48"L x12"Wx24T" new vivarium family project.

[HoofArted]

hey guys,
this is my first post here, We just finished planting our tank take a look let me know what ya think, ill also post pictures of the build. This was a family project for me,my wife, and my 5 year old son. we used several types of moss and carnivorous, succulents, and vine style plants. the tank will hold 3 or 4 milk frogs after the plants get a few months to acclimate and root.

also ill note we used a light grid and screen for the false bottom and 1/2" pvc couplings notched out on the bottoms for support. Sry i didn't take any pictures of that going in. If you have any questions please feel free to ask, the tank was planted this morning and ill post some updates after it gets some growth. and yes every thing was made from scratch the wall,roots, waterfall, etc. also t5 light and lid i ordered have not arrived yet so just have it some clamp lights on it with 7k lumens florescent in it.


Each post after this one will be a new day, there were 4 days of construction counting planting day.
but not counting the air out/drying days.
pictures below,



tank as it sits now:

[HoofArted]

Day one,

Made the roots and structure out of foam, hose, rope, tubes etc we foamed them on 3 different sections of foam boards, after preping the tank with a layer of black silicone we inserted them into the tank in pieces foaming them a second time after they were inserted into the tank. we coated it with brown silicone and covered it in peat moss.

[HoofArted]

Day 2,

after letting the tank dry for a few days we went back to it. On this day i set the filter hoses behind the drift wood we foamed in, and ran the tubes under the false bottom, making the filter side go closer to the side with the waterfall, on this day we also made the water fall. we coated it with the brown silicone like in day one but the mixture we put on it was a non shrinking high pressure grout peat moss mix. it was about a 2/1 grout peat mix. after letting it sit for 3/4 hrs we started to mist the grout mixture with a spray bottle several times threw out the rest of the day.

[HoofArted]

Day 3 we moved the tank out of my shop and set it up in its resting place we rinsed the tank several times before letting the water stay in it. and hooked up the canister filter down below the tank. also added a Megalodon sharks teeth me and my son found, and a peice of drift wood we got some moss started on.










day 4 pictures are in the first post...

this was are first time giving it a shot. we had a lot of fun doing this and i think we will do it again shortly so what do you guys think look good?

[Mentat]

Welcome to FF! That does not look like a first time vivarium , very nice family project! If including carnivorous plants, you might want to read this and ensure your milk frogs are large enough: http://www.frogforum.net/vivarium-te...a-vivaria.html. Good luck !

[HoofArted]

Welcome to FF! That does not look like a first time vivarium , very nice family project! If including carnivorous plants, you might want to read this and ensure your milk frogs are large enough: http://www.frogforum.net/vivarium-te...a-vivaria.html. Good luck !

thanks for the sticky! there's some D.capensis, typical & green in the tank as well as some D. Burmannii green and giant reds in The tank. i'm working on getting some N. bellii or N. gracilis for my pitchers. but i guess i should read the sticky before every thing roots haha. thanks again!

[Meefloaf]

awesome man! it looks super cool

[HoofArted]

ty can't wait till she grows in a bit, I hope all the plants and moss take

[DartEd]

Welcome to the forum. Very nicely done. I second Carlos' suggestion about the carnivorous plants. I am fascinated by carnivorous plants, but I wouldn't in a frog vivarium. That would be a great dart frog vivarium. Add some leaf litter, and let it grow in.

[HoofArted]

thanks ed one of the reason we are going with Amazon Milk frogs (tree frogs) is they don't require the leaf litter, i'm not a fan of that stuff. and there plenty big enough not to get stuck in the sundew plants. there's some carnivorous plants in it about 8 including a a bladder wart to kinda control the spring tails. but originally we were debating on just putting a bunch of pitchers in it and passing on the frogs. but it turned out to cool in are opinion it looks like frog heaven to us.

[deranged chipmunk]

the build is awesome the D. capensis should do very well as long as the humidity isn't too high. the only sundew i have come across that handles humidity well is D spatulata. what succulents are you keeping in there? i know there are a few tropicals, but they still prefer a more arid environment.

[HoofArted]

thanks Bill ya i figured the capensis would take well there about as hardy as a weed lol ... I have typical and albino in the tank also have some Giant red burmannii, and green burmannii in the tanks well, as well as some bladderwart to control dirt bugs. all my sundews seam to handle high humidity but they are acclimate to my deck which stays around 70-85% as it over looks a saltwater marsh here in charleston SC. i have some spatulata might add it to the tank later but want to let some plants grow in, also just ordered a Cephalotus Follicularis typical to add to the tank. . also adding some pixie cup lichen, and a piece of Pin Cushion moss areas where i don't want plants to grow. as far as the succulents we added stone plants ( i really like them there in the front of the tank) and a piece of a wild unid one we nursed from a clipping its in the left of the tank by the pond.

[DiggenEm]

Looks good!!!