Viv from scratch

[Landon]

this is a project im working on currently. its pretty far along, far enough i thought id see what people think about it.

its a plywood viv that i built to fit on some standard HD shelves. ill be building another to sit beside it. its outside demensions are ~22x22x22. its roughly 40 gallons.

i started out by cutting the sides and a back, then screwed/siliconed them together.


i filled between the boards with silicone to help in leak prevention.


i coated the edges of the boards and the inside of the tank with a few coats of marine epoxy. i used West Systems brand. after coating it with epoxy, i added more silicone to the corners to protect agains leaks. the very first plywood tank i ever built leaked, so im really paranoid about that with all the rest of them. the epoxy doesnt adhere to the silicone in the corners, but the extra thick overcoat ensures a water tight seal.


not a very pretty job, but it works well ahh it all gets covered up anyways.


next i installed the glass. i got a piece that was 22x36x3/16" from the local glass shop. i cut it into four pieces, first cutting a 22x22" piece for the front. the 14" drop is used as the top glass. the remaining area will be covered with screen for ventalation. i cut the 22x22" piece into three pieces to make my door. i cut a piece 1" thick off of the top, and piece 3" thick off of the bottom making sure to make all the cuts on the same side of the original piece. this ensures my door a snug fit. i screwed an extra piece of wood onto the top of the tank, to hold it square while the silicone that holds the glass on cured.

here it is with the top glass cured, the front glass installed and waiting for the silicone to cure.


this is what itll look like from the front.


next i made the screen. i did a detailed pic journal of this but only half the pics came out. i didnt upload any of them, because it wasnt complete enough, but ill have a detailed description coming up with the next one. i used a nylon mesh material from WalMart that is sold in the fabric section. its really fine material so there is no worries of FF escape. its also pretty strong and really flexible, so its eay to work with and doesnt twist your frame at all.

to install it i had to flip the tank back upright and remove my extra piece for sqaring the tank. the glass is plenty to hold the tank square now so i placed silicone in the area where it will hold the screen in place.

these pics came out blurry too, but they are essential to the closing in of the box.


before the silicone dried i placed my freshly made screen seciton onto it.


now i have a tank to start a viv with. i had plans to have this thing all decked out. i wanted a river, a waterfall, a fogger, and a misting system. i planned on using a good bit of wood. i got a nice box of african root from the LFS and have a few pieces that will fit into this tank. the pieces i have should easily accomodate a nice waterfall, and i should be able to come up with something for a river. the fogger is what turned out to be a problem, because i couldnt find something i was happy with for plumbing it into my tank. i have some extra nozzles coming from mistking to get that taken care of. itll be in the room with the all of my tanks, so ill plumb it into the rest of them.


i started by placing the wood, to get a structure i liked.

i like this. its four pieces but really flows together and looks like a single structure. there is a place at the top for a water output, and one of the smaller pieces covers where it will come out nicely.


next, i added in some foam to try and visualize what the land shape would be. i like to try and get a feel for where i want high and low spots and what not. i use a blue contractors foam that ive seen a few other people use. ive been using it for a rather short period of time (close to a year) but know of a couple others using it, one in particular that is having good luck breeding some pretty uncommmon frogs, so im sure its a safe material. i like using it for drainage fill in as its a lot lighter than gravel and displaces a lot of water (making the tank lighter wihtout having to drain it).


i wanted to make a river, so the concept starts here. i took a pice of foam and cut a strip to the size i was shootign for. i placed a couple of pieces of wood on it to see how it looked in relation to the rest of the wood in the tank.


with a little fine tuning i liked it, so i siliconed the small root pieces onto the foam strip. i aslo cut and placed a barrier to control water flow.


since i could picture this working out to my satisfaction i decided to go ahead and silicone the sides on and add a little flourite to hide it.


after the silicone dried the real test came. this was going to check my seal on the whole structure glass and all, and see if the water features were going to work. i plumbed everything up and filled the sucka with water.

it works!!


i used the flash in this pic so you can see how the upper water output covers the root wood. you can also see the plumbing for the river and kind of see the tubing running up to the water fall. this will be hidden easily a little later.


heres some shots of the river running.




and one more over view with the flash on.


next was the background. i didnt wwant to go too crazy so opted for a simple method ive used for a long time (well i used it a long time ago a recently returned to it). is not relly the best long term background, but i dont plan on needing the background forever, and it will be pretty easy to replace if need be later down the road. its a coco fiber mat, that i buy at Lowes. its made for a replacement for outdoor hanging basket type things. there is one shape that is $4 and can be cut into a ~30x30 piece.

i drained the tank and let it dry out before installing the sides and back. this is what the coco fiber looks like installed.



i got a nice shot to show how i blended one side of the river with the rest of the substrate. the other side will come later. i need to do some things to try and hide the pump and make it accesable for me but not to frogs. i plan to make a little removable false bottom in that area that can be lifted out or accccessed from the front. the way its looking its going to be accesable from the front.

well heres the substrate (boring pic )


and the overall after the intitial planting.


ive got two peperomias on the main root, and a hoya mounted to the cocofiber. one thing i really like about the coco fiber is the ease of mounting plants to it. it also holds humudity ok so aids in watering the plants for a short time after misitng it. there is a palm type thing im going to try out planted in the center of the land area, a couple anubias at the water edge, and a fittonia at the base of the root on the left. ive got another larger leaf peperomia mounted in there now and trying out a small shefflera on the right. im thinking of replacing it with a pink fittonia for color. the only thing is it get really bright light and i dont know how the fitt will do with no shade. ive been wanting to bonsai a shefflera in a viv, so this may be my chance. i just think the shefflera tree kind of takes away from the palm trees andmaybe the over all look of the tank. ill post some pics of it with the pump concealed and the shefflera tree in the next few days. i just put them in yesterday, so i havent had a chance to upload the pics.

questions, comments, and critiques highly welcomed.

[Tindomul1of9]

That looks amazing! Congrats.

[Landon]

heres the more updated shot wiht the shefflera tree included. im still thinking of changing around the layout, but i like it oKay...

[Landon]

oKay so i changed the stuff around and added a few things. LMK what you think of the new look.

first of all i moved the shefflera up to the middle and put a pink fittonia (thanks for the idea tindo ) in its place. the paml was removed to make room fo the sheff.


i took a few random angled shots to try and show the depth of the tank. this one turned out good.


here is loking down from the top front of the tank. this is what it looks like if you stand right up in front of it. its shows the river nicely.


detail of the top of the waterfall.


and a new FTS with misking nozzles installed and the only decent brom i had around mounted to the root.



comments on the changes?

[kwiky]

i like it, looks better now i think, im really impressed mate

[Tindomul1of9]

Your welcome. Now the tank looks even better. Too bad about the palm though. Now, if you could find a nice cozy spot in the back for that palm, I think it would look good.

[Mrnicolai]

awesome vivarium!!!!!!!!!

[Landon]

thanks Tindo. i thought about just trading it and the sheff, but i like how it turned out. the valley of plants seem to accent the shape of the river nicely. im also sure if i get the frogs i want (e. anthonyi) theyll appreciate (and use hopefully) the larger leaves on the fittonia.

i added a little more of the small white fittonia under the pink one, but i think im just going to let it grow in for a while before i try moving/adding anything else.

i cant wait for the sheff to start growing like mad so i can get to shaping it!

[Mrnicolai]

i wish you lived near me so i could pay you to build a few for me!!!!

[Repti-Racks]

Seems like you got the idea just be careful with that type of board its not designed to hold up well with humidity and water and will swell after some time. seal it good
Good luck

www.repti-racks.com
Custom Acrylic Vivarium Designs