65 Gallon Acrylic Vivarium Build

[froggsong]

Looks great!

[thercman]

Thanks!

Next week I will bring my camera instead of taking pictures with my cell phone. How many misters do you think I need across the top? 2 or 3? Oh, I started buying Mopani wood for the background. I found a really nice large piece that has a large hole through the 3 limbs. Could make for a cool water feature or a nice hide for the frogs.....

[clwatkins10]

Great tank! I cant even imagine 62 inches of snow

[foxfish@hotmail.co.uk]

Personally I found that a rain system looked better & worked better than a mister system.
I have approx 7 gals of water in my sump, I find I use about 3 gallons a week.
I have a water fall on 24/7 & I hand mist 1 or 2 times a day, the rain comes on in the evenings for 20 mins at tea time because we all like to watch it!
I top up the sump with mature water from my well fertilized planted fishtank this seems to work very well.
I have fitted several fans, one in the lid that draws from the room & two on the inside walls for internal air circulation.
I also have an external light source that shines a spot on the front glass this stops any condensation that the fans cant handle.
Designing the rain system was very easy simply drilling 0.5mm holes into 3 lengths of pvc pipe, just keep drilling until you match the pumps outlet & get the desired effect.
Lastly try not to get any water on the front glass when misting or raining as this is a pain to keep cleaning.
I hope some of that help you. Fox.

[thercman]

Hey All!

Well I am still progressing with the project just not as fast as I would like. Yesterday I went to Lowes and picked up some eggcrate, Great Stuff, fiberglass screen and some zip ties. Tomorrow the plan is to router off the edges, sand the inside of the back so the great stuff will stick and then start working assembling the eggcrate... Picture should be up tomorrow.

[thercman]

Today I took the tank outside, flush trimmed and rounded over the edges. After that the edges were all polished to a high shine. I also started to cut the egg-crate into its configuration. From the bottom of the tank to the top of the egg-crate is about 3 1/2". This will allow for the use of dark aquarium stones in the water feature and still allow it to have a couple inches of water in it. The plan will be to put a few small tetras in the water. Tonight I will get a couple more pieces of mopani wood, coco fiber and the aquarium stones. Tomorrow I will sand the back so the foam will stick to it. Then I still need to order the black silicon and the John Guest fittings. Its starting to become reality!

[beckdg]

you may want to leave some room between the fb and tank to backfill and hide fb. just a thought. looks great... routing came out nicely!

[thercman]

Thanks! I left about 1/2" between the egg crate and the sides so I could hide it although its hard to tell from the picture. Do you think I should leave more space?

[Jason]

I normally only use 1/4" space between my FB and the galss. just enough to fill it with say a black aquarium gravel or any other fine partical Viv safe stuff, your only looking to hide the white of the eggcrate. More space = more weight due to the increace in filler needed

[beckdg]

no, your good, couldn't see any gap in the pic. i got my laptop up now... so hi def eat my a** (i see it very well now, sorry).