.

 

[eshook]

Thats a cool tank. I always wanted something like that for turtles / lizards. I hope you and your girlfriend enjoy your *cough *$250 pair of poisonous frogs *cough* :lol: My wife would go nuts if I said something like that. Just hope she doesn't kick you out so fast that you can't explain it was a joke.

 

[acidlittle]

Green Tree frogs don't make too much noise. There are a lot of poison dart frogs you can get that aren't that expensive and are super colorful. Me and my buddy went through a phase of reptiles and we did a lot of different frogs, my fav was the Pac man frogs, they get to be the size of a softball!!
I hope your vivarium works out!

Josh

 

[D Hinch]

DUDE! PUT YOUR SHIRT ON!!

 

[got2lb]

I was curious if anyone else noticed that!

 

[waverz]

Thats not me thats my girlfriend...........

LOL

 

[waverz]

Finally got some more stuff done to the vivarium project. The plants are coming wed. so i gotta lot of work to do before they get here.

Heres a couple pics of what it looks like now.......

Heres another........

Gonna be working on the pond and getting the misters and waterfall going tommorow, then the plants go in. Should be ready for frogs this weekend.

 

[iaJim]

Very nice work!

 

[waverz]

Thanks jim, the funnest part was spreading the black silicone onto the foam, theres not really a good tool to use so i just used my hands, ever had your hands completely covered in black silicone?? Pretty messy but fuuuuun. I cant wait to get some water in it, but thats a job for tommorow.

 

[waverz]

Very nice progress!

LOL... I just noticed you had it set to auto login on this forum from my comp with your account info waverz

- seduxion

 

[leeweber85]

OoooOOoo whose the lady???


BTW It's looking really good and at least we can't see your gut in the new pics

 

[waverz]

Heh...lee, thats my friend scott. Hes not a lady. Atleast i hope he isnt...

 

[waverz]

Well i got some green tree frogs, 1 minute after i put them in the vivarium they dissapeared. Theres tons fo places for them to hide!! WE got them sat nite and sunday morning we found one of them on the bathroom floor, it turns out my lid wasn't "frog proof". So replaced the lid with a tighter fitting on but i still cant see the frogs. I know they are in there but i just cant find em.

The tighter fitting lid causes it to fog up real bad so im gonna attempt to mount pc fans into it. Should be a pretty fun DIY job.

Heres a pic i took today. I had Dana get out the hot glue gun and glue down all the moss so the frogs wont knock it down. Its lookin pretty good now.

 

[xroads]

WOW

Now that is cool. How much do you think you would charge me to make one for my boys? How do you know the others didnt get out Sat night too?

 

[xroads]

What do you feed them? Crickets?

 

[waverz]

I tore everything out today and found both of them, so i know they are in there. And yes i feed them cmall crickets from pet smart.

Craig what size tank are you looking to do? Im sure i could arrange something. I do have extra foam and other supplies to set it up. You would just need plants and rocks and stuff.

 

[got2lb]

Hey looks pretty good man!

Couldn't you just use eggcrate for a tighter fitting lid? I can't imagine they could slip through the holes in that as long as you have it cut real tight on the edges. I would think that would help on keeping the tank from fogging.