New Tank.

[Iceni]

i finally got my new tank sorted a few days ago. It now has the lone Squirrel frog in it.

I've made the tank out of a 24"x12"x12" tank. Flipped it on it's end. Added a 12" wall on the open end and made a Gauze screen For the top 12".

The inside of the tank is 2 silk plants that have been butchered a little. The longest stem from each of the plants was removed and tied to some plastic attachment points i made with clear acrylic offcuts. The rest of the plant is tied off upside down. so the rubber sucker is at the bottom on the Branches are tied off to more attachment points to give a centralised canopy with higher points and easy access to the bottom of the tank.

The substrate is 4" of clean water with a water pump to make a waterfall. In the water i have placed a fish fry matt. to make a swamp effect. With the pump under a section of this so it raises out of the water.

[John]

I have to hand it to you Iceni, that's really rather good and very straightforward. How did you affix the gauze and the glass on the "front" ?

[Iceni]

The tank itself is a red sea aquariums one. They have a pair of glass ledges on the top of the tanks for a lid to sit on. And a pair of black covers that sit over these ledges to hide them when you look at the tank as purchased.

I prized off the plastic strips ( there only held on with a dab of aquarium sealant.)

Then got a sheet of A4 sized 2mm clear acrylic sheet from a local hobby store. I think the sheet was about £1.

Using a scalpel i removed a section of the sealant on the inside of the tank near those ledges and cut the sheet to be a tight fit. The acrylic was then sealed in place with non toxic aquarium sealant and left with a lot of books inside the tank to keep pressure on the bonding.



The following day i went round both sides of the sheet with more sealant and water tight the sheet in place.


The offcuts were then made into safe triangles, and they had a hole drilled in each of them so i could get a garden tie through them (like a cable tie but there balls and non permanent)


The screen door was made from 20mm PLS. I made the top length first and drilled 2 holes one at either end. With these tanks there is a 10mm gap at the ends of the ledges. I used these gaps as the basis for the locking mechanism. The holes i drilled were just above the gaps. I then made a U lock from some 1.6mm brass wire (like coat-hanger wire). The u lock is very simple and the top section just locks in place.



I then made the falls and bottom section of the door to match. You'll notice the falls are inset a little to avoid the silicone bead that seals in the ledge. The frame was nailed together with panel pins.


The Inner lip of the door is just another length of the same pls nailed at an offset to the frame to Breach the gap at the bottom of the tank where the new acrylic plate fits.



I then went to the £1 shop for the gauze. That sheet you can see is a "wonder product" like all those stores sell!!! Basically it should be a baking tray for the oven to allow your chips to cook evenly!!! It's like a hard PTFE coated mesh. Safe for food hence safe for an animal

I cut the sheet to fit then used an industrial stapler the fix the mesh.



Finally i used an offcuts of the mesh to cover the inner lip at the bottom of the tank. And another offcut to attach the final piece of PLS to stop the frame sliding down.


The Final attachment points are On the inner lip piece of the frame. and there like a U clip but the U points down on the outside and to the edges of the tank on the inside again behind the ledges.


The final sealing is a thick Bead of Silicone on the inner edge of the frame so it sits snug to the ledges. After they had dried it was just a case of building the interior to a standard where it could be dismembered completely for cleaning and i could still see the animals.





Overall I think the tank is a little too large for just 1 frog!! i'm now on the hunt for more of these, Or failing that perhaps a few Hyla versicolour.




On a side note I plan to make a second Identical tank for the WTF. Using some more industrial components for the inside for it to sit on. I will then get a 18" heat mat, and tape it to one of the sides of one of the tanks and sit the other tank right next to it. So in winter i get 2 tanks heated for the price of 1.

[John]

Wow! That's very impressive and I know I and others appreciate the detailed account. You would give Johnny (Sludgemunkey) a run for his money in the DIY department. You should post a link to this thread in the Vivarium section. Thanks again.

[SludgeMunkey]

Brilliant! It is good to know I am not the only "DIY junkie" around here. Great looking set up.

I will get it right out in the open- I will probably steal some of your design ideas in the near future...

[Iceni]

Don't worry about stealing design ideas! If I were worried about keeping my ideas top secret i would never have posted the pics



I actually consider it to be a design success since people are looking at the tank and seeing ideas they can incorporate into future projects. it means i got something right with the basic principal. Something that makes me very pleased because i was worried people were going to have issues with the layout, materials, or craftsmanship!

So far this tank has been 100% sucsessful, even my GF managed to feed the frog without it escaping while i was away and got the door back on the tank. Granted she did give the frog way too much food byt thats going to happen as she feeds the WTF a lot more often! and he's a greedy greedy git!

[SludgeMunkey]

Don't worry about stealing design ideas! If I were worried about keeping my ideas top secret i would never have posted the pics



I actually consider it to be a design success since people are looking at the tank and seeing ideas they can incorporate into future projects. it means i got something right with the basic principal. Something that makes me very pleased because i was worried people were going to have issues with the layout, materials, or craftsmanship!

So far this tank has been 100% sucsessful, even my GF managed to feed the frog without it escaping while i was away and got the door back on the tank. Granted she did give the frog way too much food byt thats going to happen as she feeds the WTF a lot more often! and he's a greedy greedy git!

I feel the same way about my designs. Better to share them and help out other folks. I am in process of finishing up a few salamander enclosures, then the serious frog work begins.

[Kerry1968]

What a great idea for a vivarium! I have a couple of 2 foot tanks unused and this would be a great way to put them to good use. (Yay! More frogs for me!) I've wanted a WTF for ages but the cost of the vivarium set-up was putting me off, so........ (I just have to persuade my other half!)

I'm not really sure about you attached the wooden part, but I've probably not read your post properly!

I assume this set-up has enough humidity in it for tree frogs? Does your frog use the water area, or is it just for humidity?

[Iceni]

The waterfall is running for a few hours a day so yeah there's plenty of humidity, The Frog also uses a good proportion of the tank. he tends to spend most of his time In the middle canopy asleep. But when he's on the lookout for food he's usually on the bottom of the tank. I'll get some pictures of the back door in a minute and a few of the lower portion of the tank so you can see how effective the fish fry mat is.

The only issue i have had to date is dead crickets. but there's plenty of water there so I'm not overly worried about a few floating ones. I'm leaving the tank a few weeks at a time between cleans. I want a real bacteria and nitrogen cycle to start in the bottom of the tank. Hopefully once it's a fully running tank the water should remain good for a few months at a time. i can only see this as been beneficial to the animal. Since a real cycle will help break down the poo and wee. Once it's running i may also add a few Loaches to the bottom of the tank to keep things clean.


top U lock




Bottom U lock



Back door




Whole tank without the door.

[Kerry1968]

Sorry if I'm being really dumb here, but from what I can tell on the photos the wooden door actually hooks onto the glass ledges inside the tank?

Adding a couple of cleaner fish to the bottom sounds like a really good plan, would the frog ever go into the water and actually be bothered by the fish (or vice versa)?

Any more questions and I'll PM you, I don't want to take over the whole thread with my innane questions! Thanks for the info so far.

[Iceni]

Sorry for been a little slow in response

Yeah i suppose you could call them hooks in a way.

this is about as clear as i can make it with my pictures. Basically it is just a very simple bent piece of wire.









all you have to do is twist the wire one way to lock it behind the glass lip. Your outside of the tank control motion is the red arrow and text. The blue arrow is the effect in the tank.



As for the cleaner fish we already have a working cold water aquarium so if the fish don't work out they can be Transferred else where. The Frog probably won't care tho Tree frogs seem to not be bothered by a lot!